TV & Film SPOILERS! The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

[Muggle]

I saw it today. ******* hell, it was AMAZING.

They haven't changed the plot of the book that much, but they have added a whole load of stuff in. See the spoiler below.

Spoiler

FIGWIT WAS THERE! AND HE HAD LINES! NOT JUST ONE! FIGWIT!!!! (They've named him something else but he's always going to be Figwit to me. )

They've added a whole load of fighting. Just tonnes of fighting. Which I don't mind because I love it. They've added in a plot of a pale orc that is determined to kill Thorin and they've called him Azog. They have screwed around with the history of the dwarves and Moria but oh well.

The Great Goblin was hilarious.

I'm really pleased with the Elves. I think people who haven't read the books are going to be a bit confused though. Because in LotR Elrond is very serious but in the Hobbit he (and the elves in Rivendell) are light-hearted and happy. I'm really glad they had Elrond being happy instead of serious.

They've added Radagast into it. I love him. Probably my favourite character.

The one thing that really ****** me of is how they portray Galadriel in relation to Gandalf. It's hard to explain but the overwhelming feeling I got during the White Council scene was that they were saying that Galadriel is the most powerful one there and far, far, far more powerful than Gandalf. Ummm... no. Just no. It just annoyed the hell out of me.

Apart from that, I loved the whole film. They haven't changed much of the plot of the original book* but they have added quite a lot of stuff in but that didn't really bother me that much. The Azog thing is a bit annoying sometimes but it's not really a big deal.

*I can only really think of 3 changes to the book's plot (excluding the addition of Azog and how that affects the plot and the White Council stuff which is happening in the background of the book anyway) and they are that Bilbo makes the decision to run to meet the dwarves by himself, Gandalf isn't there in the morning to give him the final push out of the door. With the trolls, they have the dwarves charging the trolls to rescue Bilbo (rather than then the dwarves going to investigate what happened to Bilbo one by one and getting captured themselves) and then it's Bilbo who distracts the trolls until dawn rather than Gandalf.
The other thing is that Gandalf uses a moth again to summon the Eagles rather than the Eagles going to investigate what's going on.

There's other minor changes but it not masses.

Anyway, anybody else seen it yet?

EDIT:
I forgot to mention the thing I loved the most. The soundtrack! It's amazing.

Oh and the thing that annoyed me most today wasn't in the film. When we got into the cinema as they were giving us the IMAX glasses they also gave us a pack of 4 posters. On the posters they've written "The Hobbit An Unexpected Journey" on it in Tengwar (the Elvish alphabet. It was still in English but transcribed into Tengwar rather than written in our Latin alphabet.)
It's wrong. It's completely wrong. Because I need to rant about it because I'm such a geek I will spoiler my rant. (There's no spoilers from the film in this one)

Spoiler

Here's an example of Tengwar:

That's the word "Tengwar" written in the Quenya mode. Those dots and dashes are the vowels. There is a mode where the vowels aren't represented by those dots and dashes but that mode isn't part of this.
Anyway, the main two modes where the vowels are written like this are the Quenya mode and the Sindarin mode. In the Quenya mode the vowels go above the preceding consonant whereas in the Sindarin mode the vowels go above the following consonant.
The usual mode for writing English in Tengwar is similar to the Sindarin mode so the vowels go over the following consonant.
But on the poster they've written "The Hobbit" using the Quenya mode and then they've written "An Unexpected Journey" underneath it in the English/Sindarin mode. So it doesn't actually make sense!
Oh and if there is a double constant then the constant is only written once and a wavy line is added underneath it to indicate it's a double letter. But the wrote "b" out twice in "Hobbit" rather than adding the wavy line.
They've screwed it up to make it look pretty.

I was getting quite angry in the cinema before the film started.

******* hell, I'm a nerd.

 

[PTree15]

I'm on the fence about going. I LOVED the books and all, but I confess to not liking the movie version of LotR. I never saw the other two. When I read books that affect me the way those books did, in that I was obsessed and all, I have a picture in my head about what the characters look and sound like. For me, I'd rather preserve that vision. That said, I'm very glad you enjoyed it.

 

[Muggle]

I saw the LotR films before I read the book. I do love the book more but I still love the films.

With the Hobbit I actually read the book last night up until where the film ends. (See spoiler at the bottom for where the film ends.) My vision of what the characters from the Hobbit look like are still how I've always seen them. The film hasn't changed that. Even with reading LotR how I imagine the characters aren't like the actors.
Going a bit off topic here, but I had the same issue with the Harry Potter films. I was worried about watching them (I did seen the first one when I was 10/11 but I hated it* then after Deathly Hallows was published I started thinking about watching the films) because I love how I imagine the characters and the scenery and I didn't want it to be replaced with the film versions. Luckily, it hasn't. The films and how I imagine Harry Potter are completely separate in my head.


*That's actually how I got into LotR. Went to see Philosopher's Stone and the trailer for FotR played before it. I said to my mother that I wanted to see that and then after we'd finished watching HP and I was in tears because it was so crap Mum said she would take me to see FotR the following week. (Back then cinema trips were a massive treat and we usually only went a few times a year so twice in a fortnight was a big deal.)

Spoiler

The film ends after the Eagles have rescued them. Didn't want to say in case people who haven't read the book are reading this thread.

 

[PTree15]

I haven't been able to get into HP, books or movies, but my nephew loves them. I bought him most of the HP books over the years .

The one good thing about LotR was Viggo Mortensen

 

[Muggle]

Oh yes, Viggo.

Got to admit, I was quite ****** off about Kíli before the film. Aidan Turner is playing him and Aidan Turner is one of the very few men who can make my ovaries explode with one look. He hasn't got a beard he has manly stubble like Viggo did as Aragorn. Before I saw the film I was convinced they had him looking like that for what I like to call "The Legolas Factor". Basically, eye candy.
Anyway, yes he doesn't look like a dwarf but I really don't care anymore. I'm in love. But I love Aidan Turner anyway. Oh and they have him as a archer just like Legolas (I don't know, maybe they think that sexy men should have bows or something, I'm not sure. )

 

[Envy]

Watching a movie for its actors removes nerd point, for real.

 

[PTree15]

Hmmm, I haven't seen anything with Aidan Turner. He is fine looking, though.

 

[Muggle]

Watching a movie for its actors removes nerd point, for real.

I didn't go see the Hobbit because of the actors.

 

[Envy]

I didn't go see the Hobbit because of the actors.

Used wrong words for what I meant.

But whatever, it's not something important anyway, let's just say that I'm going to watch this myself.

 

[Envy]

I haven't read the entire book yet though, so I might do that first.

 

[Muggle]

You've just reminded me Envy.

They've used quite a bit of stuff from Appendix A Part III: Durin's Folk from the LotR book/RotK book.

Spoiler

But they've really screwed it about.

 

[Queerasaurus Rex]

I went to the midnight premiere last night, I really loved it. I've always loved the book and the cartoon film, and I actually haven't read the book in two years but I really loved the movie. I agree about the soundtrack, I love it too. I also love Martin Freeman as Bilbo, he was brilliant. I wouldn't love the film as much without him and the soundtrack. I also can't believe it was only three hours, it was so detailed and had so much in there, I was afraid as I was watching it that it'd end without much happening but it was really great, actually. I really can't wait for the second part.

 

[Muggle]

So I ended up seeing it twice in the cinema and I've brought the DVD. Currently watching it now.

My feelings about it have changed. I'm not sure if I like it anymore.

Not going to write this in spoiler tags seeing as they're impossible to read now. This will contain spoilers for the next two films so be warned.

Bilbo packing up and about to leave should not be there. Not in a million bloody years. He made an oath, a promise, to go with the dwarves. Yes, he might have thought about leaving but he would never actually do it. Why? Because in Tolkien's world, the oathbreakers are the bad guys. If you make an oath, you stick to it. Bilbo packing up and being about to leave just wouldn't happen. It's just wrong. (I can't actually find the words to describe just how wrong. )

With the LotR films, they missed out a lot of things. But they didn't really add anything new into it but that was because the book had so much stuff in it. Now with the Hobbit film, it's just meh. Adding the stuff about the White Council? Yep, ok, fine because that did actually happen in the background. But all this crap with the white orc. I'm bored. No seriously, it's the battle by the trees after they've escaped from the Misty Mountains and I really don't give a crap.
I shouldn't be feeling like this when it's only the 3rd time I've watched it. With the LotR films, I have watched them many, many times but, despite knowing them off by heart, I still get gripped by them. I still care, I still get anxious, I still cry at them. I still care about what happens while I'm watching them.
With this film, I can't care. And it's not just because I know what happens, I really just don't care. Take FotR, I still cry every time Boromir dies. But I know I'm not going to cry when Thorin, Fíli and Kíli die. I just don't care about them.

It's just feels pointless. I can't really describe it. Not that much really happens. I haven't got a clue what the extended edition is going to be like because I can't think of what other crap they can dream up to bulk it out. At least with the LotR extended editions, those scenes were needed because, well they happened in the book (most of them did) or were needed to help explain some things or to tie up some plot lines (like Saurman's death - that didn't happen like that in the book (in fact, he left Isengard, went to the Shire and basically enslaved the Hobbits. ) but it was needed to neatly tie off that storyline. )

I think, there's just too much going on in it. I end up tired from watching it. Like the stone giant scene. Bloody pointless. OK, the stone giants are there in the book and they do throw rocks about but there was none of the crap of the dwarves and Bilbo actually being on one or another chance for them to show how brave and heroic Thorin is. Yawn, yawn, yawn.

There's too much action, not enough plot.


There are things I like about it, still mainly the soundtrack OK I'm just writing as I'm thinking right now and I think I've figured it out. LotR was an epic, as a book it was. But The Hobbit was a children's story, it was light-hearted with the right amount of action and stuff but not too much. But Peter Jackson, while trying to keep the light-heartiness of the book has tried to make it into another LotR film. So there's the clash of the fact it was a children's book with all the stupid, ridiculous, pointless OTT battle/action scenes that he's created to try to make it similar to the LotR films.
So it just doesn't work.


And I'm going to stop writing now. It's late and I've been randomly adding stuff to this post over the past 5 hours so I'll just apologise for the fact it makes no sense and go to bed now.