Just got back from seeing the third Hobbit movie tonight with my nephew Jackson. Had a good time but I guess I'm a little underwhelmed and maybe even a little disappointed. No real emotion in the ending, which unlike the ending of Lord of the Rings, did not have multiple little scenes to tie up loose ends.
There were so many things left completely unexplained which was truly amazing given that after sitting through probably 20 minutes of credits, the movie was probably about 2 hours and 15 mins. And I'm not just talking about explaining what this minor character did or that...but some pretty important parts to the story were just left unexplained.
Who even ended up with the Arkenstone? Far as I can tell Bard still has it. Definitely not what happened in the book. Why not take even 5 more to explain what happened to the characters? I think a big symbolic part of Arkenstone being buried with Thorin was a big missed opportunity here.
No explanation or reference that Bard and the citizens of Laketown DO in fact end up getting a share of the treasure to rebuild.
Was the reference to the "master's snively little aid" as a Worm an attempt to link him with Grimma Wormtongue from Two Towers? They even sorta had that same look like maybe they're related.
No reference to Dain becoming the new King...
There's no explanation of the Troll hoard of gold Bilbo brings home. I know where he got it, but its not referenced in the ending, not even by a short scene of him recovering it.
Beorn has about 4 seconds of screen time....2 of which is him jumping mid air off the back of an eagle and into the battle in bear form, never to be seen again.
Instead way too much time is given to new characters, who werent in the book like Tariel. In the end she had no real impact other that some additional filler fight scenes which really felt like Peter Jackson realized too late that he didnt have a full movie here and had to come up with some stuff. Which again is really sad considering they left so much out.
Not even Bilbo is really explained properly. Just one scene of all of his stuff being auctioned off....then the typical "my precious" scene....and then back to the beginning of the Fellowship of the Ring with Gandalf coming to Bilbo's birthday. Such a let down Peter Jackson .....such a let down 🙁
Even some of the CGI didnt look good. There was a rather funny Mario Brothers scene towards the end with Legolas. Even my 12 year old nephew looked at me and said "This is so stupid...whats wrong with Peter Jackson?" In a few parts you could REALLY tell it was CGI too. Why bother doing a CGI shot of someone running through a mountain or up a hill? From what I remember, New Zealand has a "few" places that could give you a better looking live shot. Seems ole Peter is starting to suffer from the "Lucas" syndrome.
Whats the thoughts of those who either saw it tonight or will be seeing it this weekend?
And after thinking about it some more and talking with a co-worker who saw it too, we totally came to the perfect reason this one sucked....The extended edition dvd's! Think about it...leave out some juicy chunks of the movie, release it on dvd, and after its been out long enough that "most" people who are gonna buy it have already bought it....release the extended editions to get even more sales. Totally ruins the movie though until those editions come out. After getting hoodwinked on the original trilogy, I waited to buy the extended for the first 2 hobbit movies. My mother in-law ended up buying both version and let me have the digital d/l to hold us over until the extended editions came out.
Ivan and I are both big Tolkien fans, but in every single movie I have heard multiple cries of "that didn't happen in the book!" from him. lol Or even "but what about this part???". We haven't seen the 3rd one yet. As movies they are epic and enjoyable, but for us discriminating Tolkien followers it does get irksome. We have the extended special boxed edition of LoTRs and the first two Hobbit movies on DVD. I suspect we will get the boxed special edition of those when all is said and done.
I do know there is something that happens in the book and most likely the movie that's going to break a lot of hearts. 😉
i was about to post that the extended editions will have all that, then read the second post 🙂
Looking back I'm miffed that Glorfindel was taken out of the Nazgul chase. The elf was like that baddest elf alive at that point on Middle Earth, and the only one I know of that walked out of the Halls of Mandos.
Exactly. Now that one I dont have as big of an issue since Glorfindel wasn't mentioned after the fact and it allowed them more time to their star playing Arwen. I dont recall if Arwen's stuff was in the books. Im sure she was at least mentioned but I think they added a lot of her stuff to to give a romantic interest in the story. They did the same thing with the newly created Tariel. Problem I have with that though is the dwarf/elf love interest more than the character herself. Goes against what you'd expect although it could possibly be part of the reason Legolas is so against Gimli at the start....lost his love to a dwarf.
I know I'm gonna probably have the same problem with the new Star Wars movies since they abandoned at least 99.9% of the EU books which I've read all of and love. The difference is that at least from what I've heard from the Likes of Kevin Smith and even the teaser trailer, JJ Abrams is gonna make a Star Wars movie so good, we wont care. That and there are a ton of Star Wars fans who havent read about the EU and dont know about Jaina, Ben, Jacen, The Vong, Thrawn, etc....
Meh, Legolas dont like Gimli and dwarves because dwarves killed Elwe/ Thingol
Actually had to look that up because it'd been so long since I read through the Silmarillion
Glorfindel's spirit passed to the Halls of Mandos, where he waited with the spirits of the other Noldor who had died during their war against Morgoth. But because of Glorfindel's noble actions in life, his reluctance at the Exile, and his furthering of the purposes of the Valar by saving Tuor and Idril, he was re-embodied after only a short time. He had redeemed himself, and was purged of any guilt. Not only did his sacrifice get him an early pardon, it earned him great powers, so that he was almost an equal to the Maiar.[3]
I purposely did not re-read the hobbit before seeing any of these films. So I could enjoy the movie for what it was. A Movie. Not the book.
JJ Abraham will lenses flare Star Wars to it's final grave. The times have changed. Space is not cool like it was when we were not some 3rd rate player in space having to catch a ride on a left over commie bus to get to the space station.
I missed seeing Glorfindel in the movies. I understand that they needed to make Arwen's role bigger to portray the backstory she had with Aragorn and Glorfindel's part wasn't that large, but still he was missed. The fact that they left out Tom Bombadil was a sore spot for a lot of people, too. Another great character. And no Scouring of The Shire!
As for The Hobbit, on a side note I adore Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch. Both star in Sherlock, a BBC show we happen to watch.
While Jackson stated there would be no more Tolkien movies I am willing to bet he could pull several more out of the Silmarillian if the estate would let him.
Z, if they did that they would really butcher it, as I have said elsewhere it would take at least 10 movites 10hours each. These trilogies were what over weeks, months, not thousands of years. Now if they just did parts
