The Hobbit (Dec 14, 2012/Dec 13, 2013/Dec 16, 2014)

[tyven]

agreed. was at least as good as any of the lotr movies. altho i dont like the lotr movies as much as everyone else LOL

[Mythe_Seraph]

Havn't seen the movie but Tyven god damn I am loving your sig and avatar.

[barber2006]

So watched it at midnight with a buddy then took the family the next day. A couple of questions popped up while I watched it the second time. Mind you its been 20 years since I read any of the books so hopefully this isnt too dumb.....

Spoiler: show

I am assuming the butterfly/eagles were responding to Galadrial's very obvious "If you ever need me, I'll be there for you" to Gandalf. Is this the case? Is it safe to assume to same is true in LoR when Saruman had him captive?

When Thorin ran down out of the falling tree to fight the pale orc the nazgul theme was playing (or so I thought). Was it because he is of the line of someone who once held one of the dwarf rings? Or is that song not necessarily tied to the nazgul and I'm just imagining that? Or is it something in the book I have forgotten over the past twenty years (if this is the case please don't say what it is)?

[Vagrant]

Spoiler: show

Well Thorin is tied to the line of Dwarf Kings of old but I think the song wasn't meant to signify anything there. With the butterfly/eagles I don't know if it was really anything Galadriel had to do with. Much like Radagast, Gandalf has always had good relations with the Lord of the Eagles in the books since he came to Middle Earth. It was said in the books at one point that Gandalf helped to heal the Lord of Eagles from an arrow wound at one point and the eagles were always grateful to him after for that. Of course this is the movie version though so maybe it was the intent that Galadriel was behind the help.

[Delirium]

Spoiler: show

Well Thorin is tied to the line of Dwarf Kings of old but I think the song wasn't meant to signify anything there. With the butterfly/eagles I don't know if it was really anything Galadriel had to do with. Much like Radagast, Gandalf has always had good relations with the Lord of the Eagles in the books since he came to Middle Earth. It was said in the books at one point that Gandalf helped to heal the Lord of Eagles from an arrow wound at one point and the eagles were always grateful to him after for that. Of course this is the movie version though so maybe it was the intent that Galadriel was behind the help.

Spoiler: show

isn't the butterfly a callback(callforward?) to when Gandalf was stuck on top of Sarumon's tower? He used a butterfly to call the eagles to get him off then too

[Tyrath]

Spoiler: show

And to save Frodo at the end of the LotR trilogy.

[SilverBreeze]

A lot of the critics are complaining that the movie is too long, and are complaining about the pacing.

I honestly did not see it. It's also very fulfilling as well to go to a movie about a book for once, and not wonder "Man, I wonder which ____ of pages they cut from the book in order to trim the movie down to ____ time." It was really great to see every little detail imagined and presented, and god dammit I'm looking forward to the next ones so much it hurts.

[Vagrant]

Spoiler: show

isn't the butterfly a callback(callforward?) to when Gandalf was stuck on top of Sarumon's tower? He used a butterfly to call the eagles to get him off then too

Spoiler: show

Yeah but again that's something added in for the movies. No real way of telling if the butterfly was a messenger of sorts for Galadriel or not. In the books that wasn't the case though. One reason I don't think it's the case is because of the time issue. In FotR at the time Gandalf is held prisoner and the butterfly shows up no one knows that Saruman has gone evil but Gandalf so Galadriel wouldn't have had any reason to send the butterfly there to help rescue him. And if she did somehow know then why send the butterfly and not the eagles directly?

[tyven]

all i know is that whenever shit hits the fan, some fucking giant eagles save the day. at some point these middle earth niggas are gonna figure it out and stop dickin around and just call up the big eagles from the get go

[Jaybar]

Eagles ain't some chumps - they don't ride for no one but the big G, and even then they stingy.

[Rhyis.]

The Eagle Lord took an arrow to the knee and G healed him so now they do whatever the hell he wants. True story.
Same story with the Horse Lord in LotRs.

[-Zer0-]

Because it's fucking awesome.

Song of the Lonely Mountain

[Tyche]

Seen it tonight. Was fucking stoked to get the first X minutes of Star Trek. That shit was amazing.

Movie was great. Paced well. I pissed my wife off howeve, forgot to tell her it was a three-parter.

[Tyrath]

Saw it today as well. I will admit that the movie started off a bit slow, but I still enjoyed every bit of it. It was great just returning back to Middle Earth and seeing a bunch of old and new characters.

Only complaint is I was hoping to catch a glimpse or two more of Smaug. 1 year too far away

[BaneTheBrawler]

Gonna go see this tomorrow (tonight). One of my friends never managed to sit through all three LOTR movies because he kept falling asleep (usually during the first one) and then giving up because he missed parts. He made it through almost all of the first movie yesterday, and is hopefully watching the second right now. Assuming he did, the plan is for him to watch the third tomorrow, then drive up and go see the Hobbit with the rest of us.

I've enjoyed the process, because he often misunderstands some aspects of the lore/story, having never read the books... so I get to show off all the lore that I've accumulated instead of such things as friends/family birthdays, holidays, history, and my own past.

[Nyima]

Saw the movie today and enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I agree with the critics though that it could have used some extra editing to shorten it. Also I still would have preferred a more faithful movie where it's only Bilbo's version of everything that happened, since it's supposedly his book, but the movie was still good.

[Celeras]

Seeing in 3D was a mistake as it always is, but other than that I enjoyed it.

[Apelila]

Saw it this morning preparing to be a bit disappointed only to leave giddy as hell at the thought of the next 2. Bitches in spoilers.

Spoiler: show

1: Parts looked like an after-school special.
I'm not sure why, but the quality of the CG felt all over the place.
Sometimes it went from things that should have been technical effects that weren't to action shots that did not hold up in sequence.

Gandalf's eye peering into Bilbo's house at the beginning is an example of the former: it was over magnified. There where some little things like that, where they used CG to enhance a scene³. Not all where bad, some stood out and drew more attention than they added to the scene.

For the latter, Radaghast's chase with the wolves was kept throwing me off. Most of the CG was great, but every once in a while the action would get ahead of the camera. I learned really quickly that if you move your head with 3D glasses on, or hit the wrong viewing angle it goes from acceptable to 'oh god my eyes'.

Every once in a while a scene would make me wonder if they rushed it after deciding to make the series a trilogy instead of 2 movies. The scenes with Radaghast and the Hedgehog, for example. Or Bilbo and Frodo talking about the Sackville Baggins'²

2:Gay Dwarves
The incoming slash for Kili and Fili will be the stuff of legend. I pray it gets a mention in Clerks 3.

3: 3 hours long
Seriously, even with the amount of material left I'm wondering how the 2nd and 3rd movie wont drag on.

The second movie could be Mirkwood-> Finding the Door -> killing smaug
And the third movie would be The Seige of Erebor then the battle of the five armies, which would be short and boring as hell.

A more likely chain of events is Entering Mirkwood -> dealing with the Necromancer - > escaping the spiders -> escaping mirkwood for the second movie, with more scenes with the White Orc thrown in for good measure then the third movie setting up Lake Town, getting into the mountain, beating Smaug, Seige of Erebor and the battle of the five Armies.

And holy fuck, that sounds awesome. But it's going to be looooooong. LOOOOOOOONG. There was easy 30 minutes of stuff to drop from this movie, I hope Jackson learns and chops more out of the 2nd and 3rd ones.

²Having said that, the many, MANY nods to LoTR and call forwards where awesome. The first time he put on the ring was amazing.
³After reading more and reflecting, this might not have been GC and might have been the higher frame rate. Which means that now I can't tell what side of the uncanny valley I'm on, holy shit.

[lamp]

I need to go see this again in 2D, saw it in HFR 3D, oh my days, looked absolutely stupid. The inside of bag end looked far too realistic, it was far too obvious the props were props, it looked like some day time TV crappy show.

I loved the second half of the film, as the action and pace kept me distracted from these horrid visuals, but the lack of that warm, film feeling at the start ruined it for me some.

[Marajade]

Spoiler: show

The second movie could be Mirkwood-> Finding the Door -> killing smaug
And the third movie would be The Seige of Erebor then the battle of the five armies, which would be short and boring as hell.

A more likely chain of events is Entering Mirkwood -> dealing with the Necromancer - > escaping the spiders -> escaping mirkwood for the second movie, with more scenes with the White Orc thrown in for good measure then the third movie setting up Lake Town, getting into the mountain, beating Smaug, Seige of Erebor and the battle of the five Armies.

Spoiler: show

I'm expecting the movies to go similarly to your first idea, but then show many of the events that come between the hobbit and Fellowship. They had said at a few points they wand the end of the third to lead pretty directly into fellowship. I was expecting the 2nd movie to probably lead up to finding the door, possibly even including Bilbo's conversation with Smaug, with the third movie being the conclusion of the necromancer, death of Smaug, battle of the five armiles (with Azog leading them instead of Bolg) and then into a depection of the events that followed, such as Saurons return to Mordor, ect