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

[BaneTheBrawler]

I had forgotten that Denethor knew Thorongil, that's right. There was that whole personal rivalry, too. From Denethor's end, anyway.

[Coren]

I think part of the issue with the hobbit is that I was never able to get very attached to any characters besides Bilbo. Of course Gandalf (and Elrond/Galadriel/Saruman) was badass, but that didn't occur so often in this trilogy.

[Rulke]

^PJ tried hard to make each dwarf different- and he succeeded in that they all do look unique (even if some are less 'dwarf looking' that I would imagine) but I agree most of the dwarves were hard to really care about. I liked Balin a lot, and romance aside with Kili, I would have liked to see more with him and Fili. I wanted to like Radaghast but he was too cooky and I imagine his deterioration as a wizard a little differently that portrayed. I thought the goblin king was taken in a wholly wrong direction too- I would have preferred a vicious and scary leader (could still be smart). Baard also just missed the mark, PJ changed too many things surrounding him and the black arrow and while I didn't hate him, he was sorta bland. I really like Tauriel though, her character as a whole. It was nice to see another elf (outside of too-much-screen-time-Legolas) out and about.

[BaneTheBrawler]

Yeah, if you think the dwarves were bland in the movie, you should re-read the book, lol. Bombur gets made fun of, Balin gets mentioned because he takes a liking to Bilbo (and is generally a pleasant old man), and Thorin is... well, Thorin, but otherwise its all "and the dwarves were very upset about this" "The dwarves discussed going back" and "the dwarves swept their beards and flipped their hoods" or whatever silly thing it was tolkein had them doing to be gracious to Beorn. Tbh, aside from the three I mentioned, in the books the dwarves are the least fleshed out characters. Even the Trolls and the elves Bilbo steals the keys from have more dialogue actually written out.


I was very happy that PJ managed to make a few more of them be interesting as characters. Bofur with his goofy hat and kindly nature, Kili with his love for Tauriel, Ori with his slingshot and his "I don't like green food." They're still not as fully fleshed out as we're used to in movies, but compared to the way Tolkein wrote them it's a huge improvement.

This kinda touches on what I mean when I say The Hobbit is very obviously written for children, and why I call Bilbo a lazy author.

[Tyrath]

To be fair does anyone really expect 13 characters to get proper development in anything?

[kuronosan]

I want expecting development. I was just expecting action. They delivered that much. I just felt like they could have done more.

[grantlogan]

What were those big things in loincloths and had clubs? The same thing that had the little babby arm that got shot through the heart by Bard.

[BaneTheBrawler]

Trolls. Of the sort that don't turn into stone in sunlight, apparently.

[Rhinox]

Question. What's up with the elves turning all dark and shit. Legolas pops did it in part two and that elf broad did it here.

[kuronosan]

Dark?

[Jaybar]

It's the Light of the West or whatever - those that have seen the gods all have it. To put it bluntly.

[BaneTheBrawler]

No, Thranduil has never been to Valinor. The thing Thranduil did was different, though, I think. You mean the scene where he's talking about like pain and suffering and whatnot right? I got the impression he was showing some old wounds he had sustained, but honestly idk what that was.

Galadriel's was her using her Ring, I think. "Nenya's power was preservation, protection, and concealment from evil." She was using it to protect the other members of the White Council, and she used it as an absolute last resort against Sauron himself. The Rings are known to be a corrupting influence when used actively like that, and the effects they did were the same as in Fellowship when Frodo offers her the One Ring and she's talking about how badass she would be if she accepted. Also it makes her look vaguely wraithe-like.

[Cichy]

Yeah I assumed Thranduil was showing old scars too

[Senji]

I take the Thranduil thing as hinting again that the Hobbit movie takes from Hobbit + Simillarion + Lost Tales + etc. Where they don't have the rights, but can allude and extrapolate concepts without blatantly naming. Kinda like how the #1 question non book readers kept asking me was how he goes from being the necromancer to Sauron openly + ends up in Mordor, and answered in the movie.

[-Zer0-]

So I finally saw it the other day and correct me if I'm wrong, but there's a scene at the end I was curious about and wonder if anyone had insight to this:

Spoiler: show

Throughout the films, Legolas's eyes were obviously different from his character in LotR, going from brown to blue. As I understand it, there were two things in play - firstly was that Orlando Bloom had trouble with the contacts during shooting, which is fine and I didn't think much of it there, but secondly and supposedly, his eyes were a silver-blue to symbolize his status as a Sindarin or Grey Elf as to tell apart from other elves. (Not 100% sure if that was PJ's idea.) Anyway, during his last scene departing from his father, I could've sworn his eyes had turned from blue to brown and was wondering if that was some sort of symbolism possibly pertaining to his mother or perhaps there's something I'm missing?

I've always loved LotR but never had a chance to explore the lore in depth or read Silmarillion and such. So please, Tolkienites, indulge me!

[kuronosan]

I'm more concerned with his CGI face in the first thirty minutes.

[BaneTheBrawler]

I didn't really notice the eyes thing, but that would make sense. The Sindarin never went to Valinor, and iirc there are some references to the Light of the West and eyes and whatnot.

[Rulke]

My bet is contact problems, as was commented on during LOTR stuff. I doubt PJ went into that sort of detail.

[Cutriss]

Even if it was to have been a deviation to a small degree, I think I would have preferred Thorin to have Thror's ring rather than "dragon sickness". Especially seeing as how they included the scene with Galadriel echoing the whole 3/7/9 rings bit.

That's my only serious complaint with the movie, other than wishing that Legolas would've been replaced with some other generic elf. Tauriel was good, probably the best character that they inserted into any of the movies, but there was just too much Orlando Bloom in this whole thing.

[kuronosan]

I feel like the last scene with Legolas was pretty much the same as Yoda in episode 3. "Oh hey let's say this thing so it ties together".