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#1 |
Haunting Spirit
Join Date: Dec 2011
Posts: 72
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Who here enjoyed the movie?
While the movie took it's share of liberties with the original work, and changed plot elements around and the tone...Did anyone else enjoy it for what it is, a cinematic adaptation?
I went into the movie with a chip on my shoulder, hearing all the early reviews and the RT score and whatnot, and I felt disappointed and felt like it was just going to be a repeat of Indiana Jones 4 (IE a movie I longed to see for a long time only to be let down by)...But I saw it and it was great! Now, it isn't purely The Hobbit, and like I said, it strays often...But I think if you're familiar with the lore, and if you like the PJ films, you'd love the movie. Even if you totally divorce it from the books, it still makes for--in my mind--a great fantasy film, with a good feel--a much needed cinematic break from the overly realistic, dark, gritty and psychological dramas like the Batman series and the newer James Bond films. It's simply a wonderful piece of escapist entertainment, and even if it is a poor adaptation of Tolkien, it IMO still makes for a great fantasy film. It reminded me of some of my childhood favorites like Labyrinth, Dragonheart, The 13th Warrior, and some other fantasy films. |
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#2 |
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 3,448
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I felt this as well but I didn't enjoy it as much as the original trilogy.
I think I would have ended it much more had it stayed two films. I felt it was too long for a trilogy.
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Morsul the Resurrected |
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#3 |
Blossom of Dwimordene
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: The realm of forgotten words
Posts: 10,360
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This is what I decided. I enjoyed watching the film, but I don't like it. Ha!
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You passed from under darkened dome, you enter now the secret land. - Take me to Finrod's fabled home!... ~ Finrod: The Rock Opera |
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#4 |
Loremaster of Annúminas
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 2,316
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My feeling was that we got Peter Jackson unleashed- his self-indulgence on steroids, so that everything that was bad about the original trilogy was worse, and what was good about the first three there wasn't much of. In particular, I found TH to be suffed full of filler and padding, by the same clueless team of writers who gave us "Arwen is dying"- no understanding of what the book was about, but rather 3rd-rate fan-fic.
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The entire plot of The Lord of the Rings could be said to turn on what Sauron didn’t know, and when he didn’t know it. |
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#5 |
Pile O'Bones
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Ontario
Posts: 16
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I enjoyed the movie - enough to see it 5 times in various formats. I always appreciated that the movies were never going to be exactly like the books. It's a different media and a different vision for how the story is presented. I love seeing favorite characters and places come to life, and I think that Peter Jackson has done a fantastic job with his sense for how middle-earth is portrayed. More than anything else he gets the 'feel' right. Hearing the first strains of Howard Shore's music or leafing through my book's title pages, I know I'm escaping to Middle-earth for the next few hours. Both connect me to Tolkien's world, and I'm grateful that I can enjoy that experience without being bogged down by the differences between the two.
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#6 |
A Mere Boggart
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: under the bed
Posts: 4,737
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Enjoyed it. As for 'taking liberties' has anyone seen World Without End yet? They made complete mincemeat (minus horse
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Gordon's alive!
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#7 |
Pilgrim Soul
Join Date: May 2004
Location: watching the wonga-wonga birds circle...
Posts: 9,455
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I can never quite understand it when people say that film bring characters and places to life, for me they come to life as I read the books. If I see a film adaptation I think " oh so that is how x sees it" rather than "oh so that is how it is" . So I still haven't seen it ...I am sure it would have the same effect on me as reading Liz Jones has on my sister.
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“But Finrod walks with Finarfin his father beneath the trees in Eldamar.”
Christopher Tolkien, Requiescat in pace |
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#8 | |
Pile O'Bones
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Ontario
Posts: 16
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#9 |
Pilgrim Soul
Join Date: May 2004
Location: watching the wonga-wonga birds circle...
Posts: 9,455
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I suspect I don't respond particularly well to visual stimuli. I do tend to find most film adaptations dissapointing. Noteable exceptions being things like Picnic at Hanging Rock and the age of Innocence. That said most of the things I liked about the LOTR films were costumes and props. And I get the impression there isn't much new on that front but a lot of the things I found annoying. And I am not sure I want my mental Images tainted. But it is very hard to get people to understand why I don't want to see them.
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“But Finrod walks with Finarfin his father beneath the trees in Eldamar.”
Christopher Tolkien, Requiescat in pace |
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#10 |
Banshee of Camelot
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Switzerland
Posts: 5,830
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Last week I went to see "An Unexpected Journey" for the second time, and to my own surprise, I quite enjoyed it - but only up to the break! In the second half of the movie after the break, it got worse and worse, so that unfortunately the unfavourable impression had stayed with me afterwards. I had quite forgotten the things I had enjoyed, especially after reading, and mostly agreeing with, all the negative reviews here on the Downs.
Both my sons, and the young friend in whose company I watched the movie the second time, have read the book, but about 10 years ago, so that they remembered the contents only vaguely. They all enjoyed the movie without reservations! All in all, it was worth watching, but I won't see it a third time. (I went to see FotR 5 times in the cinema!!)
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Yes! "wish-fulfilment dreams" we spin to cheat our timid hearts, and ugly Fact defeat! |
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#11 |
Doubting Dwimmerlaik
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Heaven's basement
Posts: 2,466
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It was just too long for me. And, regardless of how I feel about it being 'true to its source' or not (Not!
![]() I never got the feeling that Bilbo or the Dwarves changed, or grew, or that I cared about any of them. In the extended edition of Peter Jackson's FotR, you get a liking for Boromir, a character I never much cared for in the Books. PJ humanized him and showed his struggle with the Ring's call. So, at the end of that movie (different from the book), I felt bad when (spoiler alert!) Boromir dies. Had Thorin or Bilbo died (or had fallen off a cliff to show up later), I wouldn't have cared one wit.
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There is naught that you can do, other than to resist, with hope or without it.
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#12 | |
A Mere Boggart
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: under the bed
Posts: 4,737
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Gordon's alive!
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#13 | |
Animated Skeleton
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: DerbySHIRE
Posts: 32
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Free Miniature Printables for 28-32mm Scale |
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#14 | |
Child of the West
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Watching President Fillmore ride a unicorn
Posts: 2,132
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I really wanted to like The Hobbit as much (not 7 times in the theater as much...), but I couldn't stand it. I enjoyed the opening. The chase scene with Radagast, the Goblin King, the Defiler with his gimp arm. They turned me off to the whole experience.
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"Let us live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry." - Mark Twain |
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#15 |
Loremaster of Annúminas
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 2,316
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I'm just rereading Fellowship now, and it's striking to what extent Boromir as Tolkien wrote him really is rather a pompous ***.
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The entire plot of The Lord of the Rings could be said to turn on what Sauron didn’t know, and when he didn’t know it. |
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#16 |
Haunting Spirit
Join Date: Dec 2012
Posts: 85
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Making Less of Little
I enjoyed the movie when it ended. Not so much before that.
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"If it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic." -- Tweedledee |
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#17 | |
Pilgrim Soul
Join Date: May 2004
Location: watching the wonga-wonga birds circle...
Posts: 9,455
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http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showpos...&postcount=155 my follow up comment was : "It just struck me on listening to the tapes, which is what we are talking about that everything Boromir says is either pompous or negative, just what you want in a travelling companion."
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“But Finrod walks with Finarfin his father beneath the trees in Eldamar.”
Christopher Tolkien, Requiescat in pace |
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#18 |
Shade of Carn Dűm
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 257
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I did. Even the parts inserted by PJ, like the White Council meeting, were joy to my eyes and ears.
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Head of the Fifth Order of the Istari Tenure: Fourth Age(Year 1) - Present Currently operating in Melbourne, Australia |
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#19 |
Newly Deceased
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I very much enjoyed "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey." Like "The Lord of the Rings," it is one of the few films which contain scenes that make me tear up.
I wouldn't agree with many die-hard book fans about the so-called liberties Peter Jackson took for the film version. I am well-versed in esoteric/occult themes in real life, and Jackson nails them in this film as well. That is to say, Tolkien employed many symbolic elements in the narrative and Jackson enlivens and expands them to a postmodern audience; themes which are timeless. The wisdom of the sages throughout antiquity. Gandalf, for myself, captures everything the sages exemplified in the film. One of the great sayings of Gandalf in the film which epitomizes everything he is about is when he is speaking to Galadriel in Imladris: “Saruman believes that it is only great power that can hold evil in check. That is not what I have found. I have found that it is the small things, every day deeds from ordinary folk, that keeps the darkness at bay. Simple acts of kindness and love." Gandalf is the great sage who lets everyone be who they are and steps in to show his power when it gets really serious. From Lao Tzu to the Buddha to Mithrandir. What really matters is compassion, and what stimulates a still mind is living with Nature, the simple life. Anyway, there's more I could say, but, hello! interesting forum group here.
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“I have found that it is the small things, every day deeds from ordinary folk, that keeps the darkness at bay. Simple acts of kindness and love." -Mithrandir |
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#20 |
Doubting Dwimmerlaik
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Heaven's basement
Posts: 2,466
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Hello Tidesson, Welcome to the Downs!
I liked the quote from Gandalf that you posted. Can't say that I enjoyed the movie as much as you did. Tried watching it again while on a thousand-hour plane ride, but found uninteresting the second time around, so rewatched 'The Avengers' and the two Ironman movies instead. To me, it's just not entertaining enough. And as I've never been really excited about the Book, I'm not even interested in watching the movie to 'see what PJ got wrong.' Completely forgettable.
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There is naught that you can do, other than to resist, with hope or without it.
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#21 |
Wight
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 129
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I'd say I enjoyed the movie for reasons similar to others: I hadn't had high expectations but wanted to spent a bit longer time in Middle Earth
![]() I wonder as well how they are going to explain the way Gandalf obtained the map from Thrain II. Probably Gandalf will say he had met Thrain on the way to Moria and as everything was going suspiciously wrong, Thrain decided to handle it to Gandalf in order to pass it to Thorin. I enjoyed Riddles and the White Council scene; I think the latter is quite appropriate in the LOTR prequel, as there appendixes are impossible in a movie (I still regret that Saruman's death did not make its way to the screen - a marvellous drama and so meaningful). PS. Don't mind Radagast - Crazy Professor simply because in the books he is almost not given. Can we develop a different Radagast who wouldn't have been boring on screen? ![]() |
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#22 |
Wight
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Ohio. Believe it or not.
Posts: 145
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We just watched the DVD, and not having seen TH in the theatre, I was wondering if anyone had problems with the sound?
My wife and I both thought the music overpowered the dialog through the whole movie. Now, we don't have surround sound, but our stereo system is fairly good and we've never had problems with any other movies [i](with the exception of LOTR, but those DVDs allowed us to change the sound format, where TH didn't), so i was wondering if anyone else watching the DVD had problems hearing the dialog over the music.
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Don't believe everything you read on the interwebs. That's how World War 1 got started! |
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#23 |
Emperor of the South Pole
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: The Western Shore of Lake Evendim
Posts: 619
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This movie, and I suspect the next two coming, are just more nails in the coffin of J.R.R. Tolkien's legacy. I went to an advance screening (for us here in Oz) that required getting dressed up in costume. It was a fun night seeing all the different costumes and the nice photo-shoot and the free drinks and food and all. Yet it was more of a matter of getting through the movie than it was enjoying it. Listening to the chatter going in, Peter Jackson has pretty much succeeded in co-opting Tolkien's works and now in the minds of the idiot masses has been awarded them as his own. My only consolation this time is I haven't spent a cent that will go to the film company or Peter Jackson. I intend to keep it that way.
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#24 |
Pilgrim Soul
Join Date: May 2004
Location: watching the wonga-wonga birds circle...
Posts: 9,455
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I hope that Tolkien will survive the films. PJ has at least nullified the cheat of watching the film rather than reading the book as a time saver. And a quiz on the radio reminded me of something encouraging. Paws up if the name Nahum Tate means anything to you. I am assuming that of William Shakespeare means more ... yet Tate was the chap who took it upon himself to 'improve' Shakespeare and make it accessible to the people of the day. I believe that another Warwickshire Lad will prevail.
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“But Finrod walks with Finarfin his father beneath the trees in Eldamar.”
Christopher Tolkien, Requiescat in pace |
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#25 |
Shade of Carn Dűm
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 257
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Many greats in English literature. With remakes of movies, etc. We can anticipate that maybe remakes will be attempted that might be better & more book-accurate, etc.
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Head of the Fifth Order of the Istari Tenure: Fourth Age(Year 1) - Present Currently operating in Melbourne, Australia |
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#26 | |
Pile O'Bones
Join Date: Oct 2012
Posts: 19
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What about the James Bond films?
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Whatever happens with the films, the books still remain HUGELY popular, and will continue to do so long afterwards. Christopher and Adam Tolkien have done all they can to preserve the books, and wil continue to do so. I'm thankful for the films introducing me to the book, and entertaining millions of people the world over, but I'm equally thankful that there won't be any more. |
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#27 | ||
Cryptic Aura
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 5,992
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I’ll sing his roots off. I’ll sing a wind up and blow leaf and branch away. |
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#28 | |
Gruesome Spectre
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Heaven's doorstep
Posts: 8,036
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It may come as no surprise that I quite like the books, preferring them to the films. Bond is more "human" in the books to me, making mistakes and such, and the silly gadgetry is much more subtle. Still, I wouldn't exactly call them realistic. ![]() I read somewhere that works like the Bond books are to men as the Gothic romances are to many women: escapist adventure that makes few demands on the reader. In that way they are quite dissimilar to Tolkien's works, which present the reader not only with characters who have depth and sometimes enigmatic motivations, but with moral and philosophical questions that engage the mind. Those qualities are difficult to translate to a film, where one is under a time-crunch to hook the viewer and conclude the film as neatly as possible. For Bond, that isn't a big deal. For Gandalf, it's a different ball game.
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Music alone proves the existence of God. |
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#29 | |
Cryptic Aura
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 5,992
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Roverandom might make a good animated film though, in the right hands.
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I’ll sing his roots off. I’ll sing a wind up and blow leaf and branch away. |
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#30 |
Dread Horseman
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Behind you!
Posts: 2,743
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I'm a bit of a Fleming fan myself. I mean, his work isn't literature for the ages, but like Inziladun, I find that Fleming's Bond is less cartoonish, more human, sometimes quite dark, and usually a fun, quick read. I like Carré too, of course, but it's easy to wonder if there would have been Smiley without Bond. One reads like a reaction to the other. But that's not based on anything other than idle speculation. I was going to say something about how Carré can be like eating your vegetables, but I couldn't think what Fleming would be in that analogy, and anyway I like vegetables.
![]() Fleming himself is an interesting character, more than a bit on the Tookish side: a man with a taste for adventure, who doesn't take himself very seriously, has a bit of a mischievous side, not very respectable, a bit cracked. Have you read that whole how-to essay that you quoted from, Bęth? I enjoy Fleming's thoroughly unpretentious approach, which echoes Stephen King's idea of writing as a blue-collar job, like laying pipe or driving long-haul trucks. Who knows how much of it is apocryphal, but if the stories are true, Fleming built himself a pretty enviable writing life -- Jamaican estate with a private beach, write in the morning, swim in the ocean, take a nap, eat, write a little more, and supposedly he only worked a few months out of every year, at least at the beginning. As far as questions of legacy and reputation in the long run go, as someone once said, in the long run we're all dead. I'm just glad that there are enough hardcore Tolkien fans around in the here and now to support a discussion site like this one. |
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