That was almost inevitable, given how little of "The Hobbit" Jackson saw fit to actually include in the present film.
He probably lives in NZ, they get the movie early For anyone who has seen the movie, do the Eagles show up?
Spoiler (Move your mouse to the spoiler area to reveal the content) Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler They do. They're in promotional images (post trilogy announcement) and reviews as well.
Starting the film in nine minutes. Didn't have any plans to watch the thing until about eight-ish tonight but here I am. Probably wont understand anything that's happening but I'm loving the atmosphere here. Midnight openings are the best. Misa ab iPhono meo.
I just got back-- I loved it! Spoiler (Move your mouse to the spoiler area to reveal the content) Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler As I was leaving the theater, I heard many of the same complaints I've heard from the critics, but overall people seemed to like it. My only complaint was that the Goblin King's "That'll do it" as Gandalf kills him was too jokey a death line from an entity that's supposed to be scary. Seriously--everything else was great! I'll probably have more to post later, after I've had time to digest the film a little bit. Also--how long are we hiding spoilers for?
I liked it too. Munching a Hobbit themed meal at Denny's, which is an amusing branding choice. Mostly enjoyed the film I think, and I think I was able to follow along despite not being familiar with the stuff. Mini-review commencing. Spoiler (Move your mouse to the spoiler area to reveal the content) Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler Good: - the music. Very pleasant score. I especially liked the one humming song in the Baggins house. Catchy even. - the humor. Really helped keep it less ponderous or dragging. Occasionally juvenile but generally appreciated. - the epic pans. Only seen the original films once but I always liked the landscape shots. NZ is gorgeous. - Rivendell (sp?). The elven stuff is beauteous. - gandalfs thing about little kindnesses driving off evil and the hobbit filling him with courage. - 3d was inoffensive for once. - had no trouble following along - generally a very enjoyable film -- would've loved it as a kid and I think I greatly enjoyed it now - along with the above, I liked the camaraderie of the group and the general light-hearted, happy tone with just general dark edges to it. dwarven prince was a v. interesting character, but also a bit of a buzzkill at times, esp. with Baggins. But otherwise it felt like a great adventure romp - also liked the narrated bits, both by Baggins and Gandalf. Reminded me of storytime. - oh the hedgehogs were so cute. Awww! Reminded me of ophie. Neutral - 48 fps. seemed to enhance the epic scope at times, or make motions more fluid, but also seemed kind of dizzying at other times Bad: - that rock monster thing. - dwarves mostly seemed undifferentiated and the names were rarely used. Felt they could've been developed. - riddles went on too long
*still hasn't finished the movie* argh... Did anyone else caught, what I thought was a, female dwarf during the Erebor scenes in the beginning? No wonder they keep liking each other's posts all the time.
I'll see Jello his mini-review, and raise him this. Spoiler (Move your mouse to the spoiler area to reveal the content) Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler Stuff That Was Actually Better Than I Expected: Riddles In The Dark. Possibly the only thing more awesome than Martin Freeman as Bilbo is Andy Serkis as Gollum. The White Council. I was prepared to be bored, expecting PT-levels of politicking and yammering. The actual result was suprisingly interesting and revealing of each of the participants' characters. Stuff That Bothered Others But Didn't Bother Me. "Too long." Only my bladder thought so. I wanted a mercy intermission in there somewhere. I didn't think anything needed cutting, though. "Too slow." The film has a lot more action in it as it goes along, but the Bag End scenes were perfectly entertaining as far as I was concerned. Martin Freeman is the master of the Excruciatingly Awkward Moment, and playing his offended sense of propriety against 13 deranged dwarves went quite well, I thought. "Too juvenile." I found almost all of the humor charming, including Radegast and his rabbits. I'd call it more "whole family humor" than "childish humor." "Too many damn Dwarves." True, they're not all equally prominent, but who cares? Some were more characters in their own right, while others were more like extras. This is as it should be, IMO. "Too much score recycling." I liked hearing the familiar cues, as they were seldom more than a telling theme linking LOTR to AUJ. The well-known passages occasionally sorted out for me what was happening--such as the Elves killing the Warg-riders near Rivendell.
I'll get back to the individuated dwarf discussion tomorrow, as just now we've come back from the 12:01 3D HFR XD huge-screen showing. My stratospheric expectations have been met and, incredibly, exceeded. This is a four-and-a-half-star film for the ages, superior to any of the LOTR movies in almost every way, breathtaking at its best and only briefly, mildly tedious at its worst. I did experience a "let's get going, here" feeling which lasted about two minutes, but that's necessarily part of the build-up to the awesomeness. The high frame rate took some getting used to, as it initially looked like a TV movie -- a really expensive and beautifully shot TV movie, with topnotch effects, costuming, set design, etc., but still the fluidity of motion was so un-cinematic that at first I was, admittedly, concerned whether this thing was going to fly. But after about fifteen minutes the ultra-real, no-motion-blurring, rapid-moving effect of the 48 fps projection seemed to my eye perfectly natural, normal, organic, as though I was looking through a window into another world, and it simply became part of the event of seeing this wondrous, epic, gorgeous, eye-popping film. When this movie takes off, it SOARS like no other fantasy film I've seen. Multiple repeat viewings in the weeks and years to come will decide whether it merits that full, fifth star, but for now I'm holding to the 4 1/2 star rating which my heart and my head are telling me to give it. My wife loved it, too.
Just very quickly, I've never maintained that about The Hobbit. I will ardently argue that The Lord of the Rings is "one of the best-written works in the English language", but I don't feel that way about its predecessor. That's just a fun adventure story -- brilliantly conceived and paced, with numerous breath-taking turns and a heart of gold -- but not nearly as well-written as its sequel.
You'll disagree due to your own thoughts after seeing the movie for yourself? When are you seeing it?
