The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Dec. 14th, 2012 03:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreamflowerFirst of all:
SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! ♥ ♥ ♥
I'm going to split this up into parts.
Non-spoilery general observations:
First of all, the 3-D: This is the fourth 3-D movie I've seen. Of those, two did not bother me and one gave me a mild headache. This one did not seem to bother me, and many of the 3-D effects were awesome, and some were less so. I did have a mild headache by the end, but am not sure if the 3-D could be blamed--it could also be blamed on the caffeine in my Diet Coke + staying up until 4AM. So a mixed reaction on the 3-D. When I see it again I will probably stick with 2-D, but I do not regret seeing it first in 3-D
Second: the adaptation. Wonderful job! As I had hoped, so far as I could tell, he kept every major scene in the book, though he did truncate a few of them. He also added what in fanfic we'd call "AU gapfillers", but none of them affected the main part of the story.
Three: the score. Brilliant as I expected! Howard Shore did an amazing job in blending the familiar themes and motifs from LotR with the newer material written solely for TH. Oh, I want this soundtrack SO bad! Especially the solo reprise of Misty Mountains at the end.
Four: Martin Freeman hit it out of the park as Bilbo, IMHO.
Five: I want to go see it again. And I want it to be next year already!
The following are some rather detailed spoilers!
SPOILERS:
I was thrilled with the beginning, Bilbo writing in his book, Frodo's guest appearance;
Bilbo "good morninged" Gandalf, and they got the whole exchange in! And the "Chip the Plates" song was in there, just as I hoped! *grin* And we got to see Bilbo's dining room and his larder!
Bilbo was more proactive in his own decisions in the movie--he had no need to be rushed out the door by Gandalf, and that set the tone for the first movie. He had more growth and courage during this part of the movie than he did in the equivalent parts of the book. And Ian McKellan acted as though he'd never been away from the part!
I didn't much care for the part with Thranduil. I do not think he would have been quite so indifferent to the Dwarves' plight--but it goes to set up the hostility on Thorin's part towards the Elves.
Adored the overhead shots of the Shire as Bilbo cut cross country to catch up with the Dwarves.
Yep. PJ inserted lots of AU gapfillers, all of them of the action variety. Lots of extra battles and so forth. One chapter that had some significant changes in it was "Roast Mutton". It was very different than in the book, but then I've written an AU version of that chapter myself, so I can't complain--and I LOVED Bilbo's actions in this, once more bringing his latent heroism out. And they did keep some of the best lines from that chapter.
Radagast! I love Radagast--he's a comic figure, yet not wholly comic. He IS a wizard and he's playing his part. And I love his jackrabbit sled!!!
So cool to see Elrond out hunting orcs himself! And he was a lot mellower and less grumpy than in LotR.
As in LotR, PJ has brought on-board some OC orcs and given some real personality to the MCC ones.
GOLLUM!!! OMG! Andy Serkis was even better in the role than ever!
The Goblin King was gross! He reminded me of Jabba the Hutt!
I still don't get the connection between moths and Eagles. It makes as little sense here than it did in LotR. And PJ managed to "action up" the scene of the fir trees substantially, giving Thorin another chance to display both his pride and his courage and to play up the personal grudge between him and one of the Orc leaders. And Bilbo got another chance to be "fierce as a dragon in a pinch". Naturally PJ jazzed up the Eagle rescue substantially. Some of the best 3-D effects took place during that part of the movie.
I did get my hobbit-lass costume and my feet done in time to wear them, and the DH even wore his cloak and carried a staff! Our son went with us; no costume, though.
Pics:
This one was taken by our son:
This picture was taken by a random guy in the theater lobby, who asked if he could take a pic with us:
ETA: I had the captions backwards on the pics.
SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! ♥ ♥ ♥
I'm going to split this up into parts.
Non-spoilery general observations:
First of all, the 3-D: This is the fourth 3-D movie I've seen. Of those, two did not bother me and one gave me a mild headache. This one did not seem to bother me, and many of the 3-D effects were awesome, and some were less so. I did have a mild headache by the end, but am not sure if the 3-D could be blamed--it could also be blamed on the caffeine in my Diet Coke + staying up until 4AM. So a mixed reaction on the 3-D. When I see it again I will probably stick with 2-D, but I do not regret seeing it first in 3-D
Second: the adaptation. Wonderful job! As I had hoped, so far as I could tell, he kept every major scene in the book, though he did truncate a few of them. He also added what in fanfic we'd call "AU gapfillers", but none of them affected the main part of the story.
Three: the score. Brilliant as I expected! Howard Shore did an amazing job in blending the familiar themes and motifs from LotR with the newer material written solely for TH. Oh, I want this soundtrack SO bad! Especially the solo reprise of Misty Mountains at the end.
Four: Martin Freeman hit it out of the park as Bilbo, IMHO.
Five: I want to go see it again. And I want it to be next year already!
The following are some rather detailed spoilers!
SPOILERS:
I was thrilled with the beginning, Bilbo writing in his book, Frodo's guest appearance;
Bilbo "good morninged" Gandalf, and they got the whole exchange in! And the "Chip the Plates" song was in there, just as I hoped! *grin* And we got to see Bilbo's dining room and his larder!
Bilbo was more proactive in his own decisions in the movie--he had no need to be rushed out the door by Gandalf, and that set the tone for the first movie. He had more growth and courage during this part of the movie than he did in the equivalent parts of the book. And Ian McKellan acted as though he'd never been away from the part!
I didn't much care for the part with Thranduil. I do not think he would have been quite so indifferent to the Dwarves' plight--but it goes to set up the hostility on Thorin's part towards the Elves.
Adored the overhead shots of the Shire as Bilbo cut cross country to catch up with the Dwarves.
Yep. PJ inserted lots of AU gapfillers, all of them of the action variety. Lots of extra battles and so forth. One chapter that had some significant changes in it was "Roast Mutton". It was very different than in the book, but then I've written an AU version of that chapter myself, so I can't complain--and I LOVED Bilbo's actions in this, once more bringing his latent heroism out. And they did keep some of the best lines from that chapter.
Radagast! I love Radagast--he's a comic figure, yet not wholly comic. He IS a wizard and he's playing his part. And I love his jackrabbit sled!!!
So cool to see Elrond out hunting orcs himself! And he was a lot mellower and less grumpy than in LotR.
As in LotR, PJ has brought on-board some OC orcs and given some real personality to the MCC ones.
GOLLUM!!! OMG! Andy Serkis was even better in the role than ever!
The Goblin King was gross! He reminded me of Jabba the Hutt!
I still don't get the connection between moths and Eagles. It makes as little sense here than it did in LotR. And PJ managed to "action up" the scene of the fir trees substantially, giving Thorin another chance to display both his pride and his courage and to play up the personal grudge between him and one of the Orc leaders. And Bilbo got another chance to be "fierce as a dragon in a pinch". Naturally PJ jazzed up the Eagle rescue substantially. Some of the best 3-D effects took place during that part of the movie.
I did get my hobbit-lass costume and my feet done in time to wear them, and the DH even wore his cloak and carried a staff! Our son went with us; no costume, though.
Pics:
This one was taken by our son:
This picture was taken by a random guy in the theater lobby, who asked if he could take a pic with us:
ETA: I had the captions backwards on the pics.
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no subject
Date: 2012-12-14 10:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-14 10:15 pm (UTC)I'm glad you had a good time! :)))
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Date: 2012-12-14 10:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-14 10:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-14 10:39 pm (UTC)Why doesn't that surprise me?
Oh gosh, I'm so happy you had a great time. Fun costumes! I'm looking forward to seeing it soooo much (probably next weekend).
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Date: 2012-12-15 01:06 am (UTC)You reassure me!
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Date: 2012-12-15 01:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-15 01:34 am (UTC)Yes, I had a great time! I can hardly wait to see it again.
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Date: 2012-12-15 01:38 am (UTC)I've come to realize that 3-D is a very individual kind of thing. Some people like it, some dislike it and some can't handle it physically. I kind of fall in the middle, liking it sometimes and disliking it other times. In this case I did indeed like it.
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Date: 2012-12-15 01:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-15 01:40 am (UTC)I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
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Date: 2012-12-15 01:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-15 02:04 am (UTC)I agree with so much of what you said! AND I want to see it again, like REALLY soon! THere were so many nooks and crannies to this universe! I didn't care about the AU parts at all, I just went with it. Loved being in Middle-earth again! :)
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Date: 2012-12-15 02:34 am (UTC)*nods* It was delightful to be in Middle-earth again! I kind of wish we'd had more Shire shots--I am ALWAYS glad to see more of those--but that's just me being greedy!
I can't wait to see it again, and I can barely wait till next year!!
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Date: 2012-12-15 02:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-15 03:14 am (UTC)And enjoyed is mild--I actually squeed a couple of times DURING the movie, and grinned like a maniac at several other places. Truly amazing!
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Date: 2012-12-15 07:16 am (UTC)And the goblin king! OMG, my friend and I both said he reminded us of Jabba the Hut.
Martin Freeman did an outstanding job, and I can't wait to see it again. Also, I'm looking forward to the next movie.
I still think three movies is just stretching it too far and milking the cow to the last drop, but I did love this first one.
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Date: 2012-12-15 11:19 am (UTC)If I could have, I would have watched it again right then and there, 4AM or not!
I think that the companies do want to milk it to the last drop. But honestly, I think for PJ it's simply wanting to stay in that world as long as he can--and also I think he didn't want to cut so many of his favorite parts, as he had to do for LotR!
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Date: 2012-12-15 12:22 pm (UTC)I also loved the film!
I was so hoping to love Radagast since I met Sylvester McCoy at DragonCon in 2011 and he did not disappoint me. I love the Brown Wizard and I love Sylvester McCoy! I want a hedgehog. I really wanted to clean the bird crap out of his hair but other than that, he was perfect!
My favorite dwarf after seeing the film twice is Bofur. I loved that although they didn't show all of the dwarves with musical instruments, they showed Bofur playing during the lonely mountain song.
Andy Serkis need lots of awards!
Martin Freeman and Ian McKellen were perfect!
And I had my photo taken with the Gandalf sign too even though I wasn't in costume. : )
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Date: 2012-12-15 03:22 pm (UTC)I don't know around here how many people dressed in costumes to see the movie, but the local sports reporter highlighted some high school boys who showed up at their basketball game dressed as dwarves and Gandalf. :)
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Date: 2012-12-15 05:55 pm (UTC)I want to say first of all that I laughed so hard at this:
The Goblin King was gross! He reminded me of Jabba the Hutt!
I kept waiting for someone to cut that goiter thing off his neck. I found myself paradoxically dreading that that would happen (the belly slash was only slightly worse) and also kind of wishing it would.
I also love Radagast--the bird poop in his beard was what did it for me!--and Elrond was much redeemed from LotR!Elrond, who is one of my least favorite characters in that trilogy of movies. He's one of Tolkien's characters with the deepest pasts, and he felt more like that in this movie. He felt like someone who would have been raised by Maglor! :D Also, unlike LotR, I saw Elrond and not Hugo Weaving; I was not tempted to mentally add a "Mr. Anderson" as I am to every line of his dialogue in LotR. Very impressed with how PJ evolved his character here.
I also felt like Andy Serkis took Gollum to a new level. He really impressed me the most of the actors for the simple reason that his Gollum still doesn't feel gimmicky, even after the fourth movie.
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Date: 2012-12-15 09:44 pm (UTC)Now I can imagine someone writing a fic in which someone gives Radagast a nice shampoo! LOL! (I mean I've read hobbits giving Aragorn a bath fic, so why not?)
But I adored Radagast, and how he might look and sound foolish--if you watched his actions you could tell he really was someone of great wisdom and power and courage. (Kinda, sorta, like a certain Gallifreyan who travels about in a blue box...)
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Date: 2012-12-15 09:47 pm (UTC)I barely got my feet finished in time! But I am planning to post pics of them and knitting instructions as soon as I have time to decipher the notes I took and make sure they are accurate.
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Date: 2012-12-15 09:57 pm (UTC)LOL! I loved GW's comment above about the bird poop! I can just see somebody at some point writing fic about that bird poop!
Elrond in LotR always seemed grouchy. I'd never seen Matrix before I saw LotR, so I did not have that baggage going on with HW; but he certainly did not seem like an Elf who could be described as "kind as summer" much less as one who had a beloved twin brother who was mortal, or one who had raised Aragorn as a foster father from the age of two. In this one he truly seems wise, kind and hospitable, PLUS being an awesome warrior to boot!
Oh, heavens! Gollum was awesome! Did you see the interview PJ did on the Colbert Report, where he described how they were able to show more muscles in Gollum's face this time? Andy Serkis really used everything he had to make this Gollum real and fresh! I think my favorite bit was where he told his "other self" to shut up, Bilbo says "I didn't say anything" and he hisses "Not talking to you, precious!" Totally funny, and yet completely Gollum! I doubt it will happen, but I do hope that AS gets an Academny Award nom for the role!
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Date: 2012-12-15 11:34 pm (UTC)Basically (as I expected to), I loved all the bits where PJ stuck relatively closely to the book (if you include Unfinished Tales and the Appendices as "the book"), and was much more iffy about the places where PJ goes completely off-canon and tries to write/insert bits himself. Thranduil - no, no, no. He had *better* get a more balanced portrayal later on - if PJ does a Denethor on him I shall be on the warpath! Didn't see the point of the great long warg chase just before they arrive in Rivendell, and couldn't *bear* the Racing Rabbits of Rhosgobel. (I seem to be largely alone so far in having found Radagast cringeworthy. He's eccentric, but he shouldn't be utterly ridiculous. The fact that Saruman regards him as a fool should tell us more about Saruman than it does about Radagast...)
Like you, *loved* Martin Freeman and Andy Serkis. Both of them were fabulous. Riddles in the Dark was so wonderfully done I got chills.
And oh, Smaug! That golden eye at the end - it will haunt my dreams...
I saw it in 3D HFR, and am glad I did just for the experience - felt a bit disoriented in some of the early, swooping shots but then got used to it. But if I saw it again in the cinema would like to see it in 2D, just to compare.
But isn't it wonderful to have Middle-earth on screen again?!
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Date: 2012-12-16 07:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-16 11:59 am (UTC)Now it's funny, but I didn't mind those bits nearly so much in TH as I did in LotR, because he did not cut out other crucial scenes to make room for them. I just thought of them as AU gapfillers; if the encounter with the orcs on the way to Rivendell had showed up in written form in a fanfic archive and was posted with decent grammar and spelling it would probably get a lot of good comments.
I'll reserve judgement on Thranduil until we see more of him. Clearly Thorin interpreted the failure to intervene as a betrayal--but we only know Thorin's POV of him so far, and Thorin is more than a little biased. I would certainly object to an "evil Thranduil" interpretation of the character--but I know a lot of people do interpret him that way.
And I did love the rabbit sleigh, and did not find Radagast totally ridiculous--his was more than a little eccentric, yet he proved himself to be an excellent and powerful wizard in spite of his eccentricities. (Kind of reminded me of a certain Gallifreyan who travels about in a blue box, who dresses eccentrically and babbles foolishly in every incarnation, yet is also wise and powerful...)
But isn't it wonderful to have Middle-earth on screen again?!
Oh YES!!!!!
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Date: 2012-12-16 12:04 pm (UTC)I actually minded the butterfly less in TH than I did the moth in LotR, as it seemed it was being used in order to exclude Radagast. That wasn't the case here.
But I still don't quite "get it".
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Date: 2012-12-16 11:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 12:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 02:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 02:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 02:30 am (UTC)I enjoyed your review, and WOW you knitted those feet? =) Knitting a hat was about complex enough for me.
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Date: 2012-12-17 02:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 02:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 02:41 am (UTC)I do hope I can decipher my notes well enough to post a tutorial!
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Date: 2012-12-17 02:58 am (UTC)I loved the good morning exchange toO! that was so awesome! I liked that they included "Chip the Plates" too :D
Love your costume and great pictures!!!
giving Thorin another chance to display both his pride and his courage and to play up the personal grudge between him and one of the Orc leaders. And Bilbo got another chance to be "fierce as a dragon in a pinch". Naturally PJ jazzed up the Eagle rescue substantially. Some of the best 3-D effects took place during that part of the movie.
That is true-- i really enjoyed Armitaage's Thorin-- exactly how i picture Thorin to be with his pride and seeing his grudge with goblins is really great.
The second movie is where we see his pride become his downfall i think and this is great set-up.
I loved Bilbo in every= moment-- he is so endearing and brave! Freeman was phenomenal. :D
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Date: 2012-12-17 03:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 07:27 am (UTC)Yes, that's exactly it. I loved his being there - perfectly canonical - and being the eccentric eco-warrior becoming concerned about the state of the forest (should have been going on for about 500 years, of course, not started-last-week, but for the film I can understand that sort of telescoping), but I didn't like the eccentricity being dialled up to just plain Ridiculous levels. The Racing Rabbits of Rhosgobel were the last straw ;-)