As previously advertised, I went to see the Hobbit at the IMAX here in London yesterday with ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
aella_irene and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
clare_nce.
The film was so good that I had trouble getting to sleep last night from replaying bits of it in my mind I was that caught up in it.
Spoilers from here on in, not for the Hobbit, which has been out since 1937 and is presumed to be familiar to all, but for Jackson’s treatment of it.
The film opens with a load of history about Erebor, the dwarves and the coming of Smaug. All beautifully shot, particularly the city of Dale. It also includes a little section including shots of Thranduil – heartbreakingly lovely – riding a stag.*
The section in Hobbiton starts with Bilbo being old and preparing for the party, so it’s a familiar start from the Lord of the Rings, but then does a ‘flashback’ thing with Bilbo younger and played by Martin Freeman. I couldn’t tell (prosopagnosia is like that) if Martin played ‘old Bilbo’. Martin is absolutely superb in the part. Fantastic casting; couldn’t have been better.
I’ve always loved Bilbo the most of all the hobbits. I know everyone is supposed to adore Sam, but it’s always been Bilbo for me. I’d have been very unhappy if the casting had been off for the main part.
The dwarves are predictably hard to tell apart. They’ve done their best, but I can distinguish Thorin (most of the time), Fili and Kili (but I don’t know which is which), Balin (he has white hair), and Bombur. The rest are, I’m afraid, “the rest”. There is one with an unexpected Irish accent, but I don’t know which one he is, and Thorin has a Yorkshire accent which makes him sound slightly like Sean Bean/Boromir.
The “Unexpected Party” scenes are very funny, and well played by all – you get a real sense of what it would be like to have thirteen dwarves and a wizard suddenly descend on you, without asking, and eat you out of house and home. In fact, one of the reasons for Bilbo going on his adventure could well be that he has no food left, but I suppose it’s more than possible in Hobbiton to restock a larder quickly.
The scenery is every bit a sumptuous as that in Lord of the Rings, so no surprise there, and I’d love to live in Bilbo’s hobbit hole. So I can see Lobelia Sackville-Baggins’s point.
Moving on – and this film has a slightly slow pace – the scene with the trolls is amusing and well done.
This leads to one of the mild irritations – there is a chase sequence following the troll scene, and all the chase and fight sequences are over-long for my taste. I don’t get much joy out of watching a load of orcs on wargs running around the countryside, however well done the CGI is, and I look forward to getting a copy on DVD so that I can fast forward through these.
Jackson has decided that Azog the goblin, rather than being dead as he is in the book, should be resurrected as one of the “big bads”. I lost interest in him quite quickly, but unfortunately Jackson doesn’t.
The section in the goblin caves is well done; it separates Bilbo (who obviously meets Gollum) and the dwarves in quite a sensible way. The riddle sequence sparkles, with Freeman and Serkis playing off each other very well. It includes most of the ‘book’ riddles, but not all.
They get out of the goblin caves, the dwarves thanks to Gandalf, but Bilbo entirely on his own, and then there’s a long (again, too long) fight scene in which Azog features, they’re rescued by the “eagles ex machina” and get their first glimpse of Erebor away in the distance.
And that’s as far as this film gets. It takes two and a half hours to cover that. Padding, Mr Jackson, is pretty damn obvious IMO.
*I’m rather hoping the loveliness of Thranduil will result in an outpouring of Elrond/Thranduil stories, of which there are not enough for my taste, and certainly not enough good ones.
aella_irene and clare_nce.The film was so good that I had trouble getting to sleep last night from replaying bits of it in my mind I was that caught up in it.
Spoilers from here on in, not for the Hobbit, which has been out since 1937 and is presumed to be familiar to all, but for Jackson’s treatment of it.
The film opens with a load of history about Erebor, the dwarves and the coming of Smaug. All beautifully shot, particularly the city of Dale. It also includes a little section including shots of Thranduil – heartbreakingly lovely – riding a stag.*
The section in Hobbiton starts with Bilbo being old and preparing for the party, so it’s a familiar start from the Lord of the Rings, but then does a ‘flashback’ thing with Bilbo younger and played by Martin Freeman. I couldn’t tell (prosopagnosia is like that) if Martin played ‘old Bilbo’. Martin is absolutely superb in the part. Fantastic casting; couldn’t have been better.
I’ve always loved Bilbo the most of all the hobbits. I know everyone is supposed to adore Sam, but it’s always been Bilbo for me. I’d have been very unhappy if the casting had been off for the main part.
The dwarves are predictably hard to tell apart. They’ve done their best, but I can distinguish Thorin (most of the time), Fili and Kili (but I don’t know which is which), Balin (he has white hair), and Bombur. The rest are, I’m afraid, “the rest”. There is one with an unexpected Irish accent, but I don’t know which one he is, and Thorin has a Yorkshire accent which makes him sound slightly like Sean Bean/Boromir.
The “Unexpected Party” scenes are very funny, and well played by all – you get a real sense of what it would be like to have thirteen dwarves and a wizard suddenly descend on you, without asking, and eat you out of house and home. In fact, one of the reasons for Bilbo going on his adventure could well be that he has no food left, but I suppose it’s more than possible in Hobbiton to restock a larder quickly.
The scenery is every bit a sumptuous as that in Lord of the Rings, so no surprise there, and I’d love to live in Bilbo’s hobbit hole. So I can see Lobelia Sackville-Baggins’s point.
Moving on – and this film has a slightly slow pace – the scene with the trolls is amusing and well done.
This leads to one of the mild irritations – there is a chase sequence following the troll scene, and all the chase and fight sequences are over-long for my taste. I don’t get much joy out of watching a load of orcs on wargs running around the countryside, however well done the CGI is, and I look forward to getting a copy on DVD so that I can fast forward through these.
Jackson has decided that Azog the goblin, rather than being dead as he is in the book, should be resurrected as one of the “big bads”. I lost interest in him quite quickly, but unfortunately Jackson doesn’t.
The section in the goblin caves is well done; it separates Bilbo (who obviously meets Gollum) and the dwarves in quite a sensible way. The riddle sequence sparkles, with Freeman and Serkis playing off each other very well. It includes most of the ‘book’ riddles, but not all.
They get out of the goblin caves, the dwarves thanks to Gandalf, but Bilbo entirely on his own, and then there’s a long (again, too long) fight scene in which Azog features, they’re rescued by the “eagles ex machina” and get their first glimpse of Erebor away in the distance.
And that’s as far as this film gets. It takes two and a half hours to cover that. Padding, Mr Jackson, is pretty damn obvious IMO.
*I’m rather hoping the loveliness of Thranduil will result in an outpouring of Elrond/Thranduil stories, of which there are not enough for my taste, and certainly not enough good ones.
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I’m rather hoping the loveliness of Thranduil will result in an outpouring of Elrond/Thranduil stories, of which there are not enough for my taste, and certainly not enough good ones.
Mmmmh, yes please! Thranduil was lovely, but Elrond was so beautiful, too! Especially in that armour and on horseback, and when he smiled. Guh!
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I totally want an icon of Elrond in armour, smiling. Have been browsing the net for images, no luck so far. Will have to use my old one until then.
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But seriously, it was such a beautiful film. And I didn't even think it felt padded, but it's also been twenty years since I read the book. And I really enjoy fight scenes, so I'm probably biased!
There were so many dwarves and I'm not that good with faces, but Dwalin was the bald one with tattoos on his head, I remember that much, heh.
I really thought they were all great, but Martin Freeman was fantastic. His scene with Gollum was amazing.
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Martin Freeman is indeed fantastic!
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I'd gladly ship Thranduil/Elrond with you if I had any sort of grip on their characterisation. I've a pretty shallow knowledge of Tolkien canon, sadly!
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Elrond doesn't have much, but Tolkien tells us in the Hobbit that he's, "as noble and fair of face as an elf-lord, as strong as a warrior, as wise as a wizard, as venerable as a king of dwarves, and as kind as summer." From the Silmarillion we discover that he hasn't had a happy life and is a bit grim as a result. That's it, really.
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Why do you like them? Do you have a ship manifesto lying around somewhere?
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And again, I always felt that Thranduil had more to say for himself than he's given in the books. Discovering you've had a burglar in your house for the best part of several weeks and forgiving him it entirely goes a long way with me. And the description of him in the book is lovely too.
I don't think there's a ship manifesto - what's one of those?
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A ship manifesto is where a person more or less writes out an analysis of the two characters they ship, and then states why they work as a couple. There used to be a comm for it on LJ, I think.
(I agree about Elrond, he seemed much less grim in The hobbit!)