The Hobbit

[Nymphaea]

 

[heelscatchfire]

love the trailer and the song they chose!

 

[kokobombon]

anyone knows who sings the song? cause the voice reminds me of Cate Blanchett´s.

 

[heelscatchfire]

^ It's Pippin (Billy Boyd) 's song from the Return of the King.

 

[kokobombon]

^jeez, I thought he was a woman
Thanks.

 

[heelscatchfire]

 

[Phuel]

I adore Peter's LOTR trilogy. The Hobbit has left me cold so far. To be fair, I appreciate Peter, Fran and Philippa's revision of a simple children's bedtime story into something substantially more in tone with the richness of the LOTR. But, it's still lacking much of the heart, the passion, the craft of storytelling that I adore in the LOTR films.

And this trailer looks entertaining enough, but it also reminds me too much of a cutscene from a videogame. Visually, it hits all the right places, but the heart and personality is missing for me. It's like a physically-beautiful model that lacks a captivating, charming and passionate personality: The Hobbit is Naomi to me-- whereas the LOTR is Christy LOL

I hope it's in my lifetime that Peter, Fran and Philippa will be able to give us The Silmarillion...

 

[Littleathquakes]

^ don't doubt that the film industry will milk the Tolkien cow dry.

 

[Phuel]

^^^ No they really can't.

Christopher Tolkien owns the rights to the remainder of his father's work, and with his distain for Hollywood, and these "common" films, he won't let anyone touch The Silmarillion (they couldn't even mention the names of the other Istari in first Hobbit film since their names are from the books Christopher still holds the rights to).They will need to wait until his passing, when the property is passed on to his children, then Middle-earth will be have a chance again to be adapted for film.

Ol' Chris is a total Debbie-Downer LOL

 

[Littleathquakes]

That's really a shame. On the one hand I can see him guarding his father's work given the abysmal original Hobbit film (the one where Smaug looked like a big orange cat), but I think there is a way to handle it. Maybe he can have final say on how the films are portrayed, etc. there is always a solution.

 

[Brazilian Girl]

I adore Peter's LOTR trilogy. The Hobbit has left me cold so far. To be fair, I appreciate Peter, Fran and Philippa's revision of a simple children's bedtime story into something substantially more in tone with the richness of the LOTR. But, it's still lacking much of the heart, the passion, the craft of storytelling that I adore in the LOTR films.

I get what you're saying. What I do is try to look at the books and the films as two separate things, you know. Different ways of telling a story. Even if sometimes I cringe when I see Tauriel, for example, I just think "well, this is Peter's version of the story, not Peter trying to turn Tolkien's every word into images".

At the end of the day, the Middle Earth that Peter created really feels like the Middle Earth I imagined when reading the books, so just watching that makes me feel a little emotional because I feel like I'm actually seeing that place, you know what I mean?

 

[Phuel]

^^^ It's a personal thing I think: I just don't really care for the plight of the dwarves; Thorin's story doesn't move me at all. And I think more importantly for me, the talking beasts-- particularly Smaug, both humanize them and turns them into a cartoon, so that there's nothing frightening, primal, bestial, or intimidating at all about them. Talking trolls, goofy Great Goblin and a suave dragon just reminds me how kiddie The Hobbit is, and how awkward it is when seen as a prequel of sort to the LOTR. It's fun, but I'm not invested in the story, no matter how much I can appreciate the work Peter and his team put into it.

That's really a shame. On the one hand I can see him guarding his father's work given the abysmal original Hobbit film (the one where Smaug looked like a big orange cat), but I think there is a way to handle it. Maybe he can have final say on how the films are portrayed, etc. there is always a solution.

Chris comes off as a total ol' fuddy-duddy type who believes modern cinema is the death of culture and literature. Apparently, he's more extreme than his father ever was when it comes to preserving his father's work in their purist form-- as literature only. In a sense, he does have a very strong point; all you have to do is look at the typical Hollywood movie (Peter's LOTR films aren't without their cringe-inducing moments), or the current state of pop music-- hell, even the current state of high fashion is quite dire.

On a brighter note, Tolkien's great grandchildren seem to be very supportive of these films and encouraging of their renewed popularity through the film medium; Royd Tolkien's even been cast as an extra in the LOTR films, as well as The Hobbit. And he's really hot LOL

I'm thinking that in time, when the opportunity is there again for new adaptation of Middle-earth, a TV series of The Silmarillion wouldn't be all that bad-- much in the tradition of A Game of Thrones. I'll always prefer a film-trilogy by Peter and Co to a television series. But GoT has me convinced that a series, rather than only a film trilogy, can still do justice to The Silmarillion-- but it definitely needs a much much much bigger budget than GoT though: There's an army of Balrogs, not just three measly dragons!