I saw The Hobbit opening weekend, right before uni finals and my friends & I were pretty stoked. We watched it on a normal screen. When I flew back home for break, I dragged my dad along under the guise of also watching Skyfall, and I saw it in 3D then (dad slept through most of it -_-). I don't care for 3D unless it's also IMAX but that *beep*'s like $20, so no. I thought the 2D visuals were just fine.

I may be one of the minority here who hasn't fully read the book. I read about a third of it back in high school but couldn't find myself as engaged in the story as I was for Tolkien's other works. I do plan to finish it eventually. So I guess it's important to note that I'm coming from purely a film standpoint.


My expectations beforehand: I didn't really have any. I sporadically followed the production activity and was reasonably excited to return to Middle-earth and relive a similar experience to the one that consumed my childhood. I wasn't familiar with the new cast so I had no opinions of them (except for Martin Freeman in Sherlock). I thought Richard Armitage looked hot from the stills. I expected a similar quality to the trilogy because it was the same team more or less, and I have faith in PJ.

The first thing I noticed with the prologue scene was the vivid and crisp picture quality, but it wasn't necessarily good for me. I got a very videogame-esque CGI vibe from it and I hoped it would get toned down or something. I thought Erebor looked pretty awesome.
Revisiting the Shire plus Elijah Wood's cameo gave me warm fuzzy feelings. Gandalf's first appearance made me squeal inside. ^__^
The Dwarves' introduction was humorous and cute, but it stretched on a bit long, especially for ultimately not presenting each of the dwarves' characters that well (this persisted through the whole film, most of them felt like side caricatures; I would like to get to know them all better). "Misty Mountains" sounded so beautiful, though, loved that part.
I thought Thorin was appropriately intense and commanding from the outset, but it took the whole film for Armitage's charisma to grow on me (please don't kill me, he is a beautiful man/Dwarf).

W T F Aspects I Could Not Ignore: [1] the Goblin King. Not only was he hideous, but to me, was a character (mainly due to the design) who appeared hideously out of place as a creature of Middle-earth. And then that little minion-goblin who just ziplined his message away.
[2] Pale Orc. I am just incredibly disappointed that this is the main antagonist we will be dealing with. I don't know, am I the only one who feels the enemy arc of Pale Orc-Thorin to be somewhat shallow? He also looked really fake (I thought he wasn't all-CGI, isn't there an actor underneath all that?).
[3] Mountain Giant Battle. It looked cool, but felt out of place, lasted too long, and did nothing plotwise. I glanced over at my friend next to me and he & I literally exchanged wtf-looks, and we were all perplexed afterward as to why that happened. Was it in the book?

Things I Loved: "Riddles in the Dark" was AMAZING. It is my favorite scene of the film. Humor, intensity, performance, wow. Gollum became the most palpable he has ever been due to Andy Serkis' fantastic performance and holy hell, why wasn't the CGI for the rest of the film as amazingly realistic as it was for Gollum?!?!
Rivendell is the equivalent of heaven for me, so understandably I was in raptures to be back there. Gorgeous, just gorgeous. I also have no qualms about the added Council scene.
The Eagles gave me wonderful chills. Flying into the dawn to safety after the burning forest drama, accompanied by sweeping music. I'm happy my last memory of the film is this scene.
Dol Guldur was also done well. Tonally, struck me as similar to LotR scenes.

I don't know what to think about how Radagast was portrayed. Something felt a little funny about it and I mainly went along for the sake of the story.

I know many people who have griped about the CGI in the LotR trilogy, but I'm not one of them. Considering it was the early 2000s, I thought they did a bang-up job. One of the reasons why I love LotR so much is the realization of the world of Middle-earth. It looks/feels so real, even with some of the weaker CGI points. Unfortunately, except for the obvious location shot scenes, The Hobbit had a kind of artificial/fantasy veneer to it that kept me from truly immersing myself into the world.

To be completely honest, this first installment left me in a position where I am placing all my blind faith into the next two films to redeem this one's shortfalls. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed Unexpected Journey but it ultimately falls into the "for entertainment" category for me and I so want The Hobbit to join the ranks of where I hold the LotR trilogy dear in my heart.

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Graphics by me, Daenerys banner by Moist von Lipwig!

Personally, I thought the movie was great, and the changed things from the book.... well directors do that.

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Ehmagawd, December 13 is this Friday!!

I know!
Even though she wasn't in the book, I was glad to see Galadriel. She seemed prettier in the Hobbit than the Lord of the Rings, but maybe I'm wrong.

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Formerly Legolin12

Totally! Galadriel is AMAZING!

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Ehmagawd, December 13 is this Friday!!

I loved the party
It was really fun
Typical dwarf.
And that's when I realized that dwarves were awesome. And epic.

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call me Fin, Ara, Aralas, Tulisse, or Tuli.
~A mahta tenna qualme! Auta i lome, aure entuluva!~
was known as aralas_29.

Yeah, totally!
I started freaking out when my friend invited me to rewatch the Hobbit next week!
We are both huge Kili fans so...

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Formerly Legolin12

I know how you feel! I'm hoping that over the course of the next movie we'll get to know more of the dwarves that were more sidelined in this one, like Dori, Nori, Oin, Gloin, and Bofur.


I think it's all motion capture/CGI? I'm pretty sure, at least. Which is a little disappointing, personally, as they do such a great job with prosthetics I think they could've made it work really well.


Yep! In terms of the child's adventure story I think it fits, the epic quest for Erebor not quite so much...


YES. YES. I am absolutely in love with the Rivendell sequence and I'm pretty positive I'm most excited about more White Council in the next movies. It was just so perfectly done!

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going on a journey through my old claims

Ah I'm so glad someone replied to me

The reason why I ask about Pale Orc is because on wikipedia it lists Manu Bennett as the actor...but I guess that means it is all motion capture. Prosthetics could have looked much better! (pain for the actor but that's the job--heh) All the prosthetic orc/Uruk villains in LotR looked amazing and grotesque and perfectly terrifying.

If there are more scenes of Rivendell, whether they're flashbacks or real action, I would be so happy! But I know there is a whole other story to tell, and we're not watching Return to Rivendell.

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Graphics by me, Daenerys banner by Moist von Lipwig!

I would happily watch that film. Just Elrond and Galadriel, sighing about being old--I could watch hours of it. With Bret McKenzie turning up every so often to offer them tea and cake.

... Battles? Pfff.

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- married fingon fingolfinion 6/4/13 -
~art credit~

Lol, that is funny! I hope there is more Rivendell too!

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Formerly Legolin12

I watched the movie long time ago but i remember the movie like yesterday. Because i loved that. I loved the scene that everyone ride a horse but only bilbo ride a pony. It was really funny. I also loved dwarfs singing scene. An awesome music was it.

I haven't read the book yet.But i'm still undecided about reading the book first or watching the movie first. If anyone help me about this subject i'll be really happy.

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