The Hobbit

[Jackalope]

Tolkein's elves don't shield surf.

Seriously. Turn in your LotR geek card.

I before e. I win.

Doh.

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Sure, and that's expected - I just don't want to see any more juvenile dwarf humor (beyond what's in character of the story). The dwarf tossing jokes in FotR and TTT were ridiculous, IMO.

They did change his character quite a bit. I took Gimli very seriously in the novel.

Indeed, in the novel, he was a dwarf to be taken seriously. Now, in the films, he was badass as honey badger, but used way too often for comic relief. Which, in my estimation, is a bit silly - this sort of story doesn't need much comic relief, and the little that you do need is provided by hobbits being hobbits.

[Shell B]

I agree. The hobbits were meant to be comic relief. They were the unexpected heroes. Gimli was a hero you expected.

[Epimethean]

And yet, each of the films kicked ass.

[Shell B]

Yeah, I loved the movies. I can hardly imagine someone doing a better job visualizing the epic of all epics.

[Epimethean]

I don't think any other current director would have had the passion, love and vision to see such a massive work into being. Jackson earned major kudos from me for those films. They were a work of absolute love and it shows.

[Jackalope]

I agree, Epi - I try to look at the films as if I had not read the novel, and evaluate whether it's a good story told well. By that measure, they are certainly great films.

For those that measure the quality of a film adaptation of a novel according to it's fidelity to the novel, I can say only this: You won't like many film adaptations.

Were I In Jackson's shoes, I would probably have made different choices than he. Then again, he's the one who got the studios to give him a couple of bazillion dollars to make the films, so he calls the shots.

[reverendjeremiah]

Its only proper that Tolkiens works are so well written..he borrowed heavily from The norse/viking religions. In fact "gandalf" means "Wand elf", the king of the elves. Damn near ever single dwarf was copied from the eddas.

I have said it before, and I will say it again..the norse had the coolest religious stories. Most other religions put me to sleep. The Eddas got me excited.

[Epimethean]

The Norse are good, though a bit more nihilistic than other interesting pantheons. The Greeks, Celts, Hindi and various Native American, African and Aboriginal tribes also have fantastic stories which are far from boring.