The Hobbit

[thesummerqueen]

Was the Tolkien estate happy with the original movie trilogy, or were they reluctant even back then?

They were unhappy with Jackson's treatment.

Is the person who dies, the same one who dies in the book?

Yes.

Given Christopher Tolkeins' emotional attachment to Silmarillion you could well be right but what do you think about the Unfinished tales, Númenor, the Lays of Beleriand? all of these stories have cinematic qualities.

MM

They do, but they don't want anything to do with Hollywood in general anymore, it would seem.

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It moved too quickly? They had three movies extracted from a single book, did they just mess up the pacing? I found the first movie to be very, very slow at points, so maybe they had to cram all the action and resolution into the final installment.

The Hobbit is a very male oriented book in that there are no female characters that play main parts. Jackson included the female elf. Galadriel(spelling) was not mentioned in The Hobbit. He also tried very hard to tie The Hobbit to the LOTR. This meant that he added or emphasized some parts that he could have left out altogether.

The Hobbit itself is a pretty straight forward book. Little guy who doesn't know he wants adventure goes on an adventure and discovers he is smart and capable but I think that it would be a difficult novel to make into a visual work.

Jackson added Tauriel and the love interest with Kili, but much added material was from appendices or the Silmarillion. It's legit lore, not something made up. Galadriel really was part of the White Council, and she was a bad ass elf in her own right - very powerful, very beautiful.

[ManMachine]

I don't think Jackson helped the cause here, what happened to Goldberry? An Earth Mother type female would have expanded the female character pallet much more against the emotionally controlled elves, Galadriel, Arwen, etc.


MM

[thesummerqueen]

The whole Bombadil thing was pretty extraneous to the story. There was no point to add the barrow-wight side story, and I agree with him taking it out.

Elves always seem fairly passive - it's part of what they are. If you'll notice, only a few elves show anger - even Legolas barely registers emotions except in extreme duress, such as when the Balrog appeared, and why not - that's a corrupted Maiar. Goldberry was just as emotionally one toned to me - always merry. And she wasn't so much an earth mother type as she was a water sprite.

Galadriel has a pretty fantastic backstory. Arwen, not so much. If you ask me, Luthien's would have been the most well-rounded emotional story, and I have a feeling Jackson was channeling her when it came to Tauriel and Kili. If you haven't seen the movie yet, you'll know what I mean when you see it, just at the end. She says a few things to Thranduil that broke my heart all over again.

[Gawdzilla]

[thesummerqueen]

FandF

You should look up "The Tolkien Professor". He does a lecture series on The Hobbit which makes a pretty good case for it not to be just a "straightforward" book. Tolkien had already been writing what would become The Silmarillion before he wrote The Hobbit. It's quite rich with its own distillation of faerie lore.

[Thumpalumpacus]

I wished I was home to see the movie, but I am deployed for my last 30 days.

Get home in one piece, brotha.

[Elskidor]

Alrighty, I saw it and really enjoyed it, but I can tell there will be a lot on the extended version. I won't spoil it, but there are some particular parts that felt skimmed and one particular vital character was seemingly robbed of footage. YES. I said it. It felt too short, even if there were three films given to one rather short book, lol.

I'm looking forward to the extended version, but I'm also sad to see Middle Earth departing the big screen, especially knowing how pleased Christopher Tolkien probably is now that this is finally over. He'll likely never allow anything else to be made.

[popeyespappy]

Given Christopher Tolkeins' emotional attachment to Silmarillion you could well be right but what do you think about the Unfinished tales, Númenor, the Lays of Beleriand? all of these stories have cinematic qualities.

MM

They do, but they don't want anything to do with Hollywood in general anymore, it would seem.

Can you blame them? LOTR grossed almost $3 billion worldwide at the box office. The Tolkien estate was supposed to get 7.5% of net profit, but the studio claimed a net loss on the films.

[Gawdzilla]

Alrighty, I saw it and really enjoyed it, but I can tell there will be a lot on the extended version. I won't spoil it, but there are some particular parts that felt skimmed and one particular vital character was seemingly robbed of footage. YES. I said it. It felt too short, even if there were three films given to one rather short book, lol.

I'm looking forward to the extended version, but I'm also sad to see Middle Earth departing the big screen, especially knowing how pleased Christopher Tolkien probably is now that this is finally over. He'll likely never allow anything else to be made.

I bought the theatrical releases of LOTR as they came out, then bought the extended versions as they came out. This time I'll wait for the big boxed set.

[thesummerqueen]

Can you blame them? LOTR grossed almost $3 billion worldwide at the box office. The Tolkien estate was supposed to get 7.5% of net profit, but the studio claimed a net loss on the films.

That's why Jackson's in legal action with New Line, and apparently he's not the only director/filming team who has had this issue with them.