This thread was gonna happen eventually. I haven't seen it yet, but I am tonight!!!!

So, discuss! And remember, put spoilers in the spoilers place. Don't wanna give away the movie to those who haven't seen it yet!

I'm probably gonna go see it to celebrate when I finish my finals.

I'm seeing it tomorrow with the rest of my youth group! *is so excited*

Going tomorrow! Can't wait!

Hopefully I will see it next week!

In IMAX, ideally, so I can see the 9-minute Star Trek preview too...

Star Trek preview was good.

I got to see it with the 48 frames per second, too. It was good. Took a little to get used to it, but after that, I didn't really notice how different it was.


DO NOT LOOK UNLESS YOU WANT SPOILERS!!!!!!!

I really liked the opening scene with Bilbo and Frodo and how it tied the Hobbit and LOTR together!

I also LOVED the Gollum scene. That was excellent. The riddles were fun, and it gave more to the character of Gollum.

The scenes with Galadriel and Gandalf were neat. This movie really seemed to give a lot of depth into the personality of Gandalf. He's like a wonderful grandfather!

I love the Elvin king. *nodnodnodnodnod*

AND THE HEDGEHOG SCENE WITH THE BROWN WIZARD. The hedgehog was sooooo cute!

I do feel like some of the fight scenes were a little long, and the movie wasn't as magnificent as LOTR, but I've been told that LOTR is a much more dark story than the Hobbit. So it makes sense that it wouldn't be as dark as LOTR.

But I loved it very much and I can't wait until the next one!

My mind is still coming to grasp with how awesome all the scenery was (at the moment, the scenery is all I can really think of -- I really want to kidnap the Art of the Hobbit book I got my friend for an early Christmas present).

Dwarven armor is the bomb!

It was so cool seeing places how they were meant to have been. In LotR we see places in decay, in the Hobbit there are so many places that are alive! Brilliant!

Erebor?!?! YEAH I loved seeing what the inside of a Dwarven hall should look like. Moria in LotR was a sorry example/hint at Dwarven architecture. Also, as I said above, the Dwarven armor was awesome!
Besides Erebor, it was great seeing what Rivendell was supposed to be like. They're so at peace and so alive (I nearly flipped when the elven guards took out the orcs ).
And don't get me started on how much I loved the costumes design for the Dwarves!

I've been to The Hobbit, there and back again! Saw it on IMAX when it came out last Thursday and I simply had the time of my life!

So far, it has greatly surpassed my expectations--which, of course, were very high. I'm a huge LOTR/Tolkien/Middle Earth fan after all. Anyway, the detailing (scenery, buildings, costumes, and all) was superb, the characters spectacular...and I don't mind the changes which took place in the plot, in contrast to that of the book. It made the story all the more interesting.

And like Lady Vilisse Mimetes said, I enjoyed seeing Middle Earth in its vibrant era. No dead trees, bogs, and marshes covering the entire land.

By the way, I have a greater appreciation for dwarves now. Mind if I ask those who watched who their favourites are among the thirteen?

I'm going to see it tonight with my sisters, and my brother and his fiance. Looking forward to it!!

Don't click on the the black phrase if you don't want any spoilers.

My favorite is: Fili, Kili, Oin, Gloin, Dwalin, Balin, Bifur, Bofur (especially Bofur), Bombur, Dori, Nori, and Ori! Also Thorin. Rather.... all the Dwarves. I also like Radagast.... when he freaked out in the Necromancer scene. I didn't spoil anything....yet.

I thoughtIt seemed a bit scatter-brained at the beginning with all of the back stories, but it picked up nicely and I was well and truly enthralled by the end. I'm not sure what I think of Radaghast. In my head, I always thought of him as being more similar to Saruman and Gandalf in their nobly aloof airs, just more open with the animals. I think the should have made Saruman a little more amiable. I can't see why Gandalf would have trusted him so if he were always that contrary. The wargs were great, but I should have liked to see the brains they and the eagles had instead of just treating them like clever animals to do the biddings of good and evil (but the white tiger warg was gorgeous). The orcs could have stood to do a bit more shrieking, but I appreciated that the songs stayed in as they did. Elrond had great armor, and I like seeing him less solemn. I had always pictured the orc dwellings as tunnels, and the Lonely Mountain like the cathedral-esque Moria, only full of gold. I really like the development of the civilizations as they are. Seeing the sinister things happening, and knowing exactly what to expect was great (like with Gollum especially). I think it was a little harder to get a feel for early on, because it's much lighter-hearted than LotR so far. Most of the dwarves seem rather comical, and there isn't as much to offset that as there was in The Fellowship. It ended exactly where I guessed!

By the way, is the field they were chased down by wargs in the same as in The Fellowship when Arwen and Frodo were chased down by the Nazgul? They look so similar, and I'd love the continuity in locations.

All in all, the only problem I had with the film was Radagast. In the Fellowship of the Ring book, I'm pretty sure he was tall enough to ride a horse. That said, I really really really loved how they did it! As far as the last comment, I don't want to give anything away, but I think they were different locations. It looked more like Rohan in the beginning of the Two Towers than the area near Rivendell.

Saw it finally!

Loved every moment of it. At the end I was thinking there is no way this movie was three hours long. It just flew by!

Some of my favorite scenes were the Erebor scenes. It was wonderful to see the Lonely Mountain in its prime.

I saw it with E and Mama Raven on Saturday, and it was really good! I also had fun dissecting aspects of it after the movie with them!

Going to see it on Sunday with some friends. Unfortunately, none of them have read anything other than LoTR and the Hobbit, so we won't be able to discuss the complexities of the Unfinished Tales, etc.

I come away with mixed reactions (which is to be expected when you're a book purist ), but mostly good feelings with the movie.


Possibly. I can't recall if the Fellowship scene was rocky or not, but those two scenes should have occurred in roughly the same Middle-Earth geography so that's a distinct possibility.

I felt the same way. It stinks not being able to discuss the Necromancer or Istari parts in their proper contexts.

I hope to come in here with a large post of analyzation later, but I'm waiting to compare bruises with a fellow book-purist first.

I think it's the same area. It looks a bit, or a lot, like what Lady Kitra said. I also think that it rather sucks to not discus about the History of Middle Earth with people who haven't read the book. But I watched with my family so we discussed a lot about the Hobbit.

Watched it, enjoyed, plan to go back and see it again in 2D. (Yeah, I got nauseous a few times. Especially those panning scenes that do wierd twists to look downwards.) The changes were disconcerting at first, but I got used to them, and I can see the purpose behind them.

Well, some of the people I'm going with haven't read any of the books (horrors!) or even seen the movies (how is that possible?) so we will certainly have bruises.

And I have a feeling that the Necromancer or Istari will probably be one of the main sources of confusion.

(How awful!) (Um... living underground perhaps? Nah, not even that would account for it.)

*nods* Overall those parts were well done. However, people who just read the Hobbit without delving any deeper won't be expecting those threads.

Loved every moment of it... Chinese afterwards was good too.

Favorite dwarves would have to be Thorin, Dwalin, Balin, Fili and Kili.

Then Bilbo was awesome as well.

I'm looking forward to seeing this, hopefully, soon after Christmas. At the same time, I am so loyal to books that I have to remember to turn off my automatic "That didn't happen!", "That character shouldn't be there!", "How could they change that!?!" comments or I probably won't enjoy it as much. That said, my sisters and I are even planning to dress up and completely enjoy ourselves, so I'm looking forward to it. And I love what I've heard of the soundtrack already!

Don't worry. They put some new scenes for good. It's a very good film.

What? Impossible! That's an awesome piece of music! Although, really, they may have. I didn't care, though.

I watched it yesterday. I liked it a lot, although it seemed to jump back and forth between dark and serious and then completely absurd. They definitely changed a lot of things and there were things I think should have been different (Radagast) but it was a lot of fun.

Going to see it tonight, in 3D with the high frame rate. Can't wait. *seriously*

Nice.

Tell us what you think of the HFR.

The Hobbit was terrific! My daddy & I went and saw it today. It took probably ten minutes before I was hooked - after that it got put right up there on my favorite movies list. Martin Freeman was absolutely brilliant.

My two favorite dwarves (whom I have affectionately titled "the terror twins") are Fili and Kili. My other favorite was Bofur (the hat! ) though I liked Ori as well.

My favorite scene by far was the riddle game played between Bilbo and Gollum. Loved that one, and one of the last scenes where Thorin is knocked down and then Bilbo pulls his sword out and rushes toward - nah, I'm not going to spoil it for you ...

I did like Radagast, though he seemed... different? Yes - much different than I expected. Like Kitra, I thought he'd be more of a "wizard" like Saruman or Gandalf... I did love the moment where he's feeding the little animal, and the animal opens its eyes and gets well again.

The dwarves were different than I imagined. A couple of them seemed more like humans than dwarves (especially Fili and Kili and Bombur). I'm still having trouble telling them all apart, but this cheat sheet seems to help! *grin*

I absolutely LOVED the scenery. New Zealand is so beautiful. Surprisingly, I lovedthe deep cave scenes with the twists and turns. The rope bridges were awesome... Rivendell is also beautiful... I can't say how many times I got photomanip ideas for fairy houses from the Rivendell scenery! Little fairy houses tucked behind waterfalls... The CGI was great, too. Especially Gandalf sending the orange butterfly for help.

In one of the first few scenes, where Bilbo wakes up after the eventful evening, his decision to run off on the adventure was... a little sudden. Perhaps a little too sudden. I think it would have been better had they dragged it out just a few minutes longer to create a little of that "is he going to go or not?" suspense. Still, that's just a small nitpicky thing. I like suspenseful scenes.

As for the costumes... I liked Bofur's hat. I liked Elrond's blue outfit (I totally agree, Kitra - it was great seeing him a little less somber!).

Radagast was more accurate than most people would think. Jackson did put a twist to him that is... well, plausible, I suppose (in some respects), but not likely, I think.

Once upon a time I found an essay that analyzed Tolkien's unfinished plot thread that is Radagast. I should dig that up...

Can anyone with in-depth knowledge of Tolkien lore remember a location of a textual reference for Radagast's sleigh? When I saw it in the movie I was struck with the odd feeling that that detail was correct -- that I had read that queer piece of information somewhere -- but for the life of me I can't remember where it might be.

Saw the movie! It is definitely worth seeing in in 3D, and the HFR was great, although it made some of the CGI more jerky looking. It's difficult to replicate real-life motion with animation, and even when you get it right, most people aren't used to the HFR yet.



I had that feeling too...can't remember where I read it.

It's one of those ridiculous yet totally plausible and appropriate elements that Peter Jackson keeps pulling out of his magic hat. Like Legolas sliding down the Mumakil's (yes, I know it's spelled wrong, I don't have time to dig out my special characters) trunk.

I watched it and loved it. I think my favorite part is when Balin is telling Bilbo and Kili and Fili why Thorin hates Orcs so much. And he's just standing there with the wind blowing around, and when the story is nearly done, he turns around and all the Dwarves are there, standing to attention and listening intently.

Ori is a cute Dwarf--"I don't like green food!" And I loved Rivendell.

I've heard a lot of comments that this Middle-Earth doesn't look like the Middle-Earth from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I think, however, that the scenes look just quite like they should. The Hobbit was some 60 or so years before the Lord of the Rings happened, and it was a better Middle-Earth with an amount of peace in the land. There would be cause for all that beauty in the mountains and the valleys, as darkness had not yet settled then.

(Just my two cents. )

This is one of my favorite scenes. I also like the scene when they are running through the Misty Mountains, and they split up but go together again. Also how Kili was almost inseperable with Fili when the stone giants attacked.

@Elly, you watched it!!!!

All Tolkien Fans you should try this quiz. Which Hobbit character are you?

http://lotrproject.com/quiz/

According to the quiz I'm like Bilbo.

I am Ori, although I wanted Bofur.

Apparently I am like Galadriel. Slightly shocked there.

*ish Galadriel too* *high-fives Faith*

*high fives back*

*grins* I love that part. (We forgive you. )

How so?
Though the potential danger that besets the North during Frodo's time is very great -- that threat is most times distant. During Bilbo's time, however, the Wild places are a large threat. West of the Misty Mountains does not pose much of a problem Theoretically. Practically, the journey to Imladris and through the Misty Mountains turned out to be much more dangerous than anticipated due to the unexpected traveling habits of trolls and goblins, respectively., but just East of the Misty Mountains, the Wild Parts are rife with goblins and wargs that are causing no end of mischief and strife. Beyond that, you approach Mirkwood and Dol Guldor. Both places extremely dangerous -- the latter a place of your worst nightmares. Contrary to what the movie showed, the Necromancer had been active for a long period of time -- though he does seem to be relatively contained (which is to his advantage, considering his motive, so I guess that is to be expected) -- and the lands surrounding his castle were to be avoided by everyone at all costs. Finally, you arrive at the Lonely Mountain which -- due to the current resident -- has long been lonely in more than just the geographic sense.
I cannot recall, but Gondor and Rohan probably had more peace during Bilbo's time, but the North would be a different story.

DISCLAIMER: All these facts are from my memory and are therefore subject to be fallible. XD

Apparently, I'm most like Kíli.

Well...I thought that maybe, though the Necromancer had been abroad for some parts already, much of Sauron's works and forces did not begin to spread, in the sense that it did not affect the land. In The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, we begin to see them uprooting the trees, destroying the land, and all that, but there was not much of that in The Hobbit. On the contrary, you're probably right that Gondor and Rohan could have had more peace, but the path that Bilbo and the rest of the Dwarves traveled could be more perilous. *shrugs* This is all from memory, too, so don't take my word for anything. It's been some time since I last picked up the books to read.

I saw it with my sisters and my brother and his fiance in 2D. It was fantastic! Better than I had imagined it would be!

However over Christmas I am going to see it with my Dad and Mother in 3D which will be awesome.

*thinks over* In the trilogy, Sauron's effects were more far reaching than the Necromancer's, but the Necromancer was still affecting nature. I seem to recall that the darkening of Mirkwood was the Necromancer's doing.
Also (and in this, the movies do not look like they will remain true to the story), I recall that the area surrounding Dol Guldor is said to be a barren wasteland on account of the pervasive evil in that land.

I saw the Hobbit with Mother and Dad the other night, in 3D. It was awesome. Really enjoyed watching it again!

I went in expecting the movie to be excellent, like Lord of the Rings excellent. It did not meet my expectations, which is so sad because I really, really wanted it to, and expected it to. The only truly excellent scene, in my opinion, was the Gollum scene. That being said, Martin Freeman as Bilbo was very, very good. Richard Armitage (who played Thorin) is my favorite actor of all time, so I enjoyed his presence too. But overall I was disappointed. I'm not even saying this because I'm comparing it to the book, because, though I've read and loved the book, I didn't really do much comparing when I was watching the movie. It was enjoyable to see once but I don't think I'd to actively seek it out again. . . I'll probably still see the others and hope they turn out better.

Here's my review in my school paper.
http://my.hsj.org/Schools/Newspaper/tab ... eview.aspx

The Hobbit was a disappointment for me. Don't get me wrong, it was a good movie (3/5 stars), but not what I expected. I thought the first part of the film was great (from Smaug's attack through Bilbo's party and the dwarves' songs then up till the troll attack). The troll attack, however, disappointed a bit. Still, I think it worked in continuity with the movie. It seemed like a lot of Bilbo's big scenes were downplayed by Gandalf and Gandalf's big scenes were downplayed by Bilbo's heroics.
Rivendell was awesome. The white council scenes were a little weird, but okay. Radagast was awesome, though I almost wish he would have come to the council rather than meeting them in the middle of nowhere. (Didn't he live in Mirkwood? Doesn't that mean all his scenes with the hedgehog took place way before the other scenes? Or am I over-thinking it?)
The Cave scenes were cool, but I disliked how they handled Bilbo's separation. And the Gollum scene was somewhat disappointing. The Great Goblin was awesome.
The Last battle scene, other than deviating majorly from the book, was amazing. Bilbo's courage was great!
My biggest dislike about this was how dark it seemed. Yes, LotR is dark, but this seemed much darker than LotR. Especially some of Azog's scenes. Still, it was an entertaining film, and makes me wonder what else they'll have in the other films.

You were disappointed in the Gollum scene?

I thought that as well, but then I watched LotR again. I would say the Hobbit seems darker due to jarring transitions from playful, light hearted comedy to Azog holding a decapitated head. LotR is much bloodier and has a more "serious weight" feel to the battles and story. The Hobbit comes off very light and portrayed the majority of the fights as comedic and fun, which takes away the peril of the actual danger they face and makes those dark scenes appear so much darker. It draws you into thinking it is a family friendly movie then slaps you in the face and says, "Remember that PG-13 rating? Here's why we got it."

I haven't read the Hobbit in over a decade so I don't remember how many of the dwarves make it through the end, but I had no sense of "serious" danger during their battles. Compare the LotR cave troll battle in Moria against the Goblin King battle. The Moria battle is scary, bloody, and gritty. The Goblin King battle? It was a lot of fun to watch, I mean a lot of fun, but no where near as dark or as "serious" as Moria.