So Who Saw the "Hobbit" Movie??

[dawn_felagund]

My Tolkien-nerd card will not be revoked this year, as I went to the midnight showing last night! :^D If you want to share your thoughts on the new movie, feel free to use this thread to do so.

Also, for January's newsletter, we will be collecting links from members' discussions and reviews of the new movie. (As explained in past posts, we are staying away from professional and non-member reviews because other groups are able to handle this flood much better than we can.) So if you've posted something on your journal and would like to share a link here, please do! I'll make another reminder post closer to the end of the month.

Comments

[elfscribe5.livejournal.com]

Hi Dawn. Here's a link to my initial reactions, which admittedly were written at 4 a.m. once I finally got back from the movie. http://elfscribe5.livejournal.com/224311.html (http://elfscribe5.livejournal.com/224311.html) What did you think?

[dawn_felagund]

I'm finishing up a grad school assignment now, and writing my Hobbit review (and now reading yours) is going to be my reward for doing so! :) So ... back in a bit!

[grey_gazania]

Seeing it tonight, and very very excited! :D

[dawn_felagund]

Yay! Hope you enjoy! :D (I did.)

[grey_gazania]

Sat there squeeing like an idiot through the whole thing! XD

[dawn_felagund]

Mere mention of the name "Gondolin," and my poor husband sustained some bruised ribs! :D

[pandemonium-213.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen it yet, and likely will not until the week between Christmas and New Year's when I can catch a breather in my work schedule. I'm, well, feeling a bit ambivalent about the movie, much the same way I did when I went to The Fellowship of the Ring in 2001. Then, I prepared myself by reminders that I would view the movie as lavish illustrations of the text, rather than anything textually accurate. That helped a lot. I expect I will do the same of The Hobbit: AUJ, with the addition of viewing it as lavish fan fiction. :^D

[dawn_felagund]

I paused from typing the following paragraph in my review to find your comment in my inbox:

I really do try to go into the movies much as I go into works of fan fiction (since, artistically, there's not much of a difference, if any), i.e. accepting that it is one creator's vision and that enjoyment requires acceptance of that as a precondition. So while I personally wince at the idea of the High Elves as super-effeminate salad eaters because that is not my vision, I also do try not to let it impede enjoyment of the movie as a whole. Y'all know that I have strong feelings on people who embark on reading/viewing lengthy transformative works only to spend the entirety of their response bitching about details that they would have done differently. Forest for the trees, people! ;)

GMTA!

[wood-elf.livejournal.com]

I have tickets booked for the 26th - looking forward to. :)

[dawn_felagund]

Woohoo! Hope you enjoy it. :) I did; I was admittedly miserable when I left the house and came home happy at 3:30 AM. ;)

[nelyo-russandol.livejournal.com]

Tomorrow, 4:45pm, GMT. :o)

[dawn_felagund]

Bobby's already talking about when we'll see it again over holiday break! :D Hope you enjoy it!

[nelyo-russandol.livejournal.com]

I did, oh, yes, I did! This is not a review, just those squees and "mmm, not sure about that" moments I could remember last night - with SPOILERS. There may be more, but this weekend I'm running ragged, can't sit down to think in peace and quiet.

[dawn_felagund]

Here is my review, with a SPOILER ALERT:

http://dawn-felagund.livejournal.com/316149.html

I enjoyed the movie--see the preface in my review about how to enjoy fanfic! ;)--but definitely left with some thoughts on how PJ & Crew handled the challenge and very eager to see how they go forward with it.

[independence1776]

Here's my spoilery review: http://indy1776.livejournal.com/161511.html (In a nutshell: I loved it.)

[dreamflower]

Here's a link to my review:

http://dreamflower02.livejournal.com/595199.html

I've pretty much viewed the movies as fanfic ever since I discovered fanfic; I had an "Aha! So that's what he's doing!" epiphany after having read a few gapfillers. PJ's Middle-earth is basically a slightly AU (ok, maybe more than slightly) fanfic.

[hhimring]

I've seen it. I enjoyed it.

I think considering what a balancing act it was--very different kinds of source material and also quite a wide range of target groups--they did really well. I could sort of see why they did even a few things I myself personally wasn't so keen on.

But if PJ ever does a Silmarillion movie (which I don't think he will), I can already see Fingon slithering hundreds of yards down Thangorodrim with Maedhros dangling from his hand and shouting "Noooo!" as he sways back and forth, before he jumps on Thorondor's back and flies away into the sunset!

[dawn_felagund]

Cliffhanger icon for your last paragraph, which made me LOL. ;)

considering what a balancing act it was

That's my feeling exactly. I feel like the source material for TH--although so much shorter and less complicated--was actually much more difficult to work into a movie like this. LotR had a sense of coherence that TH lacks and no shortage of subplots to provide a measure of closure to each individual movie. And, of course, it was less comic and whimsical, which I would have personally found very difficult to work with, my preference being for darker stories.

But if PJ ever does a Silmarillion movie (which I don't think he will)

So far, the Tolkien Estate still holds the film rights for the Silm, and I don't see that changing as long as Christopher lives. Of course, Christopher is getting up there in years, so ... I could see the Silm working better as a TV series than a movie, personally. I'm caught between curiosity of what that would look like and absolute horror of how a text like the Silm could be mangled by the wrong person.

But, yes, as I think Indy pointed out, PJ does seem to enjoy his characters dangling suspensefully off of precipices! :D

[nelyo-russandol.livejournal.com]

I can already see Fingon slithering hundreds of yards down Thangorodrim with Maedhros dangling from his hand and shouting "Noooo!" as he sways back and forth, before he jumps on Thorondor's back and flies away into the sunset!

Please, no. Despite the icon, it's not really something to LOL about. I'm cringing at that stunt.

Definitely I don't want them to make the Silm as a movie/TV series..

[huinare.livejournal.com]

I can already see Fingon slithering hundreds of yards down Thangorodrim with Maedhros dangling from his hand and shouting "Noooo!" as he sways back and forth, before he jumps on Thorondor's back and flies away into the sunset!

Ahaha!

But yeah, that's probably exactly how it would happen if PJ made the Silmarillion. x_o And Thorondor would probably be dodging a bunch of Orcs on flying creatures and geysers of lava and stuff as he flew them out of there.

[engarian.livejournal.com]

My review which contains NO spoilers is here, Dawn. http://engarian.livejournal.com/2012/12/14/ (http://engarian.livejournal.com/2012/12/14/) Like you, I was at the midnight show - marvelous and well worth the messed up schedule and lack of sleep.

- Erulisse (one L)

[huinare.livejournal.com]

Here's mine. Pretty much all spoilers. (http://huinare.livejournal.com/107126.html)