covenant

You don't say...maybe I should finally get around to watching that.

musick

Blue Wizard 1: Why can't we pick our own colors?
Gandalf: No way, no way. Tried it once, doesn't work. You got four guys all fighting over who's gonna be the Black Wizard, but they don't know each other, so nobody wants to back down. No way. I pick. You're Blue Wizard 1. Be thankful you're not Yellow Wizard.
Radagast: Yeah, but Brown Wizard is a little too close to Wizard Shit.
Saruman: Who cares what your name is?
Blue Wizard 2: Yeah, that's easy for your to say, you're the White Wizard. You have a cool-sounding name. Alright look, if it's no big deal to be Blue Wizard 2, you wanna trade?
Gandalf: Hey! NOBODY'S trading with ANYBODY. This ain't a goddamn, fucking Council of Elrond meeting, you know. Now listen up, Blue Wizard 2. There's two ways you can go on this job: my way or the road to Mordor. Now what's it gonna be, Blue Wizard 2?
Blue Wizard 2: Jesus Christ, Gandalf, fucking forget about it. It's beneath me. I'm Blue Wizard 2. Let's move on.
Gandalf : I'll move on when I feel like it... All you guys got the goddamn message?... I'm so goddamn mad, hollering at you guys I can hardly talk. Pssh. Let's go to work.

Solid Snake

...that was actually a good post. Could have failed horribly but it worked for me.

Why So Blu?

Yeah, that was pretty cash money.

Josh-da-man

I might add:

Hey, why am I the pink wizard?

Because you're a fairy.

Why So Blu?

Nice!

RocShemp

MBoyd

Hiro11

Finally saw it today. I liked it a lot more than some critics. I didn't find it bloated or over long at all. I also liked the hfr 3d. I can see why some people might not, but the detail and clarity it brings was very compelling to me. The film has a much lighter, less portentous tone than the LOTR trilogy. However, it maintains an epic folk tale atmosphere that I drew me in. People who compared this to Transformers or the like are wildly off base. The best parts of the movie stir strong feelings of old school high adventure. Its a great movie.

RocShemp

I saw it yesterday and enjoyed every minute of it. The time actually flew by so that once the final teaser/cliffhanger was starting up, I was actually surprised it was already over.

As for the tone of the film, although it wasn't exactly true to the letter of the book, it certainly had its spirit. And the Hobbit was always a much lighter read than LOTR. This is why I'm cool with Radagast (and the overall lighter adventure tone) but still so very happy that Tom Bombadil was excluded from FOTR.

I sadly didn't get to see it in HFR (I doubt we'll ge that in PR until a very long time passes) but the regular 3D looked very good nonetheless.

TheBang

I saw it in HFR, and it was extremely distracting. I kept on expecting it to get better after I got used to it after 10-20 minutes, based on some comments in this thread. But it wasn't until about 2 hours into the movie that I wasn't acutely aware of it every second. I can see some of the benefits it brings to fast-moving action shots, but I think it's too detrimental to look of the rest of the movie, so I hope it doesn't catch on.

I thought the movie was pretty good. It dragged for the first half though. Definitely felt like an Extended Edition. But I thought it was a lot better and more engaging from the rock monsters onward. I really liked the goblin lair chase.

Neitzl

Saw this last Sunday and wasn't really excited about it. But I loved every minute. Time flew by for me, and actually, wanted more. It's been a while since I read The Hobbit, but I thought it did a great job of adapting the book. I saw it in 3D/HFR and was blown away at the clarity and fluidity. I must admit thought, that I've been used to seeing this type of "look" ever since I got an HDTV with 120Hz. It was jarring at first but I am so used to it now that I don't think twice about it. And though I do love the look of "film", this HFR looked great and suited the movie well. Sometimes things did a look a bit washed out, but that was only here and there.

Dr. DVD

Some critic placed this on their worst of the year list. I understand it wasn't as great as LOTR , and I didn't find it great myself, but this is a bit extreme IMO. They spent half of the brief paragraph trashing the 48fps format. I can't understand why some people can't separate reviews of movie and format, let alone not let the grudge they bear against the format spill into their opinion of the movie.

Shannon Nutt

Yeah, there's a whole bunch of "worst" lists out there now that are putting movies on it that don't deserve it. If you think THE HOBBIT is one of the worst movies of 2012, you're not seeing enough movies to qualify to make up a "worst" list.

Dr. DVD

^ I don't think Taken 2 was on the list, which was not only the worst I saw this year, but in a long time.

whoopdido

How anybody could put The Hobbit on a worst of list is beyond me. Maybe if the worst of list is 100 movies long but most worst of lists are 10 movies long at the most. People really think that only 9 other movies released this year were as bad or worse than The Hobbit? Gimme a fuckin break.

Jason

Finally saw it last night. Gave it three and a half stars, but it's just barely under four stars.

I thought it started out great with FOTR Bilbo and Frodo, and flowed well into the story. The prologue was great. Thought they handled the dwarves introduction and dinner scene well, as well as the troll scene. Loved the rock giants too.

However, the addition of Radagast with his bird shit hair and the totally ripped orc were both unnecessary. Why add a bobsled pulled by rabbits, which is a whimsical element more in line with the original book while making other elements darker and scarier? Some scenes went on too long (fighting goblins) while others were given short shrift (Rivendell). And I have to say with the exception of Thorin, Balin, and Fili and Kili, the dwarves are pretty much forgettable.

Still, it was enjoyable even though it didn't transport me to another world the way the LOTR films did. Will definitely see the rest, add the blu-ray special editions to the library, etc.

story

My wife and I went to a matinee yesterday at a theater that offered three options: 2D ($7.50), 3D HFR ($8.50), or 3D IMAX ($13). Since 3D HFR was only a dollar more we decided to go for it and it was cool. We decided there were moments when the HFR made the film look better and others when it made it look worse. We also ended up asking ourselves, "Why aren't we in New Zealand RIGHT NOW?!" every ten minutes!

We liked it a lot. Fun, good pace, excellent detail, and really broadened the scope of that part of Middle Earth. Neat connections to the LOTR films, too, including the trolls having the same design as the stone statues the fellowship comes across in the extended FOTR - they even had the same poses (I looked for the one who was pointing down in a weird way)! My only complaint was wanting to get to know the dwarves better but I suppose that will come with time. My wife's only complaint was the bird crap on Radagast's head made her want to throw up.

teameck

I liked this one quite a bit. Saw it in plain old 2D, and that was fine enough. I didn't think it was bloated at all; any slower moments were offset in a timely manner by more exciting scenes. I thought Jackson did a great job with the pace.

I also never really completely uinderstood the LOTR movies (motives and characters sometimes remained a mystery to me), but I "got" The Hobbit from beginning to end (at least I never felt lost).

TomOpus

The fiancιe and I both enjoyed it very much. The pacing was better than I expected. It did go by fast, once all the previews ended. Speaking of which, thought it was funny that "Oblivion" and "After Earth" was back-to-back. Anywho, I never read the book so I enjoyed not sitting there doing comparisons. I am very much anticipating the next chapter.

While the HFR was noticeable, it wasn't distracting. It actually looked pretty cool. Bring on 60 fps!

The Atmos sound was pretty incredible. I really like the snoring scene. We thought someone fell asleep off to our right.

JeremyM

He published Children of Hurin which had a few sections of the same story in The Silmarillion. I really enjoyed it, but it's not for everyone by any means. I actually enjoyed Unfinished Tales more than Silmarillion, but again, it's not for everyone. If you like stuff about "plighting their troth," "tidings," "smoting" and so forth, it's for you. Like I said, I liked it....

Children of Hurin is pretty dark, I won't spoil anything but it's a bit twisted in a way.

RocShemp

Thanks. I couldn't remember the name of the book. Made sure to order it from Amazon just now.

I have Unfinished Tales. Never got around to reading it because I made the mistake of tackling (or at least trying to) the Silmarillion first.

B.A.

My daughter and I finally went to see it this morning. She loved it, despite the fact that the orcs, goblins, and Gollum creeped her out. She was very happy that we did not see it in 3D. She really enjoyed the humor.

I thought it was good, but not great. ***1/2 out of five. I didn't think it dragged too much, but most of the filler was unnecessary. Radagast was given too much time, as was Azog. The orc chase scene and the goblin chase under the mountain went on for too long. I was disappointed in the look of Azog and the giant Goblin-king.

I really liked the intro at The Lonely Mountain, and the glimpse at it's interior.

The casting of the dwarves was well done, although I am not sure why Kili (or was it Fili) did not have a prosthetic nose along w/ everyone else. That stuck out to me, and what was up w/ all of the damn braids in their hair/beards? Very annoying and unnecessary.

I loved the riddle scene w/ Gollum, although he seemed hard to understand at times.

I have been a fan of Martin Freeman for years and he was perfect.

Very much looking forward to the next installment w/ Smaug. Freeman and Cumberbatch together on the big screen!

whoopdido

It wasn't unnecessary. That's what dwarves did. They took pride in their hair and beards. It was important in their society. It wouldn't have made any sense whatsoever if the dwarves did NOT have braids in their hair and beards. It would be like portraying the Ents in the first trilogy as something other than treelike--completely contrary to how the characters were portrayed in the books.

B.A.

I've read the books a couple of times, but it has been several years. It just seemed over the top to have so many.

Completely a minor nitpick.