The Hobbit

[osprey_archer]

Saw The Hobbit today! My friend Becky drove down and we had a cream tea (or an approximation thereof; we used cream cheese instead of clotted cream) and watched the movie, which was fun, though not quite in the same class as Lord of the Rings. But really, what is?

Martin Freeman was very good as Bilbo - the Shire scenes as a whole were lovely, though I felt they were a bit padded. But the padding involved swooping around the Shire and gazing lovingly at Bilbo's pantry (I covet Bilbo's pantry) so I didn't really mind. (I felt this way about a lot of the movie: it does feel padded, and therefore I didn't feel much urgency about anything, but at the same time I didn't mind: it was never dull.)

Really, if there were a television show about, like, "Better Living with Hobbiton," which involved cooking delicious foods and making hobbit holes, I would totally watch that.

Given that they often used Gimli as comic relief in the first trilogy, I was concerned how they would present the dwarves here, but I thought as a whole they did a pretty good job balancing the comic relief with the serious aspects. Speaking of serious - I see why everyone likes Thorin Oakenshield, and he is very good-looking, but when he struck his Epic poses I kind of wanted to giggle. You stare broodily off that cliff, man!

I think Peter Jackson rather overdid the grossness sometimes - the bird poop on Radagast's face. Seriously, why? I know other people had the same reaction to the rabbit-drawn sled, and maybe I would have if I hadn't already heard about that in the reviews, but at least that was just weird and not revolting.

Also some of the orcs. I get that the orcs are supposed to be gruesome, but with for instance the orc king with the flabby neck, I didn't want to look at the screen during his scenes because he was SO gross, which is kind of the opposite of the point in the movie.

Comments

[seascribe.livejournal.com]

Really, if there were a television show about, like, "Better Living with Hobbiton," which involved cooking delicious foods and making hobbit holes, I would totally watch that.

You are not alone in this. That would be my favourite television program.

I agree about the grossness, and a little bit about the padding. I would not have minded if they'd cut out about forty-five minutes of it, if it had been fight scenes. Not swooping about the Shire scenes.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I think this television program would have a pretty huge audience. Someone should buy the Hobbiton sets off of Peter Jackson and make it happen.

And yes, the fight scenes - and also some of the chase scenes. There comes a point when all the hacking and slashing begin to blur together, you know?

Also, there were two? three? scenes where the dwarves are rescued because the thing that they are standing on happens to fall in the exact right way that they can jump onto the next piece of the path. This escape tactic is getting old.

[entwashian.livejournal.com]

I pretty much agree. Not as good as LotR, but who cares, I love being in this world!

(How lucky for me that the one LotR icon I managed to save from the last 10 years is one that's appropriate for The Hobbit.)

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Haha, clearly it is a sign that you are PSYCHIC.

And I'm looking forward to having a movie to look forward to next Christmas. I loved having the big LOTR movie event every Christmas when I was in junior high - and now I have it again!

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

MEEE TOOO! Delicious hobbit foods! YES!

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

We should start a petition! :p

[lycoris.livejournal.com]

I have a secret canon that Balin and Thorin talked beforehand and Balin was all "Everytime they get worried, you go and STAND DRAMATICALLY and I will tell stories about how brilliant you are. IT WILL ALWAYS WORK." And lo, it did. ;)

Yeah, I thought some of the grossness was really overdone too. I suppose part of it with the goblins was to try and make them really different to orcs but I didn't find it necessary really.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I like this headcanon! Even though I don't know which one Balin was. There are just way too many dwarves to keep track of them.

[ladyherenya]

I would also be a delighted viewer of Better Living with Hobbiton. (Would Mr Collins be involved in any way? I think he could make a good - if unusual - hobbit). Or really anything which involved exploring Middle-earth. Plot optional.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Mr. Collins from The Lizzie Bennet Diaries? I could see it. He would insist on showing the host EVERYTHING in his garden, and talk incessantly his ladyship, Catherine de Brandybuck, who encouraged all his hybridization experiments.

[artemis_wandering]

Yeah, I was not a fan of Radagast generally. He looked gross and didn't do much. I didn't have a problem with the bunny sled, but that's part a) I don't generally freak out about things like that and b) I imagine, given his conversations with the birds and general in-tuneness with the forest, he probably had their consent.

You stare broodily off that cliff, man!

Ha! Indeed.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I think people freaked out about the bunny sled because, well, a sled pulled by bunnies, how bizarre, not because they were concerned about the bunnies' consent. It's not like we usually ask horses before hitching them to things, after all.

[artemis_wandering]

Ah, okay. I thought maybe the people saying it were big animals rights fans or something, because I do know people who would say that, particularly online fans.

[ladyherenya]

Yes, I was thinking of LBD Mr Collins, mostly because Better Living with Hobbiton reminded me of Better Living with Collins and Collins, but he also seems the most hobbit-like of all the Mr Collins, somehow. Maybe it's his hair.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

He's also more genial than most of the Mr. Collinses - it's hard to imagine the more pompous ones making good hobbits.