Hello friends! Hope you have all been doing well!

I just finished watching the Hobbit for the first time! (yes I know its shocking )

I loved the movie, and when the famous "In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit.." line came on I nearly shed a tear. The guys did a really good job in keeping with the LOTR theme and most of the scenery was amazing!

I was delighted at how close the script remained faithful to the Book until the final moments of the movie. It left a bitter sweet moment as it didn't seem right to me the way Bilbo "proved" himself to the Dwarves.

I also find it a bit hard to like the 'movie Thorin' compared to the 'Book Thorin.' But it has been a long while since I last read the hobbit so I may be wrong there (I lent my book to someone who I wanted to share the world of Middle Earth with but I lost contact with that person and my books as well )

I must also commend the scene where Bilbo spares Gollum. The facial expression of Bilbo really brought life to Gandalf's "The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many" (or something like this) and I must say it could not have been better played or acted.

The depiction of Erebor was excellent and I think it is a great improvement to that of Moria which mostly left me disappointed. The Hobbit was the first book I read it the series and Moria had always interested me since the beginning.

I will end here and look forward to the 'sequel' and hope it will be just as good.

Wow, Thorin! It's great to see you again! I can't believe you haven't seen the movie for so long!

I agree about M. Freeman's play, he has a such a great variety of faces as Bilbo - from 'Of course! I'm a Baggins!' to 'I can't believe this is happening!' - he is very hobbit - like in the movie. My favourite part would be the scenes with Gollum, when we can read so many emotions from his face, especially knowing how this particular moment affected the whole history of Middle Earth. I'm very happy that this scene was played so well.

I loved the movie, and when the famous "In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit.." line came on I nearly shed a tear. The guys did a really good job in keeping with the LOTR theme and most of the scenery was amazing!

Exactly. I was delighted to see the line too.

While I liked the movie I wasn't enamored with it. For me problems included a) length - it was too long; b) unnecessary bits like Radagast the brown; and c) the pace of it... which is kinda a) in a way.

 

However, I DID like the fight scenes and I appreciated the riddles appearing in the confrontation between Bilbo and Gollum, even if they probably went over a large proportion of the audience's heads. :-)

Where the movie stayed closest to Tolkien I feel it worked best. Nearly the whole of Bag End was excellent, I thought. I wonder if the earlier parts were the Del Toro directed parts? I suspect Pete Jackson's touch  here and there at Bag End, but much of Bag End seemed different to his style. The Radagast and Azog parts seemed far less effective.  

Your English is fine Luthien.

Ive watched it three times now and each time Ive liked it mroe than the last.

Im not going to watch it again until the extended edition comes out.  Apparently we will be getting much more Bag End and more of Erebor's history....

One thing they could show that I disappointingly missed is Bilbo actually preparing to leave Bag End. This was at least half a chapter in the book, if not more, which really emphasized Bilbo's attachment to his home and how big a deal it actually was for a hobbit to leave on an adventure. In the movie he pretty much just reads the contract again and he's shown running out. I'd love to see more about the handkerchief too, which was briefly mentioned in the movie but was actually a big deal to Bilbo in the book!!

After my fourth watch through, after getting over Azog, I think one thing I dislike the most is how the dwarves acted in Rivendell. PJ made it seem like the two races absolutely hate each other, but in the book they are all very friendly...and not so much in a boring way that needed to be so drastically altered. Maybe I can see a bit more tension, but in this case they seemed like sworn enemies. And this is in contrast to elves showing up at Helm's Deep, which was added to show the races of ME were trying to be friends. I know this is a different time, but it's not that different.

It did bring up an interesting question though....what do elves eat regularly? You really don't read much about elves having a great feast with lots of venison and chicken and beef. And being so in touch with nature, it would make sense they are mostly vegetarian. But can't say I know this one for sure.

And I want to emphasize I really do think the dwarf actors do a FANTASTIC job of acting like a dwarf. Some of the makeup was a bit shoddy and cheap looking, but the way they act is spot on IMO.

Well there ya go. Wonderful information as always, Galin.

 

I wonder what sort of tools elves used to eat. Normal round plates? 6 prong forks? Spatulas?

 

An Elven spatula sounds pretty damn awesome in my opinion...

I don't like azog. He was literally named ONCE in the hobbit. They didn't need to add in an enemy, the had smaug. The whole thing was them going as fast as possible to him, not going to gater men elves and dwarves and have the battle of five armies. Also wtf Radagast? I have a feeling that this was trying to copy Tolkiens style of "reaching back" and bringing up bits of lore like glypses of mountains in myst but when one approaches said mountains one finds that they are (though more complex than their contemporaries) not nearly as complex as was thought, also when I say complex the words beautiful or magical could work. Peter walked up to the mountains with a camera.

Brego asked: Galin, what makes you think that Legolas ate anything. Ther is no mention or manifestation of it. It was Gimli who salivated over the Salty Pork.

As I say, it was implied, at least, that Legolas ate the food the Hobbits provided [he is one of the three, if not named specifically in the following quote]...

'And you need not turn up your nose at the provender, Master Gimli,' said Merry. 'This is not orc-stuff, but man food, as Treebeard calls it. Will you have wine or beer? There's a barrel inside there -- very passable. And this is first rate salted pork. Or I can cut you some rashers of bacon and broil them, if you like. I am sorry there is no green stuff: the deliveries have been rather interrupted in the last few days! I cannot offer you anything to follow but butter and honey for your bread. Are you content?'

'Indeed yes,' said Gimli. 'The score is much reduced.'

'The three were soon busy with their meal; and the two Hobbits, unabashed, set to a second time.'

JRRT, Flotsam And Jetsam

Coupled with the quote from The Hobbit especially [meat at the feast in Mirkwood], for myself I see no reason to argue that Legolas was busy with his meal but for some reason turned down the pork.

But you addressed your question to me Brego, and I was talking about the books, having quoted from various texts and having referred to the chapter Flotsam And Jetsam.

Having said that there were were other things to eat other than Salty Pork.

As already described, but if you are here trying to suggest that maybe Legolas didn't eat the pork, again we know that the Silvan Elves of Mirkwood roasted meats at their feast, and I yet see no reason to quibble with the implication of the author here.