Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit Discussion Thread

[Georgy Zhukov]

I do feel the Bilbo scenes should have been used because the film series is about Bilbo. Plus it would help future plotlines.

Edited November 18, 2013 by Georgy Zhukov

[wasted]

Today i saw a commercial for Dennys featuring The Hobbit.

[Georgy Zhukov]

New movie is out in a month.

[Powerage5]

New movie is out in a month.

Less than.

[Dazey]

Thinking about buying the lord of the rings trilogy extended editions tomorrow. Should I sell my normal boxed trilogy (theatrical editions)? Or keep both of them?

I plan on keeping mine. Will start purchasing the blu rays.

Rewatched The Hobbit this weekend, enjoyed it far more than I did the first time but I still have a fair amount of issues with it. Thankfully it didn't drag as much as it did at the cinema.

I am about to watch the extended edition. It is a little over 3 hours. Some of the scenes I watched were great. I did say before that the prologue dragged on but I start to appreciate it more. I am really excited for Part 2.

Fill us in on what the new scenes are. I literally haven't heard anything about what they are, and I'm anxious to know but can't devote that amount of time to a movie for a couple weeks probably

Well if you ever wonder where Bilbo disappeared off to in Rivendell, you will find out. There is the Goblin Song and the Dwarves acting like assholes in Rivendell. Plus they somewhat introduced Thranduil the King of Mirkwood. You will see more of him soon.

A lot of the new scenes featured Elrond, nice to see him again. I like how Thorin despises the Elves but can't help but respect Elrond and the respect is mutual. Shows great characterization. That is what makes these movies so great, not just fantasy stuff and battles but the characters are great.

I skimmed through the summary Tater Totts posted - didn't seem terribly exciting stuff. Are the new scenes comparable to the stuff in the extended LOTR? It seems like they've got a lot less important stuff to add in the extended versions than LOTR (i.e. Mouth of Sauron, Galadriel's gifts, etc.) because The Hobbit doesn't need to simplify everything to meet the time constraints.

I think the whole thing's one gigantic piss take to be honest. The Hobbit was a under 300 pages so how the fuck do they manage to get three three hour plus films out of it?

[Georgy Zhukov]

New movie is out in a month.

Less than.

Heard it is going to be three hours. I am looking forward to seeing more of the Northmen and the Elves.

It is almost like they could not resist shooting more of Middle Earth. I hear the next two movies will also source material from the appendices. While the events of The Hobbit is going on, Gandalf disappears to investigate the Necromancer later revealed to be Sauron.

[Powerage5]

New movie is out in a month.

Less than.

Heard it is going to be three hours. I am looking forward to seeing more of the Northmen and the Elves.

It is almost like they could not resist shooting more of Middle Earth. I hear the next two movies will also source material from the appendices. While the events of The Hobbit is going on, Gandalf disappears to investigate the Necromancer later revealed to be Sauron.

Yeah, we already know Gandalf's visit to Dol Gildur will be in the second film, so there's reason to believe we'll get to see more tales from outside The Hobbit as well.

Where do you suppose the second film will end? With the death of Smaug and the Battle Of Five Armies approaching?

[Georgy Zhukov]

Probably Smaug's death which is a shame because he is sure to be a better villain than Azog. Azog sucks.

[Tater Totts]

Yeah the final set piece will be the Laketown battle and the death of Smaug with the film probably ending with a hint of the five armies.

Dazey the problem with the first film is that there wasn't any material to stretch really, at least with the second and third film they can expand and embellish on aspects of the story that were over too quickly or skimmed through in the book e.g. Lakedown's destruction and Smaug's death, and the Five Armies which are dealt with in a few pages.

[Georgy Zhukov]

I hope to see more of Laketown and Dale. The Dwarven Kingdom of Erebor looked amazing.

[Georgy Zhukov]

If anything makes the EE blu ray worth buying it is the 9 hours of special features. The shooting of the film plus the casting, the designs and everything. They went out of their way to design the Dwarves. Tolkien didn't develop his version of the Dwarves as well he did for The Elves, Men and Hobbits so a lot of the designs come from Weta. They've done a fantastic job, and the actors were encouraged to make them individual.

[Powerage5]

Finally watched the Extended cut. Frankly, I wasn't impressed too much - it's far from being the the same league as the LOTR Extended cuts. The Rivendell scenes were a nice touch, but that's all that really caught my attention. In one of the extended goblin scenes, I thought the edit when it cut back to the old scene was really awkward.

Excited to watch special features.

[ZoSoRose]

They way I figure, there won't be much use for extended cuts since the one movie was split into three

I still think the extended version of Return of the King is one of the best, its just awesome

[Powerage5]

They way I figure, there won't be much use for extended cuts since the one movie was split into three

I still think the extended version of Return of the King is one of the best, its just awesome

ROTK is my favorite of the 4 films thus far, by a long shot. It's funny, because I also think it was the worst adaptation-wise. I still think it's a shame they killed Saruman off instead of have the Scouring of The Shire and the Battle of Hobbiton, but when you see how long the extended cut is, it does make sense I guess.

[luciusfunk]

I'll agree ROTK was the worst adapted of the trilogy. The movie was long before the extended edition! I remember it was the only one where the theatrical version took two VHS tapes! One theater I saw it in had an intermission, and then the extended edition added close to an hour!

I remember being extremely pissed at how TTT ended. I wanted Shelob in it. Then I saw Peter Jackson saying he adapted the films according to dates in the appendices and that's why Shelob ended up in ROTK.

[Powerage5]

I'll agree ROTK was the worst adapted of the trilogy. The movie was long before the extended edition! I remember it was the only one where the theatrical version took two VHS tapes! One theater I saw it in had an intermission, and then the extended edition added close to an hour!

I remember being extremely pissed at how TTT ended. I wanted Shelob in it. Then I saw Peter Jackson saying he adapted the films according to dates in the appendices and that's why Shelob ended up in ROTK.

I wasn't so bothered by the shift in where it ended. They changed where FOTR ended too, but it wasn't quite as drastic. I mean, if Shelob had been at the end of TTT, there would've been very little of Frodo and Sam in the third film.

[luciusfunk]

I'll agree ROTK was the worst adapted of the trilogy. The movie was long before the extended edition! I remember it was the only one where the theatrical version took two VHS tapes! One theater I saw it in had an intermission, and then the extended edition added close to an hour!

I remember being extremely pissed at how TTT ended. I wanted Shelob in it. Then I saw Peter Jackson saying he adapted the films according to dates in the appendices and that's why Shelob ended up in ROTK.

I wasn't so bothered by the shift in where it ended. They changed where FOTR ended too, but it wasn't quite as drastic. I mean, if Shelob had been at the end of TTT, there would've been very little of Frodo and Sam in the third film.

That's true, but I'd only just finished reading the books for the first time and didn't think about it that way.

[Georgy Zhukov]

Finally watched the Extended cut. Frankly, I wasn't impressed too much - it's far from being the the same league as the LOTR Extended cuts. The Rivendell scenes were a nice touch, but that's all that really caught my attention. In one of the extended goblin scenes, I thought the edit when it cut back to the old scene was really awkward.

Excited to watch special features.

I think the best part about the EE was Bilbo at Rivendell because the films are about Bilbo, and the Dwarves. They have 13 new characters to introduce, meaning 13 personalities and some stand out. After watching the special features I feel like I know them all so the next two films will be enjoyable.

I loved that scene with Oin and Bofur being smart asses with The Great Goblin. Just helps make their characters more memorable.

I'll agree ROTK was the worst adapted of the trilogy. The movie was long before the extended edition! I remember it was the only one where the theatrical version took two VHS tapes! One theater I saw it in had an intermission, and then the extended edition added close to an hour!

I remember being extremely pissed at how TTT ended. I wanted Shelob in it. Then I saw Peter Jackson saying he adapted the films according to dates in the appendices and that's why Shelob ended up in ROTK.

I wasn't so bothered by the shift in where it ended. They changed where FOTR ended too, but it wasn't quite as drastic. I mean, if Shelob had been at the end of TTT, there would've been very little of Frodo and Sam in the third film.

That's true, but I'd only just finished reading the books for the first time and didn't think about it that way.

I can understand why some were bothered by those changes, cannot fathom to understand why people wanted to see Tom Bombadil. He was the most useless character ever.

Also I am one of the few who liked Faramir's changes but the theatrical versions made him into a bigger dick than he was.

[luciusfunk]

I saw FOTR before reading them and when I got to Tom Bombadil, I was extremely happy he wasn't in the movie. I think I just skimmed all his parts.

[Georgy Zhukov]

I saw FOTR before reading them and when I got to Tom Bombadil, I was extremely happy he wasn't in the movie. I think I just skimmed all his parts.

I was the same way. I found TTT and ROTK a lot easier to read because I haven't seen the movies.

I think Jackson handled The Battle of the Hornburg aka Helm's Deep better. Tolkien had over 2,000 Rohirrim defending the fortress which put them at much better odds than the 300 men and 200 Elves in the film version. And having 2,000 horsemen charging into the Uruk-Hai's ranks rather than just 1,000 spearmen is just more epic.

Only problem I had is they didn't show the men on the side of Saruman as much. They were at the battle in the book. And we never got to see The Easterlings in action. They were a blink and a miss in ROTK.

[Powerage5]

Finally watched the Extended cut. Frankly, I wasn't impressed too much - it's far from being the the same league as the LOTR Extended cuts. The Rivendell scenes were a nice touch, but that's all that really caught my attention. In one of the extended goblin scenes, I thought the edit when it cut back to the old scene was really awkward.

Excited to watch special features.

I think the best part about the EE was Bilbo at Rivendell because the films are about Bilbo, and the Dwarves. They have 13 new characters to introduce, meaning 13 personalities and some stand out. After watching the special features I feel like I know them all so the next two films will be enjoyable.

I loved that scene with Oin and Bofur being smart asses with The Great Goblin. Just helps make their characters more memorable.

I'll agree ROTK was the worst adapted of the trilogy. The movie was long before the extended edition! I remember it was the only one where the theatrical version took two VHS tapes! One theater I saw it in had an intermission, and then the extended edition added close to an hour!

I remember being extremely pissed at how TTT ended. I wanted Shelob in it. Then I saw Peter Jackson saying he adapted the films according to dates in the appendices and that's why Shelob ended up in ROTK.

I wasn't so bothered by the shift in where it ended. They changed where FOTR ended too, but it wasn't quite as drastic. I mean, if Shelob had been at the end of TTT, there would've been very little of Frodo and Sam in the third film.

That's true, but I'd only just finished reading the books for the first time and didn't think about it that way.

I can understand why some were bothered by those changes, cannot fathom to understand why people wanted to see Tom Bombadil. He was the most useless character ever.

Also I am one of the few who liked Faramir's changes but the theatrical versions made him into a bigger dick than he was.

I saw FOTR before reading them and when I got to Tom Bombadil, I was extremely happy he wasn't in the movie. I think I just skimmed all his parts.

The big lure of Tom Bombadil is Tolkien intentionally never explained him; he firmly believed that something in Middle Earth had to be an entity yet remain a mystery - that was Tom Bombadil. There's absolutely no way the Barrow Downs/Tom Bombadil could've worked in the film. It would've been incoherent, especially to people who haven't read the book.

[Georgy Zhukov]

I think Bombadil was Eru.

[Bono]

when I read the books I was actually really interested in the Tom Bombadil part. Unfortunately his part was completely pointless as he never appeared again. When reading Two Towers and Return of the KIng I kept thinking he'll probably make another appearance at a critical time and be this massive influence in the war. Then he didn't show up and I thought what a dumb character to have. Added nothing to the books really even though I thought he was interesting. It would've sucked completely if he was in the movie for sure.

[Powerage5]

I think Bombadil was Eru.

I don't know what to think.

[luciusfunk]

I think Bombadil was Eru.

I don't know what to think.

Tolkien said he's not Eru.