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1. The problem with the heat in the building is I live with three men...sigh. They keep fiddling.

2. So..My bro took his daughter (age 8) and one her friends (age 8) to the Hobbit, and was very upset and disappointed. He'd just read the book to his daughter and was well expecting something more in line with the animated version or the play version that I appeared in way back in 1981, which was only two hours and a fairly straight-forward adaptation of the book.

Apparently, Peter Jackson found that version sort of boring, and well got ambitious.

He railed about the film to my mother, who as a result now has no interest whatsoever in seeing the film - dang-it. Wish she'd told me on Friday, so I could have seen it this weekend - although, not sure I'd have managed it - no time. Dang brother. His reaction? The film was three hours long with a lot of material that was not even in the book, and the film was scarier and more violent than the book - and if he'd known, he would never have taken his daughter to it. She attempted to reassure him - by reminding him that she had taken us to Exclaibure in 1981, at the ages of 9 and 13 respectively or thereabouts. And that was worse - it had a sex scene. (Actually it was a violent rape scene in the first 15 minutes...Uther raping Igraine, while Merlin murmered in the background.) My parents apparently didn't think a fantasy could be well so...adult at that time? We dealt with it well or better than my parents did at any rate - both squirmed throughout the movie.

Hmmm...it's admittedly been a while (25 yrs) but I remember the Hobbit being fairly violent and not exactly a children's book. More pre-teen (I read it at 12/13 years of age or however old you are in the 6th grade). Granted, I know that Jackson added a bunch of material from Tolkien's appendixes. Things most people haven't read. Mainly because it requires a somewhat industrious and obsessed reader to hunt down and read the appendixes - which aren't in the Hobbit, they are at the end of the Return of the King and the Lord of the Rings books. Plus, very small print. Personally, I'm curious about the appendixes...because I haven't read them, and it would make The Hobbit new and shiny to me - I don't need it to be like the book or play or animated film versions - I'm fairly low maintenance when it comes to film adaptations, apparently. As long as it adds something new to the party, I'm happy. But my brother went into the film not expecting to see anything but what was in the actual book. How he managed that I don't know. Was pretty common knowledge - all the reviewers mentioned the added material and it's been a controversy for about a year now.

Still is a controversy. So far on my flist - only [livejournal.com profile] selenak liked it. Everyone else...not so much.

Date: 2012-12-18 02:50 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mrs-underhill.livejournal.com
I absolutely loved the movie, because it gave me what LotR movies didn't - my favorite characters I could swoon over on screen. Frodo and Sam were my main LotR heroes and the way they were portrayed in LotR movies didn't satisfy me. So I never got to be the fan of LotR movies even though I waited for them for so long. I'm a huge Tolkien geek.

My secondary pair of favorite characters are Bilbo and Thorin, and the movie absolutely nailed them, which made my dream of falling in love with Tolkien heroes on screen to finally come true.
I've been mostly spilling my fandom joy on Tolkien boards, I know the opinions are mixed but if you love tragic flawed underdog characters, who are trying to keep their dignity and pride while everyone kicks them down, it might be the movie for you.

It had a lot of silly CGI fights and falls and what not, but the heart of the movie: the dwarves and Bilbo, shined through.

It's not a whimsical children Disney cartoon of course, it never was advertised as such.
Edited Date: 2012-12-18 03:11 am (UTC)

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