Comments on: Update: There will be a third Hobbit movie released in 2014

By: Donald Petersen

Donald Petersen — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 17:58:00 +0000

Peter Jackson didn’t completely fuck The Lord of the Rings up, but he didn’t do anything interesting with it. He has, though, made certain that generations of people will not see another version.

I dunno… I thought Jackson’s version was plenty interesting. Faithful enough to the books, with buckets of production value. And with… what, 17 Oscars? A billion dollars in domestic box office alone, and nearly three billion worldwide. Seems like plenty of people found it interesting.

And this was a generation after both Rankin-Bass and Bakshi tried, with only limited success, to adapt the books as cartoons.

In any case, never doubt the willingness of Saul Zaentz to cash in again on his Middle-earth Enterprises holdings whenever someone brings along some new technology or other excuse to “reboot” the damned thing. Maybe in 3D 8K Sensurround Smellovision. At this point, Tolkien’s creations are no more sacrosanct than caped superheroes as a media commodity.

By: miasm

miasm — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 17:23:00 +0000

just another perfect example of how all films are petty, unresearched piles of trash that stretch credulity to the limit.
And they actually expect you to invest in these so-called ‘stories’.
When have humans ever liked stories or tales or heroic journeys?!?
‘Made up nonsense’ I call it!

By: Michael Smith

Michael Smith — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 08:18:00 +0000

I am still waiting for the Ramans.

By: penguinchris

penguinchris — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 05:40:00 +0000

I watched all three LOTR films recently (yes… an extended editions marathon), and I hadn’t seen any of them since ROTK came out on DVD, whenever that was.

There is only one CG bit that doesn’t hold up – Legolas doing some BS with an elephant in the final battle. Newer CG is better, yes – but most of the CG in LOTR is more than good enough that you don’t specifically notice it like you do in so many other films from that era and earlier.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 03:13:00 +0000

Saruman already got thrown off Orthanc and was impaled on a prop from the Wizard of Oz.

By: Tim H

Tim H — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 03:00:00 +0000

I am hoping to see a huge showdown between the more-evil-than-Sauron-theory version of Tom Bombadil and a charming rogue armed with a repeating crossbow played by Bruce Willis. Songs by Eminem backed by Enya. There’ll be a bit where Sir Willis is about to get stomped by a troll and the troll like totally gurgles and dies and falls down and standing behind him holding a humorously over-sized bow is a sheepish looking Bilbo and Bruce Willis totally rolls his eyes and says “Not you again!”

It can happen.

By: Tim H

Tim H — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 02:44:00 +0000

I’ll go, I can’t be certain he’ll be boring unless I do. It wouldn’t be fair. I’d also like to go and see a dozen more Hobbit movies, I want to see it done by other folks in other ways that may be more or less interesting.

Peter Jackson didn’t completely fuck The Lord of the Rings up, but he didn’t do anything interesting with it. He has, though, made certain that generations of people will not see another version.

By: Finnagain

Finnagain — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 02:21:00 +0000

Your options, though, are limited. You can go, or not. But I guess you can whinge regardless.

If you don’t want the works to be ruined (for you), don’t go, and they will be pristine forever in your memory.

By: s2redux

s2redux — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 02:03:00 +0000

Here’s a suggestion for the third Hobbit film — show us the end of the third LOTR film! Ya know, all that unimportant stuff like Fatty and Lobelia being released from the Lockholes; the raising of the Shire; Saruman’s end. (Bonus points for including Bombadil in a flashback.)

By: Tim H

Tim H — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 02:03:00 +0000

This isn’t about magic, it’s about test marketing for 13 year olds. It’s why we have all the dwarves dressed in Sauron armor.

By: Tim H

Tim H — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 02:02:00 +0000

There’s also a thing called “not ruining the legacy of a great writer”.

I’d be all up for Peter Jackson interpreting the books if it didn’t include him and the horrible heirs shutting down all other interpretations of the Tolkien works.

By: Brainspore

Brainspore — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 00:19:00 +0000

Here's a crazy thing I learned watching the Director's Commentary for the first trilogy: Peter Jackson originally pitched LOTR as two films, and the studio convinced him to stretch it back into three.

By: Brainspore

Brainspore — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 00:07:00 +0000

Part 1: An Unexpected Journey Part 2: There and Back Again Part 3: What the Fuck are YOU Still Doing Here?

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 23:37:00 +0000

Funny. My response to the action sequences was to wonder if Peter Jackson had never seen the Jurassic Park movies.

By: endymion

endymion — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 23:13:00 +0000

Interesting to see how poorly King Kong has faired in our collective memories. Anyone see it recently?

If I remember right, it might have been too long, but it contained some wonders. I remember the internet at the time being aflame with awe-stuck tributes to the real emotional component between beauty and the beast, as well as an action sequence (Kong vs. dinosaurs) that really felt like something we had never seen before.

By: Romeo Vitelli

Romeo Vitelli — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 22:42:00 +0000

Peter Jackson really should look into therapy to help him kick this hobbit…

By: tristan eldritch

tristan eldritch — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 22:38:00 +0000

Yeah, I was actually going to mention the Bakshi version too – it always stirred my imagination more than the live-action one.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 21:54:00 +0000

He messed up many characters. Aragorn wasn’t torn with doubt. Faramir wasn’t a dick who suddenly had an epiphany. It’s as if he were consulting some style manual that states that no character can simply be good, they all have to have moral conflicts. The end result being that all the characters end up on a sort of flat graph of moral ambiguity.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 21:32:00 +0000

I enjoyed watching the movies, but I find the parts where they deviate from the book to be terrible (in particular, Jackson utterly ruined the character of Denethor – in the book he was a wise, noble leader driven to madness and despair by Sauron, but in the movie he was a buffoon). I hope we don’t have more of the same…

By: johnnylloydrollins

johnnylloydrollins — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 21:30:00 +0000

I always go back the the bakshi version myself. It is much more imaginative, colorful, and exciting.

rotoscope is a helluva drug

By: Jellodyne

Jellodyne — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 20:47:00 +0000

Oh, you’re going to enjoy Mirkwood. On the other hand, there’s a chance Mirkwood and it’s spider fiesta will be the entirety of movie 2, and you can skip that one.

By: Donald Petersen

Donald Petersen — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 20:15:00 +0000

I know, but still. Here’s a man who should have been the perfect guy to remake King Kong. Fan of the original movie since childhood, and a hugely talented filmmaker, with the financial and political clout at the time to make whatever the hell we wanted. And so he makes an incredibly lavish production that drags like the ass of a palsied orangutan.

I seriously hoped he’d learned his lesson and wasn’t about to disappear up his own ass in classic Hollywood masturbatory Michael Cimino fashion.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 20:07:00 +0000

The Hobbit 5: My Dinner With Beorn.

By: Finnagain

Finnagain — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 20:06:00 +0000

Hey, they have this new thing now called, Not Going. You might want to check it out.

By: tristan eldritch

tristan eldritch — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 19:54:00 +0000

Knew Boorman was working on a script, wasn’t aware of the elements you have highlighted in your comment. However, they are the VERY KINDS OF THINGS that would lead me to enjoy a Boorman version over Jackson’s. Boorman’s brand of loopy, fearlessly camp psychedelic paganism would be vastly more interesting than Jackson’s bland loyalty to the text, and cloying Enya-scored schmaltz.

Who cares about being loyal to the text? The maximum fidelity to the text has already been achieved – by the actual text itself. Why not try something different with it in a different medium?

By: franko

franko — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 19:34:00 +0000

i have no REAL concerns, because (1) i know there is plenty of content to go from, and (2) it’s the same crew that did the LOTR, which was (all things considered) fantastic. seriously, if you read his post about it, peter jackson said HE was the one who wanted to tell the story right — this didn’t come from the studio first as a MOAR MONEYS thing. if you remember from Comicon, he said back then that he had gone to them and pitched the idea. he had to convince them.

By: Donald Petersen

Donald Petersen — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 19:15:00 +0000

Almost a ditto from me. I loved LOTR almost unreservedly (though I still think Liv Tyler was miscast), and it’s still My Favorite Movie Ever.

But King Kong was a gross miscalculation. It was nearly twice as long as the (tightly-paced and still hugely entertaining) 1933 original, and Jackson added no value to that story. It took over an hour just for the movie to get out of NY and onto Skull Island, for Christ’s sake!

The Hobbit is a relatively slender volume, significantly shorter than any of the three volumes of LOTR. (Might be shorter than ROTK, if you ignore the appendices.) Now, I’m speaking as an enthusiastic fan of Jackson and his LOTR movies (I’m rewatching the Extended Version this very week, halfway through the last one as of last night), but this is disappointing news.

The Hobbit does not contain enough narrative content for three full-length theatrical features.

By: googoogjoob

googoogjoob — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 19:07:00 +0000

You know John Boorman’s LOTR script had, among other things, Frodo having sex with Galadriel, and Gandalf forcing Gimli to crawl into a hole and beating him (Gimli) to force him to recover his ancestral memory of the Dwarvish words needed to open the gates of Moria, right?

Unless this comment was made without the knowledge that Boorman had ever done a LOTR script, in which case hahaha oh my god you are in for a surprise.

By: Emmet Curran

Emmet Curran — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 19:05:00 +0000

i was sad to hear they were gonna stretch and mangle this lovely little book into 2 movies… but now 3?
i can picture the greedy man behind the hollywood desk saying “you can’t sell a box-set if there’s only 1 movie”.

it’s a shame :(

By: chenille

chenille — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 18:56:00 +0000

I really enjoyed The Lord of the Rings, but noticed that the best parts were usually the ones that adapted the book, and completely new things like ghosts-versus-elephants were usually the worst. So knowing The Hobbit is going to be even more filled with new stuff...only makes me worry for it. If Peter Jackson really wants an endless source for Tolkien movies, he can turn to The Silmarillion, and lots of luck to him, because he'll need it.