h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Wait, what?

I don't like the idea of giving Bilbo extra powers? Doesn't that lead to plot problems with the LotR? Bilbo is supposed to not know how powerful The One Ring is. To him, it's just a handy tool for a thief. I'm assuming he's not flying around or teleporting or acting like the Green Lantern or anything; that these "extra powers" are fairly minor, but still. This again reeks of them trying to make this "small" story bigger than the previous LotR films

Smaug is one gorgeous dragon in the new movie! I saw it tonight. There was a lot that I didn't remember from the book, like a whole elf subplot .

Pretty good movie, though it stretched the original movie quite a lot.

Sorry,I meant that it stretched the original *book* quite a lot.

I don't think Bilbo got any extra powers. He could turn invisible and he could understand the spiders. Both of those were in the book.

And, in the clip I've seen, Bilbo isn't honest with Gandalf about the ring. Which goes with what Gandalf later tells Frodo in LOTR. I don't think there's anything wrong with hinting at the malevolence of the ring at this stage.

Mol

Ah I'd forgotten that he could understand the spiders, no extra powers then indeed. Been a long time since I read it, sorry.

OK... phewww.

It was never clear in the book whether he could understand the spiders because he happened to have the ring on at the time, or whether he would have been able to anyway. In the film it's fairly obvious that he only starts to understand the spiders when he puts on the ring, but this fits in with the way in the books that his hearing was enhanced when he had the ring on.

Cn&H comic artist(and fellow Texan), Rob Denbleyker tweeted this earlier.

"I'm enjoying the extended edition Hobbit films, but I hope Peter Jackson releases the theatrical versions at some point."

^Cy&H^

Going later tonight and don't expect to give a negative review.

I'm just going outside and may be some time.

PP.

Well, Mark Kermode was absolutely right.

Gets off at a yomping pace and proceeds at that yomping pace.

The credits say:-

'Based on a novel by
J R R Tolkein'.

Which is true. And there are bits I could have done without them adding in. And the style of the bits filmed to add impact to the 3D version got on my nerves occasionally.

But it didn't stop me thoroughly enjoying it and won't stop me going back for more. It looked fantastic and sounded great.

And so far as I could remember, it was truer to the book than pretty much every book I've ever seen and wasn't too long.

PP.

I really enjoyed it on its own merits, and additions of character / story lines from the appendices or otherwise isn't bothering me any more than it did in the LoTR films. We're going to go back and see it again this weekend. Probably a couple more times over the holidays, too. I thought it was a lot of fun. I was enjoying it so much, I was caught off guard when it ended.

Maybe this time we'll do a matinee or a late showing, so we can actually have that dinner, too - by the time we got out of the theater last Friday, I'd been up for 20 hours and couldn't stay awake to wait an hour and a half for a table.

I thoroughly enjoyed the actors. They were a treat to see. Being in their company for almost three hours didn't seem like an ordeal at all. I didn't like the spiders, but I think they were in the book, so they had to be included.

Looks like I'll be heading to the cinema with a friend this weekend.

TRiG.

The film covered more ground than I expected, leaving less for the final film. This means Jackson will have time to go overboard on the battle. So here is my prediction for the final film.

Burning of Esgaroth and death of Smaug - 50 minutes
Tension and dispute - 30
Defeat of Necromancer - 30
Battle of Five Armies - 60
Tidying up and going home - 10

Another year to wait to find out.

Yes as it was ending I was thinking, they'd better finish this soon or there won't be much left to tell in the final film! And it didn't look like it was ending anytime soon until it did, rather abruptly - and well I might add.

They might put a bit at the end of the next one to link it to the the LotR.
I liked the pace of the film, although some of the more preposterous parts were difficult. It's funny to say it in a film that features magic, but it's hard to suspend disbelief when dwarves can float down streams of molten metal without being incinerated.

I've decided just to wait until all three films are out on BluRay.

I definitely won't be watching it in 3D with anyway.

I thought the 3D was rather well done myself. Mostly subtle effects rather than the silly carboard cut-out theatre for the sake of it than I've seen in others. The only bit like that was bumble bees flying out of the screen at you at Beorn's house.
I have a 3D TV at home these days - not because we sought it out, just because all the TVs available in the price range we were looking at were 3D anyway. I think we have used the 3D functionality maybe twice