First Hobbit Trailer (with SPOILERS)

Post by **River** » Wed Dec 21, 2011 7:27 am

There's a moment (1:52) when Elven riders are circling a group of Dwarves. They look pretty short.

The shards of Narsil were a nice touch.

Post by **Alatar** » Wed Dec 21, 2011 10:29 am

Looked great to me and the kids! My 10 year old son was thoughtfully musing over it on the way to school this morning.

"Dad, you know how Bilbo tells Frodo that he hasn't told him everything? Well, since Frodo has read the book, he must mean that there's gonna be stuff in the movie that wasn't in the book."

Post by **Elentári** » Wed Dec 21, 2011 10:29 am

Yeah, I should clarify I meant Fili, Kili and Thorin when I said they still looked a little too human. Guess I need the scale thing to help suspend belief with those three... The others look great (apart from the axe!)

I agree, Dave, that Ring shot is weird. Definitely looks like a forest background. I wonder if it may have been a mock-up purely for the trailer, ie the ring superimposed on an existing shot, because they wanted to feature the Ring and the cave scenes were not lt well enough, or some other reason why they weren't suitable? Whatever, the shot is definitely from the Ring's perspective, as though it is viewing Bilbo - which is a good way of hinting at it's malevolent sentience!

Post by **Lidless** » Wed Dec 21, 2011 12:26 pm

They're doing The Hobbit?

Cool.

Post by **Pearly Di** » Wed Dec 21, 2011 12:42 pm

Al - aww!

Lids -

That trailer is FABULOUS.

It is tone-perfect.

I am a very, very happy Tolkienista!

Martin Freeman is going to rock my world as Bilbo.

You already know how sold I am on Richard Armitage as Thorin!

Post by **Elentári** » Wed Dec 21, 2011 1:17 pm

So who does Gandalf appear to be fighting in the ruins of Dol Guldur(?)

A screen capture has been posted on TORn by Snulle:

http://i42.tinypic.com/jzchf4.jpg

To all intents and purposes it looks like a dwarf - Thrain gone mad???

Post by **Alatar** » Wed Dec 21, 2011 1:21 pm

Good catch Elen!

Post by **eborr** » Wed Dec 21, 2011 1:32 pm

that was very encouraging, what could possibly go wrong ????

Post by **SirDennis** » Wed Dec 21, 2011 2:12 pm

yovargas wrote:Oh my. Somehow I wasn't expecting it to look so much like the original films. I kept thinking they were clips from FOTR but...wait, I don't remember seeing that...

The footage so far looks nothing like I imagined The Hobbit while reading it, even after the LOTR films. Whereas LOTR looked like The Lord of the Rings to me for some reason. As well, the way it is shot to amp up the 3D effect is very intrusive already. Evoking a feeling of likeness is achieved through camera work and lighting as much as costume and design. Changing any of the elements too much changes everything no matter how much the other elements mirror the original.

It's a double whamy really: doesn't look like The Hobbit and, because of someone's love of gimmicks, it looks little like LOTR. As well, HD seems to have exacerbated the difficulty of making a film set 60 years in the past with actors who are 10 years older since the original.

Kicking back to the Ring's motif (when showing the Ring and then Gollum) might kick us out of The Hobbit entirely. Though the Riddles chapter is when the One Ring is found, it belongs wholly to The Hobbit... a defining chapter and not just because it harkens to what followed. Letting the Ring, and by extension LOTR, capture too much attention here hurts The Hobbit's distinct flavour.

As for the dwarfs looking too human? Some of them are quite convincing. But Oi! Aiden Turner... since they are taking liberties anyway, they should have just bit the bullet and made him a rouge elf in the company of dwarfs.

(end rant)

The song is encouraging. It should also settle the age old question of "will there be singing in the Hobbit?" And the Sting inscription worry, and whether Bifur's head ornament is distracting... all gone, all gone lol

Bofur (Nesbitt) looks all kind of lively, which is of cool because I have no memory of him from reading The Hobbit.

Of course these are just my first impressions -- sort of like meeting Dad's new girlfriend for the first time -- before you know it I'll be singing her praises.

Edit: whatched it again, and am happy to report I am liking it more already.

But the dialogue between Gandalf and Thorin about Bilbo's fate makes it seem like they both knew that Bilbo would find the Ring... I really don't remember The Hobbit being about that.

Post by **Dave_LF** » Wed Dec 21, 2011 2:38 pm

Elentári wrote:To all intents and purposes it looks like a dwarf - Thrain gone mad???

I think that's got to be it. Until I saw that screengrab, I thought it was just one of the pale orc-types from LotR. There are hanging cages in the background of that scene too.

Post by **Elentári** » Wed Dec 21, 2011 3:46 pm

Not my catch, but thanks, Al! That still, and 93 others can be viewed on cinemablend.com I'm still going through them myself!

Oh, and Voronwë, you might want to avoid no. 68!

Wed Dec 21, 2011 4:33 pm

You know, I don't think it looks that bad there. I think I've exorcised it out of my system.

Sir Dennis wrote:But the dialogue between Gandalf and Thorin about Bilbo's fate makes it seem like they both knew that Bilbo would find the Ring

That's quite a stretch, isn't it? I don't really see that at all.

Al, I really like your son's interpretation of Bilbo's comments to Frodo!

Post by **SirDennis** » Wed Dec 21, 2011 5:08 pm

Voronwë the Faithful wrote:
Sir Dennis wrote:But the dialogue between Gandalf and Thorin about Bilbo's fate makes it seem like they both knew that Bilbo would find the Ring
That's quite a stretch, isn't it? I don't really see that at all.

If it is a stretch it may be influenced by us knowing Bilbo's fate already (not that achieving Valinor is so bad really).

However, because of the way Armitage delivers the line, and perhaps because of their expressions and the music, "I'll not be responsible for his fate" seems (to me) to imply that something bad happening to Bilbo is a foregone conclusion.

In other words, it seems the statement is not entirely a neutral statement of fact as in, "I note Bilbo is a bit of a dandy. Therefore I accept your advise that he come with us but if it comes to it, his blood will not be on my hands. It will be on yours."

Post by **Lalaith** » Wed Dec 21, 2011 5:17 pm

ETA: No, don't watch it. It's a fake.

So this is another one!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 2FdHlGHcy8

Smaug!

Post by **yovargas** » Wed Dec 21, 2011 5:26 pm

Lali...that one's fake.

Post by **Lalaith** » Wed Dec 21, 2011 5:27 pm

Is it? But it has Smaug in it.

<pouts>

(I did wonder because of the shots from LotR.)

Post by **yovargas** » Wed Dec 21, 2011 5:33 pm

It has a random CGI dragon in it...not Smaug.

Post by **Lalaith** » Wed Dec 21, 2011 5:34 pm

Oh fiiiiine.

Way to be a Debbie Downer. I'll add a note to the post above so no one else wastes time watching it.

Post by **Dave_LF** » Wed Dec 21, 2011 6:00 pm

There are about a zillion fake Hobbit trailers on YouTube, as I discovered last night when it was 10:10 and apple.com still didn't have the real one.

Post by **Lalaith** » Wed Dec 21, 2011 6:01 pm

Yeah, I found that out, too.

And my gut was telling me this one was suspicious, but, like Estel said, it still made me happy.