sinister71 wrote:One I think would have been just as entertaining as what Jackson gave us is the end of the Baggend part. Here is how I would have done that scene...
The dwarfs should have taken the contract with them, since Balin and Thorin agreed the night before, they had lost their burgler. Then after Bilbo awakes, thinks everything is over, Gandalf shows up and rushes him out the door. No back pack, no waving a 38 foot contract behind him, no announcing to Hobbiton that he is going on an adventure. Then when Bilbo catches up they re-give him the contract and he signs it there. On to the betting scene and heck even leave in the pocket handkerchief scene with Bofur. With maybe a scene where Dwalin or maybe Dori gives Bilbo their spare traveling cloak. Then we could at least see the great visual Tolkien gave us of Bilbo wearing a hood and cloak too large for him in the soaking rain... At least THAT would have been more like the book.
Overall I liked Jackson's version of "the morning after", since it worked very well, and is a good example of where a Director can put a different take on the story whilst still in keeping with the spirit and basics of the tale. I would have liked to have seen Bilbo catch up with the party at the Green Dragon, though...
The trolls went from a situation Bilbo was scared and nervous during being unsure of himself to a scene where Bilbo takes charge and distracts the trolls till the light of dawn which presumably he knew nothing about.
Totally agreed. The sequence was robbed of all tension and simply played for laughs. I appreciate that possibly the original ventriloquism idea might not have come off well on screen, but taking out Gandalf's role in the rescue in order to "develop" Bilbo's character arc took away any suspense or sense of danger. The need to inform Bilbo that the Trolls would turn to stone if still out after Dawn, meant that the audience also knew straight away what was going to happen. And the ridiculous parasite dialogue...
For me, watching AUJ the first time, that is where the alarm bells started to go off...
The Stone giants well I liked seeing them but once the dwarfs started riding them like a six flags ride it was so awful i went to the rest room just to get out of the theater for a minute. I think had they kept the stone giants in the background with boulders being hurled towards the dwarfs during the thunder storm it would have worked much better.
Word. I know people keep comparing it to the falling stairs in FotR but IMO that never came close to the levels of incredulity the SG theme park ride gave us. At least with the Moria staircase you could believe it possible for the characters to make that jump.
Them getting to Rivendell could have done with out the secret tunnel and being forced that way by orcs. Purely a pointless change that failed IMO since Radagast kept leading the orcs closer to the dwarfs than he was away from them. I think Radagast had potential, but it was squandered by making him an idiot dope addict who was covered in bird crap.
The hidden crevasse business kinda made sense the more times I watched it, particularly when I saw someone post a quote from the book that did indeed back up PJ's interpretation...
"They came on unexpected valleys, narrow with steep sides, that opened suddenly at their feet, and they looked down surprised to see trees below them and running water at the bottom. There were gullies they could almost leap over, but very deep with waterfalls in them."
...but the whole Radagast bunny sled/Warg chase was totally pointless.
I hated the whole underground moon rune table thing, I would have preferred to see something along the lines of the Rankiin and Bass version where he merely walks to a window facing the moon and they show in the light of the moon. Instead of having some crappy table that reflects the moons light.
I had no problem with this really, since I love the design of Rivendell and it was great to see a new part. Yes, it was probably unnecessary, but aesthetically it was beautiful! The worst part was probably the scriptwriting which had Balin going from one minute telling Thorin not to give Elrond the map, to the next eagerly spilling the beans about how they would have to hurry to get to Erebor in time for when the secret door is visible!
Then we have Goblin Town while I really liked some of it I hated the large swooping camera shot all the time. Was this Indiana Jones or a middle earth film? Did we really need to see how big the realm of the Goblins was constantly? I would have preferred more close up character moments. Instead of what we got with the far away shots to show off the 3D and virtual world of CGI with all the constant falling and tumbling without a single injury. i thought Barry Humphreys did a great job as the Great Goblin though just the right amount of mocking attitude with a certain amount of thinking himself high and mighty above the dwarfs.
Yep, agreed about the Indiana Jones feel. Actually, I think it was worse with 3D, and perhaps the HFR, because watching in on the Blu-Ray at home it does work better For some reason people get riled when the "videogame" analogy is used, but in this case, it is almost as if the whole location was design with the inevitable spin off videogame firmly in mind
Riddles in the dark was fairly good but should have been darker not visually darker but tone wise darker. Jackson played up the humor and schizophrenic personality disorder way too much. for no other reason than "THAT is what people expect" to almost quote P Boyens. That and they overplayed the ring and its importance at this time in the story. The ring should have been nothing more than a trinket that was not put in the limelight. The whole slow motion portrayal gives too much away, seeing Bilbo watch Gollum lose the ring and then almost immediately pick it up, goes against the way Tolkien described it. As Bilbo finding it in the dark without knowing it was there. Makes Bilbo seem like a thief in Jackson's version since he knew who's it was but took it anyways. I preferred Jackson's own finding of the ring from FOTR to the hobbit version.
The Sméagol/Gollum split p. doesn't both me, but agree completely about the slow mo business with the Ring. We didn't need to see Gollum lose it like that. As you say, the FotR version is superior. but it's just another example of PJ feeling he has to spell everything out for the general audience. Surely we should be given some credit to be able to put 2 and 2 together if Bilbo finds a ring and then Gollum starts shouting that he's lost something precious???
Then we have the whole out of the frying pan sequence which should have been great but it looked so darn phony. And where where the multi-colored flaming pinecones Gandalf began throwing? plain ol' fire thats all we got. Not to mention all the Azog garbage during that scene, Bilbo killing wargs, standing off against Azog.... What a load of nonsense.
I think had they stuck closer to Tolkien's book and worried less about wanting to change the whole thing into something its not. The film might have turned out
SOOOOOOO much better than it did. But all this is just personal opinion
What is so frustrating is that it sounds like the 'frying pan' scene they filmed originally was so much closer to the book version, before they added in Azog the Idiot. What a crying shame...I do feel a tighter, 2-film version would have given us a better adaptation than this padded, fan-fic filled, rather hit and miss 3-film version.
There is magic in long-distance friendships. They let you relate to other human beings in a way that goes beyond being physically together and is often more profound.
~Diana Cortes
- and since you know me as Eleniel at that other place, I hardly need confirm that we're pretty much in agreement on how AUJ turned out...