RandomGuy. Posted March 20, 2017 Share Posted March 20, 2017 22 minutes ago, saint dave said: Think Bombadil was meant to be one of the first sentient beings of Middle Earth. Is it not Gandalf who says something along the lines of him "being the First, and he'll be the Last". Hes clearly immensely powerful, as its also mentioned that Sauron couldn't harm him in his "domain" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmothecat Posted March 20, 2017 Share Posted March 20, 2017 The Lord of the Rings films are amazing. I was absolutely amazed when I first saw them at the cinema. I'm lukewarm on the book though. It's a really really good story, but I'm not sure it's that great a book. It gets bogged down in detail and complexity that add a richness to the world which emboldens the plot and creates added urgency, but it makes it difficult and sometimes not enjoyable to read. Although the story and film versions of LotR are better, I think the Hobbit is the superior book. I now want to watch Lord of the Rings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
accies1874 Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 Books are invariably pretty shite, to be fair. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irvine_buddie Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 The books are decent if you skip all the poems and songs. Even then there are bits that are a drag but worth percevering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irvine_buddie Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 Love the films and reading this thread is making want to watch them all again as it's been a while since I did. I was gutted when the hobbit films were so bad, far too much CGI and you could tell Peter Jackson just didn't have his heart in it the way he did with the LOTR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
accies1874 Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 Well, he didn't even want to direct them in the first place, as far as I remember. Guillermo Del Torro wanted to do two movies, but left due to production issues. Desolation of Smaug was alright, but the other two are hopelessly bad, and they really do resemble the Star Wars prequels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamamafegan Posted March 21, 2017 Author Share Posted March 21, 2017 Best thing about the hobbit was smaug himself. Benidict cumbernatch nailed the part. Smaug was a truly frightening and sinister character. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KnightswoodBear Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 I'd have them just behind the original Star Wars Trilogy, but not by much. I've read the books 4 or 5 times and after the first reading, I always just skip the Tom Bombadil bit, because it's relentlessly shite. "You bow to no-one" is probably the last time I can remember actually shedding a tear in the cinema. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonD Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 16 hours ago, jmothecat said: The Lord of the Rings films are amazing. I was absolutely amazed when I first saw them at the cinema. I'm lukewarm on the book though. It's a really really good story, but I'm not sure it's that great a book. It gets bogged down in detail and complexity that add a richness to the world which emboldens the plot and creates added urgency, but it makes it difficult and sometimes not enjoyable to read. Although the story and film versions of LotR are better, I think the Hobbit is the superior book. I now want to watch Lord of the Rings. Isaac Asimov said he'd read LotR five or six times. The first time, he hated all the background detail because it got in the way of the plot. After that, though, he enjoyed it because he knew the story so could take in all the detail without wondering how the story was going to progress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
54_and_counting Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 the issue i had with the books is that they split frodo and sams story up from the rest of the party's story, so one half of the book was beautifully written battles, with a host of different characters to add diversity etc to the plot, then the other half was 3 of the same people (other than cameo roles) over and over and in all honesty it was boring as f**k the films wove both storys together so you never got bored of one and were left wanting more by the other, meaning you couldnt stop watching the damn thing no matter what Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quentin Taranbino Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 Whatever happened to the 2 blue wizards? It's been a long gone time since I looked at any appendixes etc. Were they deed when the battle of middle earth was going on? They could have helped out a wee bit eh? Same with Radagast - lazy b*****d Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandomGuy. Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 1 minute ago, DavidMcG said: Whatever happened to the 2 blue wizards? It's been a long gone time since I looked at any appendixes etc. Were they deed when the battle of middle earth was going on? They could have helped out a wee bit eh? Same with Radagast - lazy b*****d They're never mentioned from what I can remember of it, plenty of theories that float about that they were killed and/or defected Also I'm sure Radagast was involved, but just not in the "main" battles. Much like the Dwarves and Elves were involved in their own war with Mordor throughout the timeframe of the book, but were never mentioned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Musketeer Gripweed Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 2 hours ago, 54_and_counting said: the issue i had with the books is that they split frodo and sams story up from the rest of the party's story, so one half of the book was beautifully written battles, with a host of different characters to add diversity etc to the plot, then the other half was 3 of the same people (other than cameo roles) over and over and in all honesty it was boring as f**k the films wove both storys together so you never got bored of one and were left wanting more by the other, meaning you couldnt stop watching the damn thing no matter what First time I read them I thought that as well. It was part of Tolkien's plan to make it a slog, just like Frodo's task was. It's an incredible book on many levels I don't think The Hobbit movies are that bad, but I want them to be good, so I am biased. They are hard going, but watchable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranaldo Bairn Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 Whatever happened to the 2 blue wizards? It's been a long gone time since I looked at any appendixes etc. Were they deed when the battle of middle earth was going on? They could have helped out a wee bit eh? Same with Radagast - lazy b*****d They had beetled off to the east a long time ago to do whatever was needed there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WaffenThinMint Posted March 21, 2017 Share Posted March 21, 2017 On 20/03/2017 at 21:50, Patrick Bateman said: Bombadil is a dick. So glad he was left out of the film adaptation. Tom Bombadil was Middle Earth's answer to Big Jock from "Chewing The Fat" if written by Geddy Lee from Rush. 10 hours ago, accies1874 said: Well, he didn't even want to direct them in the first place, as far as I remember. Guillermo Del Torro wanted to do two movies, but left due to production issues. Desolation of Smaug was alright, but the other two are hopelessly bad, and they really do resemble the Star Wars prequels. After much misgivings from the first Hobbit movie (although the Trolls as a parody of gastronomic snobs was well done), the second one was excellent. The barrel ride fight was so completely OTT to be self-parody of THAT fight scene in Return Of The King - although Bilbo's arselicking of Smaug didn't feel right. All throughout the trio of movies, Bilbo questioned & challenged those he encountered as to their motivations (esp. the dwarves). At the stage he was sent in, the behaviour of Thorin & the others must have given him quiet misgivings whether they intended fulfilling their end of the bargain to him once he was no longer of use (esp. without Gandalf around to enforce it). Once Smaug had detected him & shown an initial interest in talking, it seems to me only logical the dialogue ought to have had Bilbo doing the same line of questioning motives, rather than crawling - namely asking Smaug what's the point of sleeping in piles of gold when more could be made at his beck & call? Why didn't he try making himself the King under the mountain, have others produce the gold for him (such as those in Lake Town) the way the dwarves did before, in return for the eternal security of having a giant dragon that can barbeque entire armies in a world where Might meants Right. As Smaug was already aware of what Sauron was up to, there must have been the fear within him that he & his orcs would come after his gold, & the prospect of allying with old foes over a common one as tempting as giving the Arkenstone to the pompous entitled Thorin to watch it ruin him. Of course, ultimately he would have rejected it, but it would have been a nice revisit of one of the key themes from LoTR that the Hobbit movie revisited, the obligation of unlikely or long fractured allies to unite because the alternative was too terrible to contemplate. The Five Armies was simply hokum, but entertaining - the part when the elves suddenly discovered the dwaves had a highly effective counter to their archers was a brilliant moment of table turning. Billy Connolly as their leader as well - masterstroke. Vintage Connolly whilst still complimentary to the story & world it was set in. They even had time to fit in a car shoot em up chase for the dwarves. Yeah, the Hobbit wasn't as epic as LoTR, but still a damn bloody good waste of several hours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DA Baracus Posted March 23, 2017 Share Posted March 23, 2017 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonD Posted March 23, 2017 Share Posted March 23, 2017 On 21/03/2017 at 21:45, DavidMcG said: Whatever happened to the 2 blue wizards? It's been a long gone time since I looked at any appendixes etc. Were they deed when the battle of middle earth was going on? They could have helped out a wee bit eh? Same with Radagast - lazy b*****d Real world reason is that Peter Jackson didn't have the film rights to the appendix, so because they only appear there he couldn't use them. Gandalf refers to them but he can't remember their names! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.