Well, if your are waiting to see the movie, it might be best to wait on reading the book, in case there are some things that they change. But it might be fun to read the book as it is and watch the movie as sort of a visual compliment to it.

TSR/WotC?

Those would be the companies that previously and currently owned Dungeons & Dragons, Gladde.

And if they limit their changes in The Hobbit to just cutting things out, I'd call it an improvement over the trilogy in every way, but there's no way I see Jackson and co. resisting their urge to implant their own ideas into Tolkien's world, which really gets under my skin.

Here is a production video with all the dwarves in costume.

I have to say, I take back my doubt about 3/4 of them. Most of them look fantastic, but a few... *shakes head*

Oh, and do note the axe blade embedded in Bifur's forehead. Absurd. Utterly idiotic.

I think they did a fairly good job on the other 3 movies. Yeah they left some stuff out, but in a series as big as that, it's really nessesary. Otherwise the movies would have all been 12+ hours long each. I think the Hobbit will turn out just as well as the others did.

Again, it's the stuff they added in, and not what they removed, that brought down the quality of those films to me. Or the stuff they kept, but changed for no explicable reason to something worse.

At least it wasn't an Eragon travasty :P

I couldn't make it though even a couple paragraphs of Eragon, actually, and the movie struck as me trying to be Lord of the Rings while trying to also be itself. It didn't really work. I feel bad for Jeremy Irons. Again. *Sniff*

Well, um... well, yeah, you could say that. That film deserve some kind of award for actually making the story worse than it was in the book. I didn't think that was possible.

I am actually a fan of the Inheritance books, but to each his/her own I guess. Either way the Wheel of Time trumps them both :P

Not... saying... anything... not even going there.

Edit: Actually if you want to go open of WoT thread in the book forum, I'll discuss it with you there.

Never read Wheel of Time. Any of it. But then, I haven't read all the much outside of one or two authors in fantasy, and most of that is of the TSR variety. Seen only a little in the way of fantasy films too, though I suppose there just aren't that many to begin with.

Done :)

I notice they haven't shown "Tauriel" the elf warrior maiden born from Peter Jackson's imagination yet in the production videos.

...just thinking that name makes me facepalm.

Is there something particular about that name that's irritating to you, Suzerain? It does sound rather painfuly stereotypical for an elf.

No, it's not her name, it's the complete fabrication of her character and insertion into the plot. I can't really think of any good way for her to fit in. And it just irks me that they feel the need to do that.

Right, like the way they gave Arwen some extra stuff to do (which annoyed me really since it definately felt contrived and squished in for a moment of stereotype.

"We need one scene type 83 in this movie!"
"Okay! We'll put it in here."
"There's not enough room."
"It will fit.")

Blech.

Arwen was at least in the book already (even if her movie-character wasn't at all...)

Really, though, who do these people think they are? Middle-Earth is not their imaginary playground. What is so damned hard about just adapting the book? Why this need to try and make it their own? If they want to make their own fantasy movie, why don't they?

Likely because of brand-recognition....

I remember the topic about Arwen's increased role on the radio. It was essentially the lack of women in the story. They felt compelled to fix it, possibly for political reasons, don't know. Apparently Eowyn wasn't good enough on her own. She (Arwen) may also has fit in well for Elrond to talk to in between adventure scenes.

I understand the sentiment... IF they were making an original film. It's a book. That's the way the book is. Call it what you will, 1.) Tolkien was hardly a sexist, and 2.) it's just a pointless deviation, and one that nearly no one liked anyway.

If it was an original movie the scene still would have bothered me. (It's the river crossing scene the the whole *drama* bit after "let him me spared blah blah blah" I'm talking about).

I can understand expanding Arwen's part, but it's like they couldn't really take the time to establish a proper character. They had from the magical glory elf and horse scene to the end of the river crossing to establish her character and scrunched it in.

She's mysterious! *glowy slo-motion horse scene,* She's adventurous! *fleeing to river,* She's brave! *crossing river defying the Nine,* She's tender and self sacrificing! *spare Frodo! (cry).*

All done! Love story time.

Oh, I agree. I meant the whole political correctness issue. I value sticking with the original work over some perceived need for gender equality, especially when they're going to do it so poorly.

And that's my biggest gripe with them. They just can't seem to change things for the better. It's just arrogance on their part, thinking they can improve Tolkien. They don't even seem to realize what the problem with their approach is.

I'm kinda annoyed that screen time appears to be equated with gender equality. Oh well. I won't get into it. This is onen of those things I studied and can go at length, in great detail, with many sources.

I'm a little curious, I admit, what this new elf is going to do and how she gets into the story. Any bets that she becomes the one to free the Dwarves from wherever elf place they get stuck in?

Yeah, I'm kind of worried they'll do something like that. I can't imagine what other role she could fulfill. I doubt they're just going to have her in the background; they made a pretty big deal out of announcing her.

Love interest for Legolas?

You just made me literally facepalm. And I know you know everything that's wrong with what you just said, so I'm not going to say it. :p

Of course I know, and I apologize for the searing pain it may have caused while crossing your mined. Thinking like a producer here. ;)

Go watch Joffery get slapped. :)

I don't know about the whole Arwen topic but for The Hobbit I am just crossing my fingers and hoping it won't be mauled.

gah so Legolas is coming back isnt he...D: i guess seeing his dad will make up for it...maybe. not really, i just want to see Bilbo XD and Smaug.

Is it just me, or has there been no news at all on these films in the last couple months? I know they were taking a break from shooting in July, but I thought they'd be back at it by now, or at least have released some more information.

i havent been paying attention, last thing i saw were the pics of Bilbo and the dwarves.

The Hobbit literal trailer!

"Careful, it's bind on pick-up" indeed.

So... apparently there are going to be three Hobbit films now, instead of two. I have to confess, I don't understand why this is necessary. But, I'm a little too jaded with Jackson's antics to care that much at this point.

Would be interested to hear others' opinions on this.

As soon as I heard this monster was going to be more than one film I was facepalming. Jackson just... sucks at knowing what's important to the story and what isn't, and then he tacks on his own fanboy things that twist the story and it's just really annoying. I never even watched The Return of the King because The Two Towers was so painfully dumb... and I never knew just how much I liked Gimli until I saw that he'd been turned into comic relief and it really pissed me off.

Soooo long story short, I had not even heard about a random new elf character until just now and I already wasn't even remotely interested in seeing The Hobbit. (I do like Martin Freeman, but he's not NEARLY enough to make me interested.)

I am the manry-est of men!

FINALLY someone gets it!

I cannot even believe how bad the new trailer looks. My dad has been heckling me about this movie for the past couple years, thinking I'm being overly critical, and now even he's convinced it's going to be awful.

Is that... Radagast? That distorted gnome-looking thing? Seriously? What... what is going on here? This is surreal.

I haven't even watched the trailers due to being afraid of them XD

Oh, they're something else. I can't wait for the battle scene with the trolls, and the part where they meet Legolas in Mirkwood! And the romance scenes between Galadriel and Gandalf!

Oh, oh, and when all the wizards go fight Sauron in Dol Guldur. That was my favorite part of the book. I bet the special effects are going to be AWESOME!!!!

*sigh*

Considering how he turned poor Gimli into comic relief, I don't even want to think about what he's going to do with a larger dwarf cast...

They all look like men, not dwarves, to me...

Were you kidding about the romance? You WERE kidding, right? ...right??

Also, I just skimmed the first couple pages of this thread and saw you talking about Beorn, and I admit: Beorn is the ONLY thing I might POSSIBLY see the movie for. Because Beorn is awesome.

So... is he making it in? Or are they cutting him and shoving in more elves? >.<

(True story: when we saw The Two Towers in the theater I had to change seats because I kept making noises of disbelief and disgust and my mom got annoyed at me.)