The HOBBIT......don't bother

[Homercidal]

I love South Park and I laughed till it hurt with that song.

I loved the slight dig at George R. R. Martin and his famous delays on writing his books. I should catch up on a few episodes. The quality of that show hasn't seemed to have declined over the years as most show have.

 

[TxBrew]

It is gold. Last season had some meh episodes, but all in all it's been pretty funny.

 

[cheezydemon3]

Watched it last night. "Get on the pile and get gay to stop the future!"


"Back to the pile!"

 

[emjay]

South Park is pretty awesome. A lot of people claim it's gone downhill since the first few seasons, but in reality at that point it was just going over the top with crass, offensive humor and gratuitous swearing for its laughs.

But it has grown into a satire that is on point and far more relevant than any other fictional show... largely made possible by a production schedule that literally BEGINS work on the concept for an episode only one week before airing. Virtually any other scripted show is looking at the better part of a year from concept to airing, at which point the satire is no longer relevant and "fresh" - especially in the age of the Internet and the 24-hour news cycle, where most topics tend to almost immediately become "old news", and quickly lose any relevance for South Park's newer (more educated, informed, and dare I say... more "high-brow") main demographic. As opposed to their initial target audience who didn't rely on
typically-long production schedules either, as they responded very predictably and reliably well to "fuçk you's" and fart jokes, anal probes, offensiveness for its own sake, and a total lack of any necessity to engage any real part of your brain.

One could perhaps make the argument that the show peaked several years ago rather than steadily going downhill since the first few seasons, and while I don't know if I'd agree, I could at the very least accept and respect such an argument. But to argue that its glory began right with its inception is absolute bananas, as it steadily transformed over the years from gratuitously offensive toilet humor to quite possibly the most intelligent, insightful, and (again) relevant satire that the entire television medium has to offer.

 

[lowtones84]

Saw the Desolation last night. I do think it's better than the first one actually, but not in being accurate to details of the book. If that's what you're looking for, you will be sorely disappointed. Still wasn't amazing, but I enjoyed myself a bit more.

 

[passedpawn]

I read the book and it was VERY disappointing. I was AT Lonely Mountain when the whole thing with Smaug and the arkenstone went down, and I can tell you that Tolkein took MANY LIBERTIES with the story. It's a TRAVESTY and I refuse to read any further books he writes.

 

[RhodySeth]

Saw it yesterday in 3D HFR.

First the HFR. I saw the first one in 2D so I wasn't sure what I'd think of the HFR. It takes some getting used to and I definitely felt that "soap opera" effect where it looks like actors on a stage. That said, I got used to it by the end (of this loooong movie.)

I didn't like how the Beorn scene was done nor did I like the look of Beorn himself. That's one of my favorite parts in the book so the changes bugged me. I think he got shortchanged.

I thought the Mirkwood stuff was great - the spiders especially. The whole barrel riding scene was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it. Gandalf's plotline was well done.

Laketown was cool but the whole Kili plotline did nothing for me. You can really sense a lot of the padding that went into turning this into a trilogy, especially the whole part with the dwarves at the end. This movie would have worked much better if it had been trimmed down. Smaug kicked ass though.

 

[emjay]

Smaug kicked ass though.

People applauded at the end of the movie but I got the distinct sense people were really just applauding Smaug.

 

[FlapjackAM]

This movie was so disappointing after all; and I am not one to pick apart movie adaptions. I get changes happen and I enjoyed LotR and the first Hobbit enormously. But this last installment was so disheartening. It was a complete fabrication, not an adaption. Wtf is the deal with Legolas and that female elf? And the little trumped up love triangle that added nothing to the story. And Bilbo was much more bold when he talked to Smaug, reciting his various names. Ugh. Peter Jackson, why? I thought about just leaving halfway through. The book had more than enough action and adventure in it to make for a fantastic film, left just how it was written. They tried way too hard to make a LotR prequel.

 

[Zuljin]

A hobbit sword would be a nice size.

 

[mchrispen]

Saw it. First the Dolby 3D sucks - too dark and issues with light reflections on the lens of the glasses. Second, I was in shock at how mangled the story went along... change things for a reason... there was none.

Ok - Smaug was tremendous - finally a dragon from my nightmares - the rest just plain pissed me off. 2 hours and 40 minutes of holding in profanity. Can't get that time back.

 

[landshark]

We did try to warn you you would be disappointed.

I have still yet to see #2. I saw #1 the first weekend, but it pissed me off so much i feel I just want to wait for 2 to come out on DVD or Blue Ray before seeing it. Watch it on Netflix or Amazon.

 

[FlapjackAM]

We did try to warn you you would be disappointed.

I have still yet to see #2. I saw #1 the first weekend, but it pissed me off so much i feel I just want to wait for 2 to come out on DVD or Blue Ray before seeing it. Watch it on Netflix or Amazon.

You did. I just didn't think it would be so horribly bad as it was, and I've been pretty forgiving. So sad.

 

[headbanger]

Oh man! What AWESOME movies!!!

Am I the only one who thinks the movies are far better than the books? I mean it was pretty much a children's book after all and I think I was in like sixth grade when I read it. I also remember watching some really bad cartoon story of LOTR in school as well. IMO the movies blow the books away. There, I said it, get over it.

 

[cheezydemon3]

Oh man! What AWESOME movies!!!

Am I the only one who thinks the movies are far better than the books? I mean it was pretty much a children's book after all and I think I was in like sixth grade when I read it. I also remember watching some really bad cartoon story of LOTR in school as well. IMO the movies blow the books away. There, I said it, get over it.

You are an awesome guy. This proves how the internet is anonymous.

Had I not met you and found out how unique and great you are, I would have said: "NO, there are far more of you who haven't read a book since the 6th grade, and propbably couldn't get past page 1 of Moby Dick, and those are the people they are trying to sell this to."

But that is wrong.

You must be forgiving. I respect that, but I am NOT forgiving.

F**K PJ and crew for botching this, probably the last of many stabs at this wonderful story.

It has been proven that an "epic" story of this type (see: For the love of the King or whatever TF that crap was called) needs more basis than just "Here! We made this up."

It needs a respected base of a classic (or newly classic, see: HP) novel despite trhe fact that 87% of the viewers of the movie will NEVER get past page 1 of the book.

(Did I remember to say: F**K PJ?) OH! well, one more time is still 50,000 times short of how many times that NEEDS to be stated.

 

[headbanger]

Moby who?

 

[cheezydemon3]

 

[HoppyDaze]

"Oooooh look at me and my round door" - some effing hobbit.

 

[Darwin18]

Saw it in 3D on Christmas Eve with the wife and MIL. The 3D version was distracting and didn't lend itself well to the overall movie. 2D is definitely the way to go with this movie. Even my wife and MIL thought it the plot was drawn out and love story obnoxious. In particular, they thought the barrel scene where Legolas single handedly takes out an entire company of orcs as their "over-the-top" moment.

 

[Homercidal]

And it's still chugging along. After seeing it, I didn't expect it to retain the lead for this long.

 

[mchrispen]

Same here... and it seems so many of my friends that have never read the book or shown any interest think it is great.

I guess I have become an inflexible dogmatic Tolkien fanatic... I just cannot believe that the Tolkien estate is allowing such license, although the Hobbit rights were much mixed up, where LOTR rights were clearly theirs.

 

[Darwin18]

And it's still chugging along. After seeing it, I didn't expect it to retain the lead for this long.

Hard to see Wolf of Wall Street, American Hustle, or Hunger Games the Deuce with the family for the holiday movies....

Hunger Games was excellent btw.

 

[Homercidal]

Hunger Games was on our list to see, but never got the opp. Should take the kids to see it though.

I thought Frozen would have taken the lead simply due to the vast numbers of kids seeing movies during the break.

I don't know. I just see the barrel sequence and immediately get a taste of bile in my throat. Kind of like when Jar Jar made his appearance in SWEP1. That kind of "WTF is going on here?"

And why the hell could they not replace 5 minutes of barrel ride with a PROPER introduction of the dwarves to Beorn?? The way it was handled in the book was excellent! I think it could have made a great moment of humour.

I can understand the need to condense a few months of travel down to a few days or so. So the whole movie journey took less time than the party's stay at Beorn's house. And they didn't even touch upon the dwarf who got his toe in the stream in Mirkwood and fell asleep!

 

[cheezydemon3]

Hunger Games was on our list to see, but never got the opp. Should take the kids to see it though.

I thought Frozen would have taken the lead simply due to the vast numbers of kids seeing movies during the break.

I don't know. I just see the barrel sequence and immediately get a taste of bile in my throat. Kind of like when Jar Jar made his appearance in SWEP1. That kind of "WTF is going on here?"

And why the hell could they not replace 5 minutes of barrel ride with a PROPER introduction of the dwarves to Beorn?? The way it was handled in the book was excellent! I think it could have made a great moment of humour.

I can understand the need to condense a few months of travel down to a few days or so. So the whole movie journey took less time than the party's stay at Beorn's house. And they didn't even touch upon the dwarf who got his toe in the stream in Mirkwood and fell asleep!

Its worse than I thought....

 

[organ]

There are some angry folks in this thread.

 

[cheezydemon3]

There are some angry folks in this thread.

NEWS FLASH


I guess try to imagine something loved and cherished from your childhood.

Now imagine that thing (Big Bird, Kermit, Barney, whatever) being violently raped, shat on, and then gutted with a rusty axe.

That is what PJ and Hollywood have done to poor Bilbo.

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

I watched the first Hobbit movie a while back. Frankly, I cannot remember anything about it aside from what was in the trailers. I don't know if I will watch the other two even after they have been on Netflix for a few years. Peter Jackson is the kind of whore that I don't find intriguing.

 

[passedpawn]

Peter Jackson is the kind of whore that I don't find intriguing.

LOTR was the greatest cinematic trilogy ever made. Second in all trilogies to the Godfather series. The whore responsible for that should be proud.

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

LOTR was the greatest cinematic trilogy ever made. Second in all trilogies to the Godfather series. The whore responsible for that should be proud.

The girl next door can't go on the game in later life?

 

[cheezydemon3]

As I think we have sadly determined, If Hollywood had left PJ to his own devices, we would probably have some better movies. That said, I already hated Hollywood, so SOMEBODY NEW has to be the focus of my hate.

Thanks PJ!