The Hobbit Film Discussion.

Technically, Legolas would have been in with the elves in Mirkwood. I don't believe the book names many of the elves in Mirkwood, so it would be easy to insert him into the story. I don't have an issue with this so long as Legolas is not the elf that lets them escape.

 

The issue for a movie is how do you make the connection between father and son orc, if you want the son as the bad guy? I think movie makers have to make short cuts, especially given that *most* of the people who will watch this haven't a clue of the back story, the time frame involved etc. Introducing a son to an already complicated plot would just be too hard, IMO.

 

Do you mean the White Tree of Minas Tirith? It represents many things at once. The tree is a symbol of Gondor. It is also a representation of the bloodline of the kings, which stretches back all the way to the First Age. The kings of Gondor were descended from Anarion, younger brother of Isildur. In many ways, it represents the past and to not forget all that which was once fair and uncorrupted by the evil in the world (Sauron).

The White Tree was planted in Minas Tirith by Isildur, and the seedling that he used was stolen from the White Tree of Numenor, known as Nimloth which grew in the king's court in Armenelos. Nimloth in turn was planted by Elros, brother of Elrond when he received the seedling from the elves of Tol Eressea of Valinor. This seedling came from Celeborn, and Celeborn in turn came from Galathilion, the white tree of the Eldar that is planted upon Tirion within Valinor. In essence the White Tree of Gondor is descended from one of the greatest trees in Arda that still existed.

This is very true. The Hobbit does not mention many characters that show up later in the Lord of the Rings, or instead gives them nicknames such as the Necromancer (Sauron).

The Battle of Nanduhirion could still be shown narrated by Balin to educate those viewers of the back story after the fall of Erebor, except what is supposed to happen actually does happen. Then when Bolg appears, all one needs to do is write up some dialogue of Bolg wanting to avenge his father's death by hunting down Thorin. And to be honest, the Lord of the Rings plot is far more complicated than The Hobbit and yet it was made easy to understand for the audience. I'm not sure where the script writers for that trilogy went, but they clearly are not part of The Hobbit trilogy.

To me, the way they edited the back story is as bad as taking out the scouring of the shire at the end of The Return of the King. Except the latter made sense because it would have added another hour to the film, so I understand that decision. But this? Why isn't Bolg being used? It would be easy for the audience to draw the connection I think, especially if you have adequate screen writers who know what they're doing. But that's just my opinion.

 

You know, there will be some movie-goers who are really into the nitty-gritty of Tolkien, but I think that most, like me, just want to watch a good movie.

Honestly, the back-story stuff only served to make the movie drag for me. I wanted them to get on with the story and focus on the main characters, especially as it didn't seem all that important to the plot - not really, anyway. My guess is that this is the way of dragging it out into 3 movies.

 

I thought that taking one book and dragging it out for three movies would really bog down the films. But I think Jackson did a wonderful job of keeping the Hobbit moving smoothing and at a good pace.

 

This one does sound exciting. I suppose it would be a good use for my "free" redbox rental courtesy the sugar water cap redemption code, and a good review to add to the blog.

 

I promised I'd go see it NEXT weekend. Le sigh.


I am having a FIELD DAY with all the blog posts/fangirling over Thranduil, though. Unf.

 

Still need to watch the first one before I see this one. Will probably stick with the 'wait until it hits Blu-Ray' theory for now.

 

Got tix for tomorrow night!

 

Debating whether to wait for the boy to come home for Christmas or see it now.