Sad or Elated now the Movies are at an End?

[Lalwendë]

Has the thought occurred to anyone else that inclusion of the Tauriel/Kili storyline may as much have been influenced by modern fan culture as anything else? It struck me that this was Jackson making use of some 'shipping' in his own film. It would certainly not be without precedent, and it's known (not in a Dothraki way ) that film makers, especially those making 'geek friendly' products, are using focus groups more and more, and are very aware of internet culture. Even Sherlock incorporated this in the last series, making use of twitter "OMG he's alive!" quotes all over the screen and having a laugh with (about?) fandom.

An elf/dwarf 'ship' is something lifted directly from tumblr - once the decision was made to throw in a female Elven warrior, it's not long before other ideas would seem interesting.

While I'm on the topic, it shouldn't be underestimated that the LotR films were probably instrumental in kicking off the plethora of geek films/TV we are now seeing. I would strongly argue that No LotR would mean No Game of Thrones, no Doctor Who revival, and no Marvel Cinematic Universe. Or at least, certainly not with the impact they are currently enjoying.

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

Has the thought occurred to anyone else that inclusion of the Tauriel/Kili storyline may as much have been influenced by modern fan culture as anything else? It struck me that this was Jackson making use of some 'shipping' in his own film. It would certainly not be without precedent, and it's known (not in a Dothraki way ) that film makers, especially those making 'geek friendly' products, are using focus groups more and more, and are very aware of internet culture. Even Sherlock incorporated this in the last series, making use of twitter "OMG he's alive!" quotes all over the screen and having a laugh with (about?) fandom.

An elf/dwarf 'ship' is something lifted directly from tumblr - once the decision was made to throw in a female Elven warrior, it's not long before other ideas would seem interesting.

While I'm on the topic, it shouldn't be underestimated that the LotR films were probably instrumental in kicking off the plethora of geek films/TV we are now seeing. I would strongly argue that No LotR would mean No Game of Thrones, no Doctor Who revival, and no Marvel Cinematic Universe. Or at least, certainly not with the impact they are currently enjoying.

Of course it was a marketing decision, PJ admitted as much ("cold-blooded" as he put it). Marketing decisions were what ran the entire Hobbit enterprise. From a strictly cynical standpoint, one could say the idea for dragging the story into 3 three-hour films had more to do with marketing and money than plot, and there is enough anecdotal evidence to suggest that was the primary motivation.

Marketing made Thorin, and even more so Kili, look like handsome matinee idols rather than dwarves (which, of course, made the rest of the dwarves look outlandish and alien). Marketing gave us another round of gravity-defying Legolas, with the bloated, contact-wearing Orlando Bloom reprising his stiff portrayal. Marketing gave us uneven Tauriel, who, like Arwen before her, first appears like Xena the Warrior Princess, able to kill scores of orcs and spiders singlehandedly before succumbing to the inevitable weakening of the character until she's incapable of fighting on her own and becomes a pile of vulnerable mush by the end.

Yes, it was all marketing, and the story suffered for it.

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

Has the thought occurred to anyone else that inclusion of the Tauriel/Kili storyline may as much have been influenced by modern fan culture as anything else? It struck me that this was Jackson making use of some 'shipping' in his own film. It would certainly not be without precedent, and it's known (not in a Dothraki way ) that film makers, especially those making 'geek friendly' products, are using focus groups more and more, and are very aware of internet culture. Even Sherlock incorporated this in the last series, making use of twitter "OMG he's alive!" quotes all over the screen and having a laugh with (about?) fandom.

An elf/dwarf 'ship' is something lifted directly from tumblr - once the decision was made to throw in a female Elven warrior, it's not long before other ideas would seem interesting.

Oh, so you mean this wasn't actually a hoax after all?

[Faramir Jones]

Thanks for the link, Nerwen! It seems that the piece does demonstrate that 'Many a true word is spoken in jest'!

[Michael Murry]

Looking around for a list of movies to rent on DVD, I came across a review of the final Hobbit film at a website called Consequence of Sound:

http://consequenceofsound.net/2014/1...e-five-armies/

While I don't recommend the entire review, I did look in the comments section and found the following from someone named Adam, posted on January 06, 2015 at 3:35:40 PM

Good review. I've tried to bring myself to care about this final movie but I just don't. Sadly, DOS was the beginning of the end for me.

I just can't believe how useless all of the dialog was in DOS. It's almost like everything said was redundant, ripped outta LOTRs, or just flat out stupid. Beorn: "Azog took me captive for sport". Azog: "We'll attack them on the road...the beast stands guard". You mean the same beast you took captive...FOR SPORT?!?! yeah, let's avoid that guy, after all, you only killed ALL of his people and took him captive...FOR SPORT. SMH.

Or how about Thranduil favoring and looking after Tauriel for 600 years? That's important because right before Legolas tells her that, we see that thranduil considered Tauriel a lowly Silven Elf. This is just great story telling ain't it?

Or how about Bard and the Dwarves being spied on in Laketown, fortunately for the Dwarves they seemed to have gills and could breathe under water. And also, fortunately for them, they AREN'T EVEN BEING SPIED ON. Heck, Bard tells them not to leave, they end up leaving, and nope, not one spy.

Thorin actually may be the worst hero of all time. Boromir had more honor than Thorin. Don't get me started on the Tauriel / Kili / Legolas nonsense either.

What ever happened to Sauron wanting to use Smaug as a weapon? That went out the window, in favor of "we need to get access to Angmar". It's as if they were just making stuff up on the fly as they went along. And what ever happened to the Arkenstone? Or Dain?

The crazy part is that AUJ had potential. They even vetted out some of the dwarves simply by using dialog. The CGI in Goblin town was a bit much, and the troll scene was simply too comical, but it had potential. DOS killed everything, and BOT5A followed suite. But at least they got their money.

Upon reading this, I had to admit that the second film, the Desolation of Smaug, pretty much killed things for me, too, especially those glaring details like Gandalf, the dwarves, and Bilbo running up to Beorn's house and just letting themselves in because the front door had a latch conveniently placed ON THE OUTSIDE. My interest in, and respect for, Mr Beorn took a real nosedive right about then and never revovered. Seeing him parachuted in to the final battle-film for about two minutes of tactically irrelevant action only seemed fitting to me. I mean, why not the proverbial kitchen sink, too, eh?

I knew going into these films that each one would contain about 6 chapters from the book forming one third of the movie, with the other two-thirds of each movie containg irrelevant stuff that Jacskon and Company had pulled out of their own asses. My task, as I saw it, involved trying to spot the Hobbit material while hoping that Jackson hadn't screwed that up as well. This meant, unfortunately, that I would have to either purchase theater tickets or a DVD rental in order to see at least some of the Hobbit on film. I resented the fan exploitation that forced me to pay three times for what I could have paid to see once, but since pure money-grubbing lay at the bottom of this venal venture, I had to recognize that and live with it. I did, however, try to minimize the financial rip-off by going to the theater on matinee days where I got an addiitonal senior-citizen discount (for AUJ and BFA). I also found a DVD rental for DOS at a reduced rate for three days of viewing instead of three hours. So Jackson and Company did not rip me off as badly as they did many younger viewers. But I could only do my own little, individual part. Jackson and Company did, after al, get their money. Caveat Emptor.

[denethorthefirst]

The depressing thing is that out of all the six movies only one is actually any good and (somewhat) true to Tolkien: The Fellowship of the Ring. The movie has the right tone and conveyes a sense of fairy-tale-like wonder that's completely missing from the other films. It feels otherworldly but believable, gritty and real, whereas the "The two Towers" and the "Return of the King" just don't feel right: they feel like b-movie comic book adaptions, sloppy, fake and not thought out. A lot of things are just so silly and unbelievable that they completely destroy any suspension of disbelief or immersion: the barad-dur lighthouse, sauron as a big eye???, the portrayal of the Witch-King, the Army of the Dead flooding Minas Tirith like Dishwater, the portrayal of Denethor, Gandalf punching the Steward???, Gondor/Minas Tirith are just disappointingly one-dimensional and lack any depth or mystery, ... , I could go on and on, the less is said about the Hobbit-Movies the better, those movies represent everything that's wrong with modern filmmaking.