As a complete Tolkien fanboy I loved the movie. I can see how some people who aren't such would dislike it. Some things were definitely altered but for the most part Jackson was true to the source material. It is a 350 page book they are stretching into 3 movies however, which some will see as only a money grab. I believe Jackson has the best of intentions though being a huge fan himself. If you enjoy the lore and landscapes of Middle Earth the movie will be very enjoyable. I can see how the casual observer will have a problem with the sometimes slow pace though. The action sequences are very well done and I thought they did a great job of portraying the lighter tone of the book compared to LOTR while maintaining an edge.
As a complete Tolkien fanboy I loved the movie. I can see how some people who aren't such would dislike it. Some things were definitely altered but for the most part Jackson was true to the source material. It is a 350 page book they are stretching into 3 movies however, which some will see as only a money grab. I believe Jackson has the best of intentions though being a huge fan himself. If you enjoy the lore and landscapes of Middle Earth the movie will be very enjoyable. I can see how the casual observer will have a problem with the sometimes slow pace though. The action sequences are very well done and I thought they did a great job of portraying the lighter tone of the book compared to LOTR while maintaining an edge.
I disagree with all of this.
I'm a Tolkien fan and know the Hobbit front to back and I hated it. Jackson was horribly unfaithful and his additions brought everything down. Orcs never attack the company west of the mountains... Radagast doesn't magically appear... the Dwarves don't leave Rivendell without Gandalf (they would never do that in a million years)... Bilbo doesn't decide to abandon them and go home... Bilbo doesn't come down from the tree and charge at a warg for God's sake... are you kidding me?
Not that changes in and of themselves are necessarily bad. One change that they didn't make stands out to me: how do you put together a movie with such a long running time yet fail to properly introduce all of the dwarves? Several didn't have a single line of dialog. They were glorified extras. Somewhere along the line Jackson mistook zany character designs for actual character development.
Action sequences were the worst part of the movie. Completely over the top, incomprehensible to follow, artificially introduced... CGI disasters lacking in any real peril.
It didn't have a lighter tone at all. The tone was just as grim, serious, and violent as LOTR, except this time nothing mattered, nothing had any weight to it and there were no consequences for actions. It was a video game writ large, and a bad one at that.
It didn't have a lighter tone at all. The tone was just as grim, serious, and violent as LOTR, except this time nothing mattered, nothing had any weight to it and there were no consequences for actions. It was a video game writ large, and a bad one at that.
Saw the movie last night...
I agree with what you said here, except I would argue that due to the lack of weight/consequences the tone was lighter.
I'm a fan of myth and fantasy in a general sense but I haven't read any of Tolkien's books (yet), so I don't bring with me the aesthetic baggage that a fan of the literature might. So, as far as changes to the book goes I can't comment but I will say that the overall storytelling in comparison to LOTR was sorely lacking to me. I saw the movie after work and was on the sleepy side, which didn't help, but the slow parts felt sluggish at best and the action sequences weren't on the level of those in LOTR.
My feelings on the movie are probably also biased because part of the attraction of LOTR was the difference in characters (plenty of elves, humans, dwarves, hobbits, etc.) while The Hobbit was primarily dwarves, a race that seems to lack a bit in the depth of personality department. On this aspect I'm not sure if it's the dwarves I'm not crazy about or Jackson's presentation of them.
I haven't had a chance to really sit back and process what I saw but the way you phrased the film's lack of weight felt pretty spot on. Does the book come across that way? I approach literature and film differently and with different expectations. If I like an author's style I can read book after book without needing to be yanked in by some heavy burden or anguish experienced by the protagonist; film just doesn't operate on that same aesthetic level, IMO mainly because of the time spent taking in the material.
...it's truly MIRACULOUS that they all managed to survive the entire journey (so far)! I mean, in all the battles and close calls they encountered, you'd think at least one would take a knife to the chest, or, oh, I don't know, smash into the side of a mountain that is suddenly a giant person. Not one casualty amongst the good guys; even for a film of this genre you can't expect the audience to suspend belief THAT much, can you?
Another pet peeve I had.....Bilbo discovers a ring that makes him invisible. He uses it to slip past Gollum, and then....never uses it again? Everyone in the freakin' theater thought he'd put it on and surprise-attack the orc who was about to kill Thoren. But, no, he full-on tackles the orc in plain sight and nearly gets himself killed. Saved by giant birds.
All in all, a bit long-winded but otherwise enjoyable.
Oh, and:
Spoil:
I'm guessing Peter Jackson is ripping a page from the Book of Lucas, and is going for the prequel trilogy?
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Definitely a 10 out of 10. Hilarious yet filled with gore. Wasn't a fan of Inglorious but Pulp Fiction is one of my top 3 movies of all time. Still thinking of how I compare it to Pulp Fiction.
Also, I quite enjoyed the Hobbit. Only part I got bored during was when they went to Rivendell.
I mean, in all the battles and close calls they encountered, you'd think at least one would take a knife to the chest, or, oh, I don't know, smash into the side of a mountain that is suddenly a giant person. Not one casualty amongst the good guys; even for a film of this genre you can't expect the audience to suspend belief THAT much, can you? 
