I Have Just Seen... VI

[Mac Sirloin]

I just watched The Hobbit, finally. I don't have a big ol' loving review nor a completely hateful breakdown of the film. The Hobbit is the most beautiful, visually stimulating and just genereally spectacular bad movie I've ever seen. It's not bad because of the performances, just the pacing and editing. Everything is held together very strangely, scenes that should not be as long as they are (or simply should not be) permeate the entire spectacle like the hole in a donut: not necessary, but not the same without them. I'm going to paraphrase an analogy I farted out when Transformers 2 came out: It's like they tried to build a tower (or...TWO towers? EHHH? EHHHHHHHHHHHH!?) out of everything they could find relevant to middle earth, and then they wanted to make it bigger so they started throwing in a bunch of crazy shit. There's a shitload of wizards, a fuckton of DORFS and Hugo 'Sigourney' Weaving/er bandying about like he's actually plot relevant. Like Django it was a gigantic movie and had a whole lot to process. My feelings toward it are generally mixed; visually stimulating but a bit too much drawn out silliness for it to remain enjoyable throughout the whole trip. The strongest part of the film is the opening, explaining the origin of the dwarfs. For this scene they came out gangbusters, totally succinct and telling us everything we need to know...and then Bilbo packs for half an hour. He literally doesn't leave the house until the 41 minute mark. And that bothers me. I don't even think any orcs or goblins get killed within the first hour. So I like it, but damn was it flawed. Hopefully the next one will be better, because it will have the dragon.

[Sekto Springs]

Robin Williams should get the Academy Award for his portrayal as the Great Goblin though. I still can't believe Peter Jackson got those huge testicles past the censors.

[Mr. Bungle]

So is the general consensus that The Hobbit is kinda shitty?

[Sekto Springs]

I wouldn't say it's shitty, but it certainly doesn't hold a candle to LOTR.

[Manco]

Robin Williams should get the Academy Award for his portrayal as the Great Goblin though. I still can't believe Peter Jackson got those huge testicles past the censors.

Wait that was Robin Williams?

[Sekto Springs]

No, I'm sorry I got confused.
Rosie O'Donnel played The Great Goblin and Robin Williams played Balin.





I figured that would be obvious.

[Disgruntled Intern]

I instantly recognized Ian mcshane as the great goblin. I really like Ian mcshane.

while I agree the pacing was off, I still enjoyed it. other than the heavy emphasis on the white orc, anyway.

[Wings of Fire]

You're right to cite Lady Eboshi as one of the few exceptions. And some of the characters in Paranoia Agent were really good too.

I said specifically anime everyone is likely to have seen though. As a general rule characters in anime are exaggerated yes, but you know, that's the same in all mediums. Especially visual ones. I've seen many anime with 'subtle' well developed characters. Do you want a list of examples?

[Nate]

No, I'm sorry I got confused.
Rosie O'Donnel played The Great Goblin and Robin Williams played Balin.

I figured that would be obvious.

Have you never heard of Barry Humphries?

[OANST]

I thought we all realized that arguing about anime was supposed to be off the table after WoF and I almost killed each other over it a few years ago. I am disappointed in you all.

[Sekto Springs]

Have you never heard of Barry Humphries?

I thought I couldn't have possibly made it more obvious I was joking.
Of course I know it was Barry Humphries. I love me some Dame Edna.

I instantly recognized Ian mcshane as the great goblin. I really like Ian mcshane.

You know, it did really sound like Ian McShane now that I think of it. It wasn't him, but their voices are really similar.

[Manco]

I have no idea who is being sincere any more, so I'm going to assume Robin Williams and Ian McShane were the entire cast.

[Sekto Springs]

I'd see that movie.

[Mac Sirloin]

I've seen that movie. It was called The Troll Hunter.

[AlexFili]

So is the general consensus that The Hobbit is kinda shitty?

True fans will like it a lot, but people who are only mild fans of LOTR will be disappointed. There's a lot of backstory for certain characters and some set-up for the next two films in the series. In my opinion its perfect for a cinema voyage for a true cinematic experience. As for Smaug, he's supposed to look like a typical western-style Dragon. If he was a long asian style dragon it would completely go against the entire feel of Lord of the Rings. Anyway hey, look at Skyrim. Their dragons aren't exactly revolutionary either. Even looking at Dragonheart, Reign of Fire, D-Wars, they're all western-style dragons. Can't really recall many eastern-style dragons in live action films.

I saw Green Lantern today. I actually really enjoyed it, the sci-fi was a nice angle and the dialogue was pretty funny in parts. I know some super hero movies are a bit lame, but overall this was one of the better ones.

I've been catching up on Homeland Series 1, it's quite thrilling and also quite harrowing at the same time. This show just has this weird spy vibe that just doesn't go away. It's very compelling.

I watched a bit of Akira but it wasn't really my thing. The future was a bit too gritty and I didn't really liked the direction the plot was going. Also Evan Almighty was crap. Didn't find it funny and think the plot itself was just plain bad.

Sometimes with these "mixed reviews" films you really have to take a chance, especially if it's something you really care for or have heard good things about. Also if you hear about a popular TV show, you may want to check out the first episode. I did that with a few things like Breaking Bad and The Mentalist and was pleasantly surprised.

[Wings of Fire]

True fans

I stopped reading there.

[OANST]

Me too.

I'm a "true fan." I grew up with the books. Loved them. It's still a shitty movie.

[Nate]

I thought I couldn't have possibly made it more obvious I was joking.
Of course I know it was Barry Humphries. I love me some Dame Edna.

I realised you were joking. I just don't know to what extent Barry Humphries is a known name outside of Australia (as seperate to Edna).

[Sekto Springs]

I think he mistook "true fan" for "rabid fan".
A rabid fan will like the movies indiscriminately.
A true fan will be disappointed in the creative liberties taken.
The Tolkien estate hate Peter Jackson's films for the latter. Jackson was definitely bolder in changing the story elements this time around, using stuff from the appendices to legitimize the addition of some admittedly bloated action scenes.

I'm not loyal to the books, as much as I enjoyed them. I knew from the beginning that liberties would have to be taken to make the film more cinematic. While this was done right in some areas, it was definitely done wrong in many too.

I saw the movie again recently in HFR/3D. I didn't think the HFR was as bad as the countless virulent critics let on. Definitely not recommended for a first viewing though. It is very distracting. The FX looked much better at 48 fps, Azog and Gollum especially. Radagast's huge snozz also looked pretty epic in 3D. I wanted to jump into the screen and ride it like a koala.

I realised you were joking. I just don't know to what extent Barry Humphries is a known name outside of Australia (as seperate to Edna).

I know him best as Edna, as I'm sure most the world does. I know he voiced Bruce the shark in Finding Nemo and played Bert Schnick. That's about it though.

[Disgruntled Intern]

You know, it did really sound like Ian McShane now that I think of it. It wasn't him, but their voices are really similar.

I feel dumb now. could have sworn I saw his name in the credits.

[Sekto Springs]

Understandable. Gandalf is Ian McKellan, which is pretty close. And there's Ian Holm too. Lots of fucking Ian's in these movies.

[AlexFili]

Apologies, I regret my use of the word "true fan". I'm not really a great judge of what the majority define as "good". I'll just say that I know a few people who really like the film (as much as the other LOTR films).

[Mr. Bungle]

I'm addicted to reruns of Seinfeld at the moment.

Also Louie.

[Dynamithix]

I finally sat down and decided to watch Fight Club. I enjoyed it a lot and I was expecting something strange to happen but did not really see that twist coming. A really good movie.

[Sekto Springs]

It's like they read our forum or something...

[Mac Sirloin]

So did anyone else click on a Breaking Bad video after watching that? Cuz I did.

[Sekto Springs]

Also The Wire.

[Crashpunk]

It didn't work. I've never seen Breaking Bad despite being recommend it by almost everyone I know.

[OANST]

That's because you have bad taste, and are bad at games.

[Mac Sirloin]

Spyro is a pretty sweet game though.