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I stand by it. People may enjoy it, but as a part of the middle earth story its almost entirely irrelevant and forgettable. If someone read or watched LotR and enjoyed it, the Hobbit is not what Id tell them to read next.
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It’s like saying Jota isn’t worth paying attention to because he’s not Rush.
The Hobbit is a decent story. It just pales before the utter magnificence of LOTR. Only read the series 17 times though. Actually. The story of how Bilbo came by the ring is hardly irrelevant and his links and friendship with the dwarves and Gandalf are also of great importance.
Silmarillion? So here I am once more……
I think he spent his entire life after the last Transformer film trying to distance himself from that sort of project (remember he also has the stigma of being a disney kid to shed as well) and project himself as a serious artist and think he developed a reputation as being difficult to work with and/or weird. It’s not just the projects he’s taken on, but the way he’s extended that into his personal life. Joaquin Phoenix could do it because he was already established as a top actor. LaBeouf seemed to be doing it to help establish himself as a serious artist and everyone just took the piss. Why would you want to work with someone like that, especially when he’s got no real track record of commercial success
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Hobbit was written first I think targeting kids/ younger people. He realized high fantasy might just be a thing and wrote LOTR for a more mature audience… the hobbit is great, in the lense of who it was written for and as an introduction into the wider world of middle earth. It’s a gateway fantasy novel making sure kids will be hooked for life.
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Yeah, he wrote it as a bed time story for his kids and it eventually found its way to a publisher who bought it and asked him for a sequel. What I find so fascinating about the sequel is how quickly and totally it became something else. He spoke about the Roman occupation effectively wiping away all knowledge of the myths of the British people, and he wanted his work to fill that gap. That’s why he wrote the Silmarilion pretty much at the same time as LotR because by that point is was not just a story, it was an entire origin myth of a people.
For me though, my introduction to the world was Bakshi’s completely weird yet under rated animated version (see below for his version of Helms Deep).
When you start off with a version this dark and then get handed the hobbit it just didn’t cut it. First time I quit after about 1/4 of the book and tried and failed several more times, each time going back to the LotR or my favourite bits of the Silmarilion. I think I was in my early 20s before I was able to commit to the hobbit completely enough to read it on its own terms rather than as a LotR book.
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To bring it back to films though…Bakshi’s Nazgul were fecking terrifying for a kid’s film
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrzrOyeo5o8
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You did it backwards! I think my mom read the hobbit to me when I was pretty young, then I read it myself a few times before I was ready for LOTR. If I had seen that version first…I might be same as you lol.
I loved that film. Just a shame they ran out of money so couldn’t do it full justice.
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When I finally got around to reading the book after watching that I was so confused by the whole of Return of the King. It took me until Wikipedia became a thing to understand what had happened.
One Shot on Sky Cinema,
Looks like lot of people passing up on this 1, worth the watch for Adkins MMA skills alone but story falls flat….called one shot as they see this captive as their one shot out of a sticky situation but then when they eventually get their hands on the captive…want him dead.
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When Jnr was born there were certain moments and occasions I could not wait for. Friday night, loads of snacks and popcorn, pile of beer for me, G+T for missus and Tango for Jnr. Lights off, volume up, 65” tv.
Jaws.
Just magic.
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I just finished watching Collateral. I didn’t think I would like it. It was different. I have to say Tom Cruise was fantastic as the cold blood assassin and Jamie Foxx was amazing as innocent cab driver. The two were very engaging. I like the cinematography of the night time across the city of LA.
The only thing I would say is, I wanted more character development on Vincent, how he became an assassin.
Unhinged.
Edge of your seats stuff, very violent & brutal…thought the lead 2 gave very good performances.
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It was very suspenseful. I was rooting for Max to stay alive, what a nightmare pick up. I thought Vincent would be abit more remorseful.
my son is obsessed with it. my wife encourages it.
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but there was a movie done 15 years ago with Ray Liotta, Forrest Whittaker, Eddie Redmayne and Jessica Biel called “Powder Blue”
I’ll say this, it’s a bit of a dark story with some dark situations. But it was worth the watch in my humble opinion.
I’m a big fan of Liotta and Whittaker. I’ve never heard of this film before but might give it a go some time.