The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

I don't often reread books, even my favourites, but I felt that after watching the first film in The Hobbit Trilogy I needed to refresh my memory. After all it had been about 18 years since I last read it!

Dean, grasping his copy of The Hobbit

I reviewed the first Hobbit film and although I enjoyed it, all the parts I remembered from the book were in the film which got me thinking what the other two films would contain. I had forgotten 80% of the book and I'm so glad I picked it up.

The Hobbit is a road trip, a story of friendship and a story of courage. I don't tend to look deep into meanings of books, I simply like to enjoy whatever adventure it takes me on and I was not disappointed with The Hobbit. The previous time I read the book, I was about 13, I loved Gollum and also the three trolls. Both of these seemed to appear quite quickly in the book, but I think that this may be because I was comparing it to Peter Jackson's film, in which he pads out the intro of the Dwarves to a full hour. The dwarves are all ready and waiting and on the road with Bilbo Baggins (The Hobbit of the title) within a few chapters. A mix of memory from when I first read it and the film meshed together so it seemed the start really whisked along. Don't get me wrong, I loved discovering Thorin the dwarf along with his 12 companions in Tolkiens own words rather than Jackson's drawn out, somewhat pantomime way, I just think I'd have loved it even more if I hadn't seem the film.

Once the book gets to the part where the film ends this is where I could invest further, as I had no idea where it was going to take me. I was lost in Mirkwood, I was in danger with the Spiders and had a rollicking ride rolling in barrels. The 'Big Bad' of The Hobbit, Smaug the Dragon, is a shifty, Machiavellian devil and his booming voice and attack on The Lonely Mountain had me unnerved. The peripheral characters all played their part too and although some were a little sketchy, such as Thandruil, King of Mirkwood, there was enough atmosphere to pull me into their world. Beorn the bearman was a particular favourite and I can't wait to see how he is shown on screen.

The second film, The Desolation of Smaug is out tomorrow. I urge you to read the book first if you can!

I've given the book 8 cushions on the Comfometer.

Here is the trailer for the new film.

Michael

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Book club choices for December

Christmas is nearly here! But the book club waits for no man, or woman.

Take a browse of these 6 choices for Decembers choice. You can vote over on Facebook HERE, tweet me your choice or simply put your choice in the comment section of this blog. Closing date is this Saturday. You'll then have the month to chew through it.
On Sunday at 4pm we'll discuss November's choice The Cuckoo's Calling over of Facebook.

The Husbands Secret by Liane Moriarty
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Trust Your Eyes by Linwood Barclay
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Batman: Year One by Frank Miller

Michael
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PS Here's the awesome trailer for the next Hobbit film.

The Hobbit - The Friday Adaptation

Every Friday we'll be discussing one film or TV series that has been adapted from the book or graphic novel. We'll be discussing which version is better, why the adaptation happened and the critical response to both book and film.

The first Friday adaptation comes in the shape of this weeks new DVD release of The Hobbit.

With the success of the Lord of the Rings films it was only a matter of time until this prequel saw the light of day on screen. It wasn't plain sailing though as the original director Guillermo Del Toro after a few months left the directors chair, with Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson taking over. It was always going to be Peter Jackson's baby though.

Peter Jackson has decided to broaden the story on screen by splitting it into not two but three films. Another trilogy. Everyone loves a trilogy but there has to be material there for it to be split and The Hobbit is a fairly slender book. Added to The Hobbit trilogy are parts from other Tolkien books I am told but even so, there was far too much slow motion and panning of huge vistas in it for my taste. It's pretty, but at 163 minutes you kinda just want it to stop faffing with all the lovely fields and get to the gritty action. I am in no way an expert though as I read the book when I was a wee lad and not since (on my to-read list) so I asked some dedicated Tolkien fans on Twitter whether the adaptation succeeded. Thomas Mathie AKA @Headphonaught is an avid collector of The Hobbit books. I asked him if the film lived up to expectation.

"Yes & more. I loved it. What did I like? The Dwarves. The Trolls. The Goblin King. Seeing Erabor in all its finery. I also loved seeing Bilbo, Galadriel and Saruman. Radaghast was brilliant too. Oh and the music...I loved the soundtrack". 

@bigcomfybooks I also loved seeing Bilbo, Galadriel and Saruman. Radaghast was brilliant too. Oh and the music ... I loved the soundtrack.
— thomas mathie (@headphonaught) April 9, 2013

Anything you disliked?

"Didn't like the introduction of Azog the Defiler. Understand why he's there but I didn't like him"

Another fan of the book is fellow musician Lew Bear AKA @LewBearMusic

"I liked it, but wish the dwarves were less comical (in the main). Radaghast was awesome though! :)"

He also agrees with Thomas about Azog.

"...the army is led by Borg in the book and would have worked better."

So it looks like the fans of the book were satisfied, but what about critics? On RottenTomatoes.com it gets a fairly average score of 65% with fantasy magazing SFX saying "There is a good film here, but with many double albums, you have to sift through a lot of padding to find it." In Empire Magazine it got 3 out of 5 stars and this tends to be the consensus amongst most.

The book came out in 1937 and instantly became a hit, winning several awards. It became so popular that the publishers asked Tolkien to write a sequel, which became the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

My memory has erased much of the book so going into the film fresh may have helped me. I do feel it is over long but nonetheless I thoroughly enjoyed it. The casting of Bilbo was exceptional. Martin Freeman does bumbling yet confident with perfection. And in a little side note, my wife's old Uni colleague is one of the dwarfs. 

Peter Jackson, director of Tolkien films

As always there is always going to be something missing from a film version of any book (see my Hunger Games book review) so there will never be a 100% correct answer, but The Hobbit film adaptation was a pretty big success.

Buy Tolkien from the shop HERE

Comment below with your opinion...

Michael