New Hobbit Trailer Debuts

New submitter madmarcel tips news that a new trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has been released. "The new piece (seen above) is about the same length -- 2 1/2 minutes -- as the December trailer. But it cuts to the chase more quickly, leaving out the Frodo voiceover that sets up the Lord of the Rings follow-up. Instead we get the quick voiceover explanation -- 'the dwarves are determined to reclaim their homeland' -- before we meet up with Martin Freeman's Bilbo Baggins and set off. There's a slightly less self-serious tone to the proceedings this time around, though questers do 'enter the mountain' and play important games of riddles."

Comments

Meh?

[Anonymous Coward]

No Smaug. Less spiders than the Dark Forest. Lame.

Re:Meh?

[Genda]

"The Hobbit" without Smaug, would be like L.A, without smog... unnatural and strangely surreal.

Re:Meh?

[antsbull]

Really? I didn't realize that you had seen it? Reviewing a film before you've even seen it is a touch douchey don't you think?

Re:Meh?

[spongman]

Drink up me 'obbits, yo ho!

Re:Meh?

[i_ate_god]

Or San Francisco without smug

Awesome

[OldSport]

I'll be bringing my 4-year-old daughter to that one -- time to start the indoctrination into geekery...

(My first memory was seeing Return of the Jedi in the theater at age 4.)

Re:Awesome

[Anonymous Coward]

If you get the chance, read The Hobbit to her in the time before the movie is released. Give her the chance to use her own imagination before seeing the film.

I read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings to my son somewhere between the ages of 5 and 10. I can't remember exactly. It took weeks over the summer holidays. But it was a very memorable experience. Four is probably too young for TLotR, but probably fine for The Hobbit.

Years later, when the films came out, my son understood why I was raging so much about the loss of "The Scouring of the Shire" :-) Anyway, we're both looking forward to seeing Smaug eventually, although that's probably going to be mostly in the next film.

Re:Awesome

[Anonymous Coward]

"I'll be bringing my 4-year-old daughter to that one -- time to start the indoctrination into geekery..."

Try actually reading her the book like a real parent would.

Re:Awesome

[Sponge Bath]

I have friends who hate the 1984 Dune with a passion, but I always had a soft spot for it. Yes, it had cheesy parts. But it also had David Lynch freakery, Patrick Stewart and Sting as the prancing bad boy ("I will kill you!"). Just thinking about it makes me laugh these decades later.

Re:Awesome

[Mr Foobar]

Mine was seeing Dune in 1984 at age 4! :)

Mine was seeing 2001: A Space Odyssey at age age 7!

I win! :D

Re:Awesome

[i_ate_god]

Lynch's Dune is not close to the book in terms of story, but it is very accurate in terms of over all feeling I find.

Re:Awesome

[funwithBSD]

FWIW, Frank Herbert seem to be ok with the results:

        I get asked a specific question a lot of times, if the settings, the scenes that I saw in David’s film match my original imagination, the things I projected in my imagination. I must tell you that some of them do, precisely. Some of them don’t, and some of them are better. Which is what you would expect of artists such as David and Tony Masters. I’m delighted with that! Why not take it and improve on it visually? As far as I’m concerned the film is a visual feast.

Trailers

[Scutter]

Am I the only one who prefers to wait for the finished product rather than watch it in two-minute disjointed chunks over the course of the next three months?

I quit watching trailers entirely for this reason and because they almost always give away the plot (or the best jokes, or the twist) anymore. Tron: Legacy, for example (admittedly, not exactly a thespianic masterpiece), completely ruined the entire plot start to finish for me with a four-word sentence in the trailer. It gave it away completely.

Re:Trailers

[DrFalkyn]

Am I the only one who prefers to wait for the finished product rather than watch it in two-minute disjointed chunks over the course of the next three months?

I quit watching trailers entirely for this reason and because they almost always give away the plot (or the best jokes, or the twist) anymore. Tron: Legacy, for example (admittedly, not exactly a thespianic masterpiece), completely ruined the entire plot start to finish for me with a four-word sentence in the trailer. It gave it away completely.

I'm with you. It would be a travesty if the studios give away the plot to The Hobbit

What's a Nimoy?

[Anonymous Coward]

I didn't see any songs by Leonard Nimoy, how good could it be?

http://youtu.be/XC73PHdQX04

Re:Are they really adding an Elf to the company?

[Iniamyen]

One does not simply rewrite the story!

Re:Are they really adding an Elf to the company?

[vlm]

If I remember the hobbit correctly, that's going to pretty well F up the script WRT the dwarve / elve racial tensions.

Couldn't they have just added a teenage female human with a crossbow without screwing up the story too much? I heard all fantasy-type movies are now required to have one of those in the cast.

Re:Wish it was not split into 2 movies

[space_jake]

It's getting split into three movies actually.

48 FPS

[Hatta]

Is there a list of theatres that will be showing this in 48FPS?

Re:Are they really adding an Elf to the company?

[vlm]

Oh no. Please, I hope I'm getting this wrong, but I've got a real bad feeling I'm gonna be right about this:

I read somewhere that they were adding a female Elf to the company, because ...

... he thinks he's remaking "snow white and the seven dwarfs"

Re:WTF, where's the freakin' D R A G O N ??? !!!

[cervesaebraciator]

I'm sorry to say there's probably a reason you haven't seen a dragon. Remember, they stretching this out into two--no wait, scratch that--three films. You can't go showing your dragon too early.

It reminds me of a parody of the final Harry Potter film(s) the Onion did a while back. See here.

Re:Are they really adding an Elf to the company?

[cervesaebraciator]

Also, I heard Legolas is in this.

Wait, so Orlando Bloom's going to play a female elf?

Re:Are they really adding an Elf to the company?

[Anonymous Coward]

"One does not simply rewrite the story!"

Apparently you never watched Peter Jackson's LOTR trilogy or touched the books.

Re:WTF, where's the freakin' D R A G O N ??? !!!

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

The whole homeland crap in the voiceover narration betrays horrible mis-representation.

The lure was the TREASURE.

The battle of 5 armies was over preserving the TREASURE.

Lonely Mountain was never a "homeland". That was Khazad Dum.

Re:nice but

[iceaxe]

While I understand the impatience to get to dessert...

A full length novel is generally much, much longer in terms of plot than the average two to three hour film screenplay. A typical screenplay is more equivalent to a short story or novelette. While The Hobbit is by no means a lengthy tome, it is certainly more than a short story, and when you add in the additional material Jackson is introducing (White Council, Dol Guldur, Radagast, etc.) it would be impossible to cram into a commercially viable screenplay.

I was fine with two films, and I'm fine with three. I'm happy to have the story fleshed out with more context, and I'm mostly fine with having Jackson and company extrapolate and add things, recognizing that film and text are different media with different strengths and weaknesses and techniques for storytelling. My "fine" stops with altering things that Tolkien actually wrote, as happened in spots in the Lord of the Rings movies. Nonetheless, I expect I'll enjoy these just as thoroughly as the last three. I doubt Jackson will pull a Lucas on us... let us hope.

And let it be said, I am willing to pay for my enjoyment, repeatedly, and do not begrudge the commercial nature of the venture, provided the art is not compromised thereby.

Re:I lost interest in the movie series...

[flimflammer]

Thank god my OCD doesn't force me to nitpick movie special effects.

Re:Are they really adding an Elf to the company?

[dreamchaser]

Wouldn't surprise me. He's making 3 movies out of it. How much extraneous crap is Jackson cramming into the story in order to get 3 movies?

Also, I heard Legolas is in this. God.

That would not be implausible since he was the son of the King of the elves of Mirkwood.

Re:Are they really adding an Elf to the company?

[Farmer Tim]

By the look of things, PJ could turn Gandalf taking a dump into an entire movie all its own. "Hnnnn...you...shall...not...pass...hnnn".

Re:WTF, where's the freakin' D R A G O N ??? !!!

[Ginger Unicorn]

And if you don't like reading complaints about complaints, then you're definately reading the wrong website. Now if you'll excuse me, i'm going to FUCKING GO SOMEWHERE ELSE before someone calls me a fucking child :p