~Post by Thomas
ANNOUNCING OUR BRAND NEW WEEKLY SERIES, SCI FRIDAYS!
Laser guns, magic swords, space ships, and dragons. These are some of the things that make the Sci Fi and Fantasy section our favorite in the store. Books have always been an escape from the real world, but Sci Fi and Fantasy take it a step or two further and let us escape our entire galaxy and sometimes even universe. So if you’re a lover of Science Fiction, or someone looking for something new, join Thomas and Marie right here every week for Sci Fridays. We’ll talk about our favorite reads, the awesome new books we’re excited about, and take a look at some of the best, and worst, film adaptations of some of the best, and worst, Sci Fi novels out there.
Enoy our first post!
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HOBBIT (the book) vs. HOBBIT (the film)
Ahh The Hobbit, a wonderful children’s adventure tale, a joyous introduction to Middle Earth, and now Peter Jackson’s latest three film opus. Is that a little absurd seeing as how he made The Lord of the Rings, itself a fifteen hundred page epic, into three movies as well? Maybe, but I’m just here to talk about what showed up on the screen versus what was in the book.
Having already made three movies in this same world, Jackson definitely has an idea of the tone of his Middle Earth, but his Middle Earth from LotR, which he carries over to the film version of The Hobbit, is completely different from the one that Tolkein writes about in the book The Hobbit. In the book, we’re shown a peaceful Middle Earth that doesn’t really remember the bad times of Sauron; a Middle Earth that hasn’t had its greatest wizard turn to the dark side, which is what we see in the movie (although we do get to see some of the peace in a short scene with Christopher Lee as good Saruman). I will admit that Jackson does nail the feel of the dangerous epic quest, even if he seems to forget the wonder and magic that made the book a children’s book.
The first change in actual events comes when Bilbo and his fourteen new friends encounter some evil trolls. The basics of the event are the same as in the book, but Jackson expands the role of Gandalf in this scene, making him into a savior instead of giving Bilbo one of the moments that makes the dwarves begin to trust him.
More important than minor changes like this, though, are Jackson’s additions and subtractions. In the beginning when the companions meet at Bilbo’s house we are treated to a pair of dwarven musical numbers. One is the wonderfully goofy song about breaking Bilbo’s dishes and the other a more somber affair about the quest they’ve undertaken. This is interesting because other than a couple of the weird elven songs that nobody understood, Jackson didn’t include any of the songs from the LotR book in the LotR movie. So I’m glad he included some songs from The Hobbit. However apparently Mr. Jackson has no love for goblins, as the goblin songs in the book The Hobbit are nowhere to be found in the movie, which is a shame as they’re mostly about killing stuff, in particular dwarves.
Jackson added lots of things to the movie that help set up Frodo’s journey in LotR. This starts from the very beginning when he frames the entire Hobbit trilogy as Ian Holm’s old Bilbo writing his book, and we see the film pick up right before Fellowship of the Ring begins. The biggest addition is the entire character of Radagast the Brown. Sure the crazy old wizard gets mentioned a time or two in Tolkien’s book, but a good chunk of Unexpected Journey deals with Radagast and his problems. First we see him learn about the return of something dark to the Eastern Woods. In another wonderful moment of foreshadowing a trilogy of movies that came out a decade ago, we get to see Shelob take up residence in the same place where Frodo and Sam will find her in sixty years. (We get it, you made the other movies and you want to show us that these are in the same world. But forty five minutes of extra stuff culled from the Silmarillion to prove that to us? Most of us remember.)
Other than some other very minor things, the rest of the movie tends to hit note for note with the book except for the story of Thorin, the guy who leads the dwarves for those of you who don’t know, and the big bad evil white Orc who he ran into decades ago who has come back to exact revenge. While I did enjoy the movie I was given, I can definitely see the point behind the biggest complaint that I’ve heard: it’s too long and adds too much to the story of the book. Unfortunately, that’s a given when you’re trying to make a three hour movie out of one hundred and twenty two pages of a book.
Final verdict: While Jackson’s epic visuals are well suited to Tolkein’s sweeping descriptive writing style, you can read the portion of the book that was in this movie faster than you can watch the movie. Pick up the book and dip a toe into Tolkein’s wonderful world of dragons, adventures, and most important of all: Hobbits!
BookPeople 
While I enjoyed reading a take on The Hobbit movie that wasn’t just a complaint, I do feel the need to point out a few things. First, the spiders that are shown (in shadow form) are not Shelob, they are the giant spiders of Mirkwood coming to roost (the ones that will capture the dwarves in, I am assuming, the next movie) most likely offspring of Shelob. Second, the additions to the movie are not from the Silmarillion, they are from the Lord Of the Rings Appendices… I personally was bothered more by the addition of a fight scene and the apparent “death” of Thorin at the end before the eagle rescue, there was no reason to give Bilbo a “hero” moment.
Interesting post, most of which seems quite pertinent, but I am a bit confused about the Shelob reference. I don’t remember that in the movie. Oh, I remember the spiders appearing at Radagast’s door (and I hated the way they portrayed Radagast), but took those to be the spiders of Mirkwood, which we will no doubt meet next episode.
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