Perhaps you have heard of this author J. R. R. Tolkien. He wrote this children's book titled The Hobbit. Quite a lovely story about a hobbit who reluctantly joins a group of dwarfs and a wizard on an adventure. I highly recommend it.
You have no doubt heard of the movie The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. A movie about a hobbit who joins a group of dwarfs and a wizard on an adventure. "Surely," you must think, "This movie is an adaptation of the J. R. R. Tolkien book, The Hobbit." However you would be wrong.
Well, that is to say, the movie may hold many similarities to the book but alters so many more elements and adds a whole unnecessary bunch of stuff (which may possibly be from some other J. R. R. Tolkien book, The Silmarillion). I could go through and list all the different elements, but that seems a little petty, so I'll just talk about the stuff that irked me.
Thorin, the leader and a most important dwarf, is portrayed in the movie as a bitter, angry, unforgiving dwarf. He curses the other dwarfs for not joining his cause; he curses the elves for never helping the dwarfs; he curses Gandalf for bringing Bilbo and Bilbo for being incompetent. In the movie Thorin is at the Misty Mountains when Smaug arrives and at the Mines of Moria when his grandfather Thror was killed by Azog.
Not true! Not, if we use J. R. R. Tolkien's book The Hobbit as the source, accurate. Thorin is wise and humble in the book. He observes an indecisiveness in Bilbo and presses him gently for a decision. He is not angry that Bilbo joins the party, but simply concerned for his safety and usefulness. Since all the dwarves were killed in the Misty Mountain when Smaug arrived, except for Thror and Thrain, it was a good thing Thorin was ADVENTURING. Thror battled Azog at the Mines of Moria without Thrain, his son, or Thorin, his grandson.
In the movie the say that Thrain went mad from watching his father Thror killed by Azog. A tough weathered dwarf who has seen many dwarfs die, killed many goblins,lived many years is driven mad by watching his father slain? According to the movie Thrain is an embarrassment to dwarfs. No wonder Thorin is mad all the time, with a dad like that...pathetic.
Of course in the book Thrain is driven mad when he is a prisoner of the Necromancer. Which also happens to be the place where Gandalf acquires the map and key to the Misty Mountain. Since Thrain can not remember his own name let alone his son's name, it takes Gandalf quite some time to find Thorin and return the map and key to it's rightful owner.
In the book there is a scene in which Thorin blows smoke rings and directs them: to the ceiling, up the chimney, under a table. Gandalf in turn blows smoke rings that catch and pass through Thorin's rings, then turn green and return to the wizards hat, where the float around it in a circle. Guess they didn't have time for such an awesome scene in the movie.
In the movie Blibo, the hobbit, makes decisions, stands up to trolls, fights a goblin, outwits a monster, battles an orc, and kills a warg. All of which earns him Thorin's trust and acceptance.
Bilbo is actually very unused to adventuring, according to the book. He is peer-pressured into joining the adventure, botches pilfering trolls, gets the dwarfs caught by trolls, wastes everyone's time, gets lost, worries everyone, puts Dori at risk, and then finally nearly breaks poor Dori's legs. He does have his moments of usefulness, as well, when he finds a key, saves the parties life, and survives on his lonesome. But he's not a warrior.
Gandalf lights some pine cones on fire and throws them at some wargs. In the movie he lights the pine cones on fire; in the book he lights the pine cones with blue fire, red fire, and green fire. A lost opportunity for the filmmakers.
Bilbo's blade burns bright blue when in close proximity to goblins. This is because it is an elvish blade. Both Orcrist, the Goblin-Cleaver, and Glamdring, Foe-Hammer, are elvish blades. In the movie, why don't they burn a bright blue in the presence of goblins?
Many other details were altered. The additional scenes are rather boring and expositional in nature. The movie does not tell the story that J. R. R. Tolkien wrote. Too bad, the books pretty awesome.
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