I am a huge fan of the Lord of the Rings.  I was ecstatic when I heard they were coming out with The Hobbit… and very confused when I heard they were going to make it into three movies.  The Hobbit was the shortest of the Lord of the Rings books and was aimed for children. How were the makers going to find enough information to make three movies?

Well, after watching the movie–and doing a little research–I learned that the director was using the appendices of the Lord of the Rings and borrowing from other Tolkien works to bring the full story to life.

My reaction was mixed.  The movie was amazing.  It had awesome battle sequences, included a bunch of songs from the book, and had pretty good humor.  And Radagast.

However, I did not like how they did other things.  The elves were not portrayed well.  They were supposed to be joyful, upbeat, jolly people.  The melancholy persona that they portrayed was not at all accurate.

Also, dwarves are sexy?  Kili and Fili?  Well, that one I’m okay with.

I wanted to know what other people thought of the movie though.  I’ve read the book and I loved it… but what about others?  What about those people who haven’t read the book?  I interviewed a few people, and six of them had not watched the movie.  This is what those who saw it had to say:

Allie Fossum: “Loved it… I found it most enjoyable.  It could have followed the book more closely.”

Jacob Gilmore:  “It was absolutely wonderful.  I loved it.  They did quite well with the scenery, but they could have spent more time advancing the plot.”

Layce Arleth: “I saw it in Imax 3D at the Minnesota Zoo.  I am a long time Lord of the Rings fan and I was very pleased with it.  Artfully done and held a lot of key info.  There were some slow parts (I even dozed off once) that could have been slightly altered.”

Donald Fehring: “I thought it was good.  The scenery looked detailed and I liked how the characters developed.  I am glad the movie stayed fairly true to the book, but also put in a few more details to show more of Tolkien’s world.  I did not have any problems with it.”

Chuche Lee: “Overall, the movie was pretty cool, but some scenes were rather long…” and on other critiques, “I really can’t think of anything else.  I just remember it being noticeably long.  I liked a lot of the movie, but there were times when I wanted it to end just so I could go pee without missing a scene.”

Cole Miller: “I need to see that movie again.  Dwarves are officially my favorite race in Middle Earth.  It was pretty, all the locations, the land, Erebor and Rivendell… the Dwarves were especially fun to watch… I like how the story was done and how it resembles what I remember from the books.  And it cut out at a reasonable point.”

Justin Craigmile: “I enjoyed that it was so detailed and that Peter Jackson did a lot of research.  My biggest pet peeve is that there are no talking animals.  The eagles and the spiders talked in the books.  I’m glad that they stayed true to the Lord of the Rings movies – and that’s probably why the animals didn’t talk, but I wish they had.  Also, the dwarves in the book were a rag-tag bunch… they’re all basically idiots.  They were not warriors.  Thorin Oakenshield and Balin were the only seasoned warriors among them.  In the movies they were incredible in battle, and made into a strong fighting unit.  It’s like Han shooting first though.  That character definition of whether they were good fighters (the book) or good warriors (the movies) is what really defined them for the audience.”