Hobbitary Discrepancies

After all of my posts about how much I love The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Thorin Oakenshield, Richard Armitage playing Thorin Oakenshield, and pretty much how the movie is better than the book, I think it is high time for my book-to-movie adaption purist side to have its say.  (Warning: heavy sarcasm ahead)

No more Mrs. Nice LynZ.

8. Issues I Have with Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey 

As much as I love the Hobbit movie, after talking to my Pastor, I've come to the conclusion that it is time to talk about some of the problems with this first part of what will become Peter Jackson's The Hobbit Trilogy by 2014.  Sorry, Mr. Jackson.  I still think you're a great director and should be awarded for the film...it's just not accurate.

Azog

Ah, where should I begin regarding Azog?  Maybe with...he's supposed to be dead.  In fact, he died in Appendix A in the back of The Return of the King, which technically occurred way before Thorin and Company ever thought about making the insanely long, arduous, 48 fsp journey back to Erebor.  So, what is he doing in The Hobbit?

Theory: Peter Jackson didn't think The Hobbit was exciting enough as it was, so...he brought Azog out of the shadows of Appendix A to haunt our friend Thorin.  As if Thorin doesn't have enough to worry about.  After all, he's still got this dragon to deal with at the end of the road, not to mention other things like trolls, goblins, giant spiders, and angry, gold-happy elves who cross his path.  But, somehow, all of that isn't enough stress for Thorin, so Mr. Jackson felt it necessary to add the factor of being chased by Azog and his orc band (who, by the way, are intent of relieving Thorin of his shaggy head) to the mix.

Okay, I get it.  They needed the story to be more exciting, more dangerous, and more intense.  But, if that's all they needed to make the Hobbit the LOTR's prequel instead of the Hobbit itself, why bring a dead character out of the depths of Appendix A to do so?  Paraphrasing what my Pastor said, "If they wanted someone to be chasing Thorin and Company for the majority of the movie, why couldn't they have just made it the Goblin King's brother or something like that?"

Basically, it would be like bringing Darth Maul back from the dead to chase Luke and Leia while they also try to defeat Darth Sidious and Darth Vadar.  Star Wars fans would riot.

Goblin Town: Peter Jackson's Middle Earth vs. J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle Earth

Weird as it may sound, the episode in Goblin Town is notably one of my favorite sections of the Hobbit book.  I still have no idea why.  Regardless, it was also one of the scenes I was pretty positive would not be removed, as well as one of the scenes that were likely to be butchered.

I was right and I was wrong.  Allow me to explain.

Goblin Town was really dark, freaky, and very unstable.  The perfect setting for a Goblin King with a mega-double-chin and his crazy, filthy hoard.  I loved it.

My hugest problem with the scene was that the goblins didn't tie up the dwarves and Bilbo upon their arrival in Goblin Town.  As a film major, I can kind of understand Peter Jackson's logic on this one.  Thorin's dignity not withstanding, the dwarves were not tied up by the goblins because of time restraint.  There was simply no time in the film to untie them all in an efficient manner in time for them to go tearing off through Goblin Town en route toward the Back Door (as Gollum calls it).  If Mr. Jackson filmed every single detail, then the movie would have been 12 hours long, and nobody (not even the most die-hard LOTR fans) would have sat through that.  There's way too much to do, like rereading the books or watching the trilogy again.

But, here's my other thing regarding the binding (or lack thereof) of the dwarves in Goblin Town:  In the world created by Tolkien, it would be completely realistic for the goblins to tie them up.  Even if they knew their prisoners couldn't escape, they'd still bind them just because they're goblins and that's what goblins do.  Just ask Merry and Pippin about their 3 day, 16 page experience with the Orcs.

Which brings me to my last point (in a really round-about way)...

The Added Subtext

So, we've established that Peter Jackson did not have time in the movie to tie up (and consequently untie) the captive dwarves in Goblin Town due to time restrains so as not to turn the first movie into its own personal little trilogy.  But, if time restraint was a problem...

WHY ADD THE WHOLE THING ABOUT GETTING CHASED BY AZOG IN THE FIRST PLACE????!!!!

Are they aware of how much time might have been saved if they'd just stuck to the Hobbit book and resisted the urge to add the Azog subtext to the movies?  The trilogy might have been two movies, or at the very least the trilogy could have been a little flushed out.  Or, perhaps, the movies could have been shorter than three hours each (dun dun dun).  Then, more people might have gone to see it in the theatre instead of waiting until the DVD release in March, because let's just admit it, three hours is a little taxing on the human body.  I don't think I need to say more than that.

I think those are the only problems I had with An Unexpected Journey.  If I missed something, please do not hesitate to comment and let me know.