Will The Hobbit age as well as The Lord of the Rings?

[BloodBoal 7,538]

Maybe I should move to Finland...

[Incanus 5,713]

 We are discerning folk around here.

 

And out of the Nordic countries Swedes liked the Hobbit films the most, 43 % of the survey takers. Abandon them Alvar!

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

They spake?

[Incanus 5,713]

It is known!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

2 hours ago, Incanus said:

It was reported this morning in one of our biggest newpapers Helsingin Sanomat that according to a new survey done for a research project the Hobbit films received considerably lower scores than The Lord of the Rings films. 36 000 people from 43 countries participated in this survey on the Hobbit films and Finns (1600 people participating in the survey) were clearly the most critical on the subject with only 18 % of people considering them good films. The whole article was titled: Finns particularly disappointed with the Hobbit films. Ouch.

 

What did the Dutch think?

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

It was a big hit here. My sister loved it.

[Barnald 365]

Is that what passes for news in Finland these days?

[Incanus 5,713]

23 minutes ago, Barnald said:

Is that what passes for news in Finland these days?

It sure beats the reports about the silicon implants of the latest celebrity bimbo X. And the Hobbit is ever so slightly media sexy and the seminar where they presented the results was held here during the weekend so why not. The results might not be news to any of us here though.

 

55 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

 

What did the Dutch think?

The article doesn't have country-by-country statistics but the rest of the world in general has 35% approval rate for the Hobbit films being great.

 

Also there is no surprise that the most critical towards the films were people who had read the book before seeing the films.

[Bilbo 3,709]

Sweden? Finland? Are they even real countries??

[Incanus 5,713]

Isn't Ireland some kind of mythical country used as an example of all kinds of debauchery and its fairyfolk inhabitants as a didactic warning on the dangers of heavy drinking?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Beyond the valley's of ice, and the veil of the North, created by Manwe himself to shield these lands, which were his favorite, from the eyes of the enemy, lay indeed places which are named such as you say. Wondrous lands, according to the myths.

[Barnald 365]

Both of you are correct - now let's just drop it and move on.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

1 minute ago, Incanus said:

Isn't Ireland some kind of mythical country used as an example of all kinds of debauchery and its fairyfolk inhabitants as a didactic warning on the dangers of heavy drinking?

 

Tookland!

[Melange 446]

25 minutes ago, Incanus said:

Isn't Ireland some kind of mythical country...............

 

"This people then, is truly barbarous, being not only barbarous in their dress but suffering their hair and beards to grow enormously in an uncouth manner, just like the modern fashion recently introduced; indeed, all their habits are barbarisms. But habits are formed by mutual intercourse; and as these people inhabit a country so remote from the rest of the world and lying at its furthest extremity, forming is it were, another world, and are thus excluded from civilised nations, they learn nothing and practise nothing, but the barbarism in which they are born and bred and which sticks to them like a second nature. Whatever natural gifts they possess are excellent, in whatever requires industry they are worthless" - Chapter X

 

"Duvenald, king of Limerick, had a woman with a beard down to her navel, and also, a crest like a colt of a year old, which reached from the top of her neck down her backbone, and was covered with hair. The woman, thus remarkable for two monstrous deformities, was, however, not an hermaphrodite, but in other respects had the parts of a woman; and she constantly attended the court, an object of ridicule as well as of wonder. The fact of her spine being covered with hair, neither determined her gender to be male or female; and in wearing a long beard she followed the customs of her country, though it was unnatural in her. Also, within our time, a woman was seen attending the court in Connaught, who partook of the nature of both sexes, and was an hermaphrodite. On the right side of her face she had a long and thick beard, which covered both sides of her lips to the middle of her chin, like a man; on the left, her lips and chin were smooth and hairless, like a woman" - Chapter XX

 

---- Topographia Hibernica, by Gerald of Wales (1188 AD)

 

 

[Bilbo 3,709]

30 minutes ago, Incanus said:

Isn't Ireland some kind of mythical country used as an example of all kinds of debauchery and its fairyfolk inhabitants as a didactic warning on the dangers of heavy drinking?

Yes.

 

Your pint? I mean point.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

They worship a strange pagan God. Guin-ness!

[Bilbo 3,709]

Regularly. Nothing strange about it though. 

[Incanus 5,713]

Did you know there is actually a lengthy poem for the Birth of Beer in Kalevala.

 

Excerpt:

 

Stronger grew the beer imprisoned
In the copper-banded vessels,
Locked behind the copper faucets,
Boiled, and foamed, and sang, and murmured:
"If ye do not bring a singer,
That will sing my worth immortal,
That will sing my praise deserving,
I will burst these bands of copper,
Burst the heads of all these barrels;
Will not serve the best of heroes
Till he sings my many virtues.

[gkgyver 1,645]

On 31. August 2016 at 9:01 AM, Quintus said:

What does that have to do with visual aesthetics? 

 

Without Coke, we wouldn't have multiple Coke copies. Plenty of people prefer other brands of Cola when it comes to taste. But that doesn't affect the fact that Coke will always be the one classic without which your favourite stuff Most likely never would have existed.

 

Taking a pre-existing canvas and modifying it a bit isn't the art. The truly exceptional artist is the one who created the canvas.

[Quintus 5,399]

I can't remember what the conversation was originally about now. 

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I could not be bothered to scroll up and see what it was in response to.

[mstrox 6,647]

Will RC Cola age as well as Coke?

[Wojo 2,453]

Are we talking about shelf lives now? 

[gkgyver 1,645]

Do you think I read every rambling on this forum? I just had no desire to read a response by a person on my ignore List. After two months, I was foolish enough to do so. Pardon, it won't happen again.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

I want a Coke now...

[Wojo 2,453]

I just drank a vanilla Coke. 

[John 2,032]

One and a half year bump.

 

My answer is "no" for both the movies and accompanying scores.

 

The movies themselves have aged poorly. CGI that had a limited shelf life to begin with now looks very shoddy by today's standards. Visually, all three are rather ugly movies.

 

Like gkgyver said, I feel the scores, particularly the latter two, relied far too much on modern orchestrations and techniques, and as a result, they noticeably lack that transcendent and timeless quality of Shore's work on LOTR. I do thoroughly enjoy the scores, though, and I believe that the Hobbit scores will continue to be looked on fondly by the film score community, just not nearly in the same light as their predecessors.

 

End rant.

[SteveMc 2,674]

Only The Desolation of Smaug is really good.  And not by much.  Regarding scores, Desolation is quite enjoyable, especially the love theme.  The other two bore me.

[The Illustrious Jerry 3,356]

The Desolation of Smaug is my most listened and watched, so I think it's up there.

[Nick1Ø66 4,689]

In terms of the films, there's only one person on the board who would argue for The Hobbit.

 

And he suffers from Dragon sickness.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

There’s a big, pages-long retrospective on The Hobbit scores in the new issue of Film Score Monthly that’s kind of about the original point of this thread.  Exploring why The Hobbit scores never took hold in the imaginations of film score fans.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

What did it say?

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Subscribe and see!

 

 

I read it last night.  A good article.  The cover story, actually.

 

[The Illustrious Jerry 3,356]

The Hobbit will not age as well as The Lord of the Rings has filmwise. In terms of score, The Lord of the Rings is superior as a grand orchestral and often choral masterpiece that the Hobbit does not necessarily match up to, although I do fancy the scores of the Hobbit nonetheless, just not over TFotR, TTT, or TRotK.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

The Hobbit scores are still very good and among the best ones of this decade. 

 

The circumstances for them to be as good or better than the LOTR ones just weren't there, in any way.

[The Illustrious Jerry 3,356]

Agreed.

[Jay 37,323]

9 hours ago, Stefancos said:

The Hobbit scores are still very good and among the best ones of this decade. 

 

The circumstances for them to be as good or better than the LOTR ones just weren't there, in any way.

This

[Arpy 4,145]

On 8/24/2018 at 10:36 AM, Disco Stu said:

There’s a big, pages-long retrospective on The Hobbit scores in the new issue of Film Score Monthly that’s kind of about the original point of this thread.  Exploring why The Hobbit scores never took hold in the imaginations of film score fans.

When people start talking 'for the fans' they become highly suspect to wrap their own impressions up as fact. The scores for the Hobbit films haven't been matched in complexity and breadth of thematic integrity by any score since, they're quite a slog to get through and don't shine as brilliantly as their predecessors, but they're still crafted with passion and respect for the mythos established by the original trilogy. They're prequel scores and therefore can't escape the eclipse of the Rings' scores and weren't meant to.

 

I think people who were disappointed by the Hobbit films often adjust that to include the scores as collateral, as in, if they didn't like the film, and they couldn't remember the score, it's instantly lumped in with all the supposed reasons why it's a bad trilogy. 

[Alan 689]

Listened to the LOTR and Hobbit scores again recently. While they don't match the heights that the scores for LOTR reach, I agree that the music for The Hobbit is some of the best written in this decade. The problem isn't the music. it's the sound quality.

 

The Hobbit scores often sound horrible, whether I'm listening to the CDs or digital releases. I'm not listening on particularly high-end gear but there's obvious compression going on. I'm not sure how to describe it other than to say it often sounds dull, even boring to me. Nothing seems to have any "sparkle" or energy and when the orchestra is supposed to be at it's loudest we get distortions. A prime example is 'Over Hill' from AUJ. Just as you want to hear the orchestra burst in to life at around the 3 minute mark it sounds like it's stuck, being held back. There's no dynamic range and I get bored and frustrated listening to it. DOS is much the same but BOTFA becomes a tiresome sludge of Hans Zimmer proportions.

 

Having said all that, I do also feel that The Lord of the Rings scores would have benefited from a remaster for their recent re-issues. They sound a hundred times better than The Hobbit but there's still potential for them to sound even better.

 

 

[Holko 9,499]

AUJ even sounds muffled, tinny, or horribly distorted in the film most of the time. 

 

Who the hell mixed this?

Last time I watched it I thought my headphones weren't interpreting 5.1 correctly or something.

[Chen G. 3,944]

Outside of The Battle of the Five Armies soundtrack, I never had issues with the mix, or heard anyone complain of it, for that matter.

 

I'm calling out the halo effect on this one.

[KK 3,307]

BotFA is the worst offender of the lot, mixing-wise. DoS is pretty bad too, though some of the issues have to do with the orchestrations/performance as well.

 

AUJ sounds quite good in comparison to those two, though not as glorious as LOTR .

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I have no issues at all with how AUJ or DoS were performed or recorded.

 

BoT5A sounds like a Brian Tyler score.

[The Illustrious Jerry 3,356]

DoS sounds the best to me.Parts of Battle of the Five Armies are a little iffy, but I'm having a hard time with my speaker as it is.

[Arpy 4,145]

Yeah, they all sound muffled and then you have those farting brass effects in DoS - in A Spell of Concealment. AUJ I think sounds the best.

[The Illustrious Jerry 3,356]

I have a heard time with some AUJ tracks. 

[Chen G. 3,944]

34 minutes ago, Arpy said:

farting brass effects in DoS

 

They're called a bass trombone....

 

Outside of specific pieces that call for added parts, The London Philarmonic recorded these films with three tenor trombones. The New Zealand Symphony has a forth, bass trombone. So naturally you're going to get a different sound.

 

Shore always writes for the ensemble, and its obvious with the later two entries that he wrote to complement the NZSO's excellent low brass. The same is true of the Moria bits of The Fellowship of the Ring.

 

I like it. There's a bit in Inside Information that almost sounds like its imitating Smaug's growls.

[Dixon Hill 4,233]

3 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

 

They're called a bass trombone....

 

Outside of specific pieces that call for added parts, The London Philarmonic recorded these films with three tenor trombones. The New Zealand Symphony has a forth, bass trombone. So naturally you're going to get a different sound.

 

Shore always writes for the ensemble, and its obvious with the later two entries that he wrote to complement the NZSO's excellent low brass. The same is true of the Moria bits of The Fellowship of the Ring.

 

I like it. There's a bit in Inside Information that almost sounds like its imitating Smaug's growls.

 

This is an inaccurate post.