I wasn’t all that crazy about the hobbit movies in the first place, and it had NOTHING to do with the lack of a romantic subplot. I guess I’m just not a Hobbit kinda girl. I have no problems with movies that are action based, or with fantasy movies, or sciFi (love the first two Alien movies, Sigourney rocks!) and so on, there’s just something about the Hobbit story (and I’ve tried to read the books a number of times), that just doesn’t grab me.
Not being a Hobbit fan, I’ve no idea why the producers decided to write in a non-existent character. It’s possible they did think they were bringing in more ladies to their customer base. I like Evangeline Lily, but I’m not going to see the movie just because she has a romantic part in it. (and FTR, I HATE HATE HATE romantic triangle plots even when they’re part of a romance movie I might like).
All that said, I’m not sure if staying away from the Hobbit will help your cause or not, but I’ve done my part!
The actress who plays Tauril had the part explained to her, how she’d be an elf and macking on Legolas and all that ; and she agreed to take it on the condition that there be no love triangle (which, come to think of it, there was one in LOTR - from the books even !). They assured her there wasn’t. Filming began.
Then the bloat began, presumably some studio hack took a focus-group sharpened hatchet to the script and what do you know, love triangle ! Of course, by then it was much too late for her to back out of the role…
[QUOTE=http://www.hypable.com/2013/12/09/hobbit-evangeline-lilly-tauriel-hero-new-character/]
“Because The Hobbit was my favorite book as a little girl, and the Silvan Elves were my favorite characters in the book, it would be a dream come true to play one, I agreed very quickly. And then they said to me, ‘Your character’s not in the book.’ And I took great pause as a great fan of Tolkien. I kind of gulped and went, ‘Whaaaat? Everyone’s going to hate me.’”
After Jackson and producers spoke to her about the need for a female lead, she was willing to agree but had one rule she needed them to commit to. “At that moment when [Boyens] said there was a love story, I agreed to the job under one condition. One condition. And they agreed to the condition, and it was in place for two years. The condition was: I will not be involved in a love triangle. (“It’s true,” Boyens confirms). Because any of you who are fans of Lost — I had it up to here with love triangles.”
“And sure enough, I come back for reshoots in 2012 and they go, ‘We’ve made a few adjustments to the love story.’”
The romantic plot line was developed after adding a third film to The Hobbit series. Plans originally called for two movies, but in July 2012 Jackson announced a third.
“That was a whoops moment,” Boyens admits of going back on their promise to Lilly. “But that was genuine – it wasn’t a triangle. What happened was, we saw it playing [on screen] – and that first look between Kili and Legolas, you know they have a kind of exchange of looks. It was so perfect that we were like -”
“We gotta go there,” Lilly replies.
Some people have brought up the Bechdel test. Is there one for anti-romance sub-plots? The conditions to pass would be something like:
There are male and female main characters.
They interact throughout the movie.
They don’t stare at each other wistfully, date, fall in love, have sex, etc.
Seems like it’d be slim pickings.
This thread reminded me of John Kricfalusi’s epic rants about entertainment suits:
“Every story needs the power love!” could be religion, but I’m unconvinced that it’s not effective. I see mostly men complain about it. Women mostly seem to complain that their preferred pairing didn’t happen, not that there was one forced in there in the first place. No reason to begrudge them though. Might as well start a thread imploring men not to spend money on movies with unnecessary car chases, fight scenes, and T&A shots. As if there’s such a thing!
Oooh, boy! He’s so very clever to sneak in a third rate play on words, and you are so soooo very clever to have spotted it. :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
NO NO NO NO! They did not need to go there! The life of an elf does not extend well to such wistful moments such as an exchange of looks being the basis of a lifelong commitment. In case the producers forgot what was established in the LOTR movies, elfs are immortal. Dwarves aren’t. It is a HUGE deal for an elf to choose a mate. They don’t do so because they spy a taller-than-average dwarf! If they thought the look conveyed some significance, then the proper thing to do was to GO BACK AND RESHOOT THAT TO EDIT OUT THAT LOOK!!! Instead, this shit triangle will drag on into another movie where I’m sure Kili will return the favor by saving Tauriel, probably from Legolas’s jealous penis or dragonfire or some thing. If there is a kiss, I’m gonna get stabby
If they wanted to make a love triangle, then the one that makes the most sense is to have Tauriel fall for Balin. He’s old, closer to her age, and actually has some decent qualities other than the lease ugly one of a band of dwarves. Or, you know, they could simply do away with the whole shitty thing altogether and follow the book.
I just saw Hobbit 2 after seeing Hobbit 1 on DVD last night. The love triangle was useless mainly because it was wholly unbelievable. It felt tacked on thoughtlessly, like a garnish. But this is how most of the story (both movies) came across to me. The dwarf possee had no business surviving the first tussle with the Orcs let alone the troll kidnapping, the goblin assault, the spider incursion, and the Orc shootout by the water. (And WTF? was the point of the gold fiasco at the moutain? That turned out to be a whole bunch of nothing.) At a certain point, the second movie starting feeling like it was making fun of itself a la Blues Brothers, and that completely took me out of the experience. Absurd levels of CGI-enhanced violence took the place of plot and character development.
And so in conclusion, the love triangle didn’t seemed forced to me. It was simply one of many pieces of schlock thrown into the Hobbit story to juice it up for the masses.
This is a legitimate, if very minor, complaint about the new Hobbit Movies, which doesn’t exist in the old ones and the book because they take themselves less seriously. When you take the material more seriously, it exposes itself to logic like this whereas the older, child/fairy-tale-oriented stuff only has to make sense on its own level.
The LOTR movies and books had a similar (and yet still very small) problem: despite the actual plot not being too contrived (relatively speaking), the situations and places seemed like a travelogue, where Tolkien had a legitimately cool place that he had already invented and make up an excuse to bring the characters there.
Just like how a crime caper chase movie with scenes in the Colosseum, Carcassonne, The Eiffel Tower, and Big Ben would be equal parts artificial and awesome.
I encountered the same issue with Dune. The exotic scenery, antiquated speech patterns, and complicated backstory politics between various tribes/species dominates the viewer/reader’s attention in competition with the plot–which by itself is not strong enough to carry three 3-hour movies.
I’m not surprised that this was my reaction to the movie. I tend to be drawn to sci-fi/fantasy that is more story-driven, where the setting functions as the backdrop not the centerstage.
The first Hobbit was ruined for me (well, taken from decent down to awful) by breaking up the story with interruptions by scenes that weren’t in the book (to be clear, the problem was they were terrible scenes, in addition to not being in the book). Especially Radagast, Frodo, and old Bilbo.
Given that, I don’t think it is fair to chalk this up to women wanting romance. The only other option was another 40 minutes of Radagast on a sleigh pulled by rabbits. Leaving out the embarrassingly bad stuff Jackson pulled out of a hat was, sadly, never a possibility. You don’t turn a short book into 3-4 full length movies by not stuffing in every inane idea you have to fill space.
Actually, the larger plot of the Hobbit was not in the Book, and I am glad to see Jackson adding it in. The dwarves were unaware that while they were on their little quest to recover a horde and maybe a homeland, Larger Events were occurring, which is why Gandalf hied off in the middle. Adding that was a Good Thing. I always wanted to find out what the White Council did vs the Necromancer. Making some of the scenes extra added action was also Good.
I have no problem with Taurial but her making moon-eyes at Kili is a bit much (but as long as they keep it “moon-eyes” I am Ok with it). The forbidden romance with Legolas makes sense, however, given how snooty the elves were about which subtype of elf you were.
The Hollywood execs are convinced that there is only One True Plot: boy meets girl. Thus we have Tauriel. It was hardly noticeable alongside Smaug being more or less completely incompetent and an entirely hollow mountain.
The Straight Dope on Female Dwarves is there are none, they mate with rocks. Does the movie explain how Bilbo wound up with Thorin’s silver service? I’m always been curious about that.
Concerning elves “I’m not saying Sauron is right, but I’m not saying he’s wrong either, if you get my drift” – Sam Gamgee .(after witnessing the departure the the filthiest, most loathsome, evil, dispicable creature in all-o-Middle Earth … Queen of the Kinslayers herself)
To the OP, I ask:
1] Is there more than one woman, and if so;
2] Do two or more woman actually have a conversation, and if so;
3] Is the conversation about something OTHER than men?
If the answer is no to any of these questions three, then the movie is explotative, demeaning and is specifically designed to brainwash young girls into a social roles of sex workers and line cooks. I’m guessing here, but I’ll bet the nine in my username that other than the love triangle, she has absolutely no other purpose in the movie. If you take your daughter to see this, you’re one sick bastard.
Other than Bard’s daughters, I don’t really think there are any women at all. They might have screamed at each other when the Orcs were attacking, but I don’t remember them really talking to each other or Tauriel that wasn’t in the context of healing Kili
