Peter Jackson's Beorn not yet convincing fans...

'Is Peter Jackson's Beorn convincing fans?'

or

'Peter Jackson's Beorn not yet convincing some fans'

Both are more neutral than the heading you've given, which seems to be anticipating the negative - even to be looking for it. I think that's a pity.

I'm a fan, and with the caveat that one tiny, low-res back view is very little to go on, what I see looks good. I like the way the man's shaggy mane of hair seems to echo the shoulders of the bear and the way the bear's fur lies. Looks like an imaginative piece of design; I'm looking forward to seeing more - and from the comments I've read in the threads here, I'm far from being the only one.

Of course there's nothing wrong with criticism, but I find it worrying and rather sad - with this as with anything else - if discontent becomes the default position, so that with each new still, clip, trailer or v-log released the knee-jerk response becomes, "what's wrong with it?", "who doesn't like it?"

Just a thought...
 
It could lead some unaware TORNlurkers or casual fans to have a prejudice about Beorn before even see it. And by the info we have right now is very hard to tell. I dont know it seems that since we have nothing new this weeks it has to be some shocking news that aren´t so IMHO
 
and I think you're right that discontent seems to be 'the default position'. There's so much speculation and pre-judgment without even having seen the finished film. And I'll be the first to admit when I see a shot, if there's something about it I don't care for, I tend to generalize that dislike to the entire character, which is completely unfair of me. (I should really, for this reason, try to avoid seeing any shots other than what is in the official trailer. But, like Pippin, I just had to look!) Of course you can't avoid speculation, but it does seem like the glass is ever half empty as opposed to half full. Pity.
 
I totally have "The Phantom Mullet" by Five Iron Frenzy stuck in my head now.


Cruisin' downtown in your Camaro,
REO Speedwagon on the stereo.
It's kind of catchy,
Kind of a virus,
Cutting your hair like Billy Ray Cyrus.
You're probably bummed,
You probably cried,
You're probably sad that the guy from Lynrd Skynrd died,
You're
probably singing "oh, oh, oh",
All night long.
Chorus"
Feel the
power of the PHANTOM MULLET,
Tremble and cower from the PHANTOM MULLET,
White metal burn of the PHANTOM MULLET,
Combed straight or permed it's THE PHANTOM MULLET,
And you, cutting it short on top,
I want that for me.
Growing it long in the back,
So savage and so free.
Drop into first you're taking it slow,
You're such a rock-star,
You could never know.
I wish I was singing, "oh, oh, oh",
All night long.
Read more: Five Iron Frenzy - The Phantom Mullet Lyrics | MetroLyrics



I'm naturally drifting away from spoilers again as the movie draws nearer - just like I did last year. I become increasingly more adverse to spoiling myself as the movie gets closer, and closer. I can feel the lethargy locking the gears of my mind and my attention on this subject needing repeated efforts of focus. I think that no matter how I may have spoiled myself thus far, given a few months sandwiched in there, it will not affect me like last time.
 
The book never said his hair didn't look like that[;)]

I just want to see it first, He's one of my fav characters
 
Thorin, Radagast, beardless dwarves with starfish hair, Elvish looking dwarves, smaug, necromancer, azog, etc.

Has there been a character reveal or even a major spoiler that isn't from the book that the fans have not reacted to negatively at first?
 
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but in a movie, I think that might not work so well.

I think this comes from a need for differentiation (i.e. every bearded harry man: large or small in size, cannot look much like Gimli with slightly different colored hair or clothing).

Yes, some of the characters do indeed have a Gimli-ish appearance. Several of them, including central bearded characters like Thorin and Gandalf, all have a very traditional euro-grown-man appearance. But if there are 15 or so of these odd characters all looking too much alike, it would be boring and hard to differentiate between them and tedious to design their fashions.

And although mullets may not be in fashion this year, they have come in and out of style over the decades and aren't really that far off the beaten path of style. If anyone in this movie should have a mullet, I'd say Beorn is the best candidate

By no means whatsoever is this the most unusual or jarring characterization in this movie. It will be interesting.
 
'Is Peter Jackson's Beorn convincing fans?'

or

'Peter Jackson's Beorn not yet convincing some fans'

Both are more neutral than the heading you've given, which seems to be anticipating the negative - even to be looking for it. I think that's a pity.

I'm a fan, and with the caveat that one tiny, low-res back view is very little to go on, what I see looks good. I like the way the man's shaggy mane of hair seems to echo the shoulders of the bear and the way the bear's fur lies. Looks like an imaginative piece of design; I'm looking forward to seeing more - and from the comments I've read in the threads here, I'm far from being the only one.

Of course there's nothing wrong with criticism, but I find it worrying and rather sad - with this as with anything else - if discontent becomes the default position, so that with each new still, clip, trailer or v-log released the knee-jerk response becomes, "what's wrong with it?", "who doesn't like it?"

Just a thought...
Click to expand...
 
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'Is Peter Jackson's Beorn convincing fans?' or 'Peter Jackson's Beorn not yet convincing some fans'

Both are more neutral than the heading you've given, which seems to be anticipating the negative - even to be looking for it. I think that's a pity.
Click to expand...

I think the story / thread title's perfectly fair considering that over half of the Facebook comments "Dislike" the design and over half of the Ringer comments don't "Like" the design...

I take your point, though. If it were the title for a survey, rather than an analysis of one, I think you'd be right.
 
I think this comes from a need for differentiation...By no means whatsoever is this the most unusual or jarring characterization in this movie.
Click to expand...

Really? Which designs do you think are more "jarring" than this one? (Personally, I think there a few contenders!) [crazy]

As for your point about differentiation, I think you're right. It was plainly a major factor in the, ahem, "varied" design of the dwarves, for example. But do you not think it would have been possible to design a unique Beorn more in line with what, you know, Tolkien told us he looked like? Did they have to go this far?
 
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just from the back with such poor resolution.

As long as he looks big and imposing, I'm wondering what other details there are to go off of:

"Standing near was a huge man with a thick black beard and hair, and great bare arms and legs with knotted muscles. He was clothed in a tunic of wool down to his knees and was leaning on a large axe."

So - the beard thing - every character with a thick beard (differentiated by length and color - mostly of hats actually)?
I'd say the hair color is a miss - no reason they couldn't have matched that.
I wonder why no tunic? I wonder but the resolution is so terrible ...

You may have a point about them taking it just a wee bit further than necessary but we will have to see. I do feel that a couple of the dwarves did take that extra step past what was helpful into the "slightly jarring" category - but I did eventually get used to it. And I don't expect hairstyles on secondary and tertiary characters to create a major problem for me at any rate.
 
As for Beorn, like 59% of respondents to the poll, I said that I'd wait and see. I wish I had said that I like it, because I think I do.

I was noncommital because it was so hard to really see much in the image, but I liked what I saw. As Buchanicus said farther down "I like the way the man's shaggy mane of hair seems to echo the shoulders of the bear and the way the bear's fur lies. Looks like an imaginative piece of design." I agree.
 
I'm wondering what other details there are to go off
Click to expand...

Well, I'd argue his name is another detail they could have gone off. Being Norse / Saxon in origin, they might have taken that and given us someone who looked vaguely, you know, Norse / Saxon. How about a scar and a plait or two? [;)]

There's also Tolkien's sketch of Beorn's Hall which is as archetypal a Norse / Saxon Great Hall as you could hope to see, adding further weight to the idea that that's how the professor envisaged the character...

Instead, they seem to have taken the meaning of his name ("bear" in Old Norse) and run with that instead. It's their prerogative, I willingly concede, but the design they've consequently ended up with seems, to me, not to sit too well either with Tolkien's portrayal or the general aesthetic of Jackson's Middle-earth [:/]
 
Especially since "the fans" are defined very limited here via the channels of TORN.

I have first read about the picture on various movie sides (also their facebook channels) and there the reaction has been generally positive, many people glad that they came up with something not-Hagrid-like.

All in all, not happy with the hyperbole as long as we do not have a better image or moving footage. Especially since the reactions from some corners of this board (by far not all) have been pretty hostile for several designs over the past months (especially Smaug and some of the settings from the trailer).
 
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but I am still not convinced that the photo we have been seeing is Beorn. Has anyone done a side by side with an actual photo of the actor (whose name escapes me) who is playing Beorn to see if its the same person? And it still looks to me like the guy in the photo is wearing jeans.
 
...personally, until I see a much better picture of him...or probably just the movie. Looks don't mean as much to me as if they can act the part.
 
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