The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

[Irvy]

I want some dancing ewoks added at the end of ROTK

 

[DiFabio]

PJ will have to be very careful about adding any new footage to the LOTR now since visual effects have advanced greatly in the last 13 years. He wouldn't want a Lucas-esque hodge podge of different eras of tech present in one film.

Visually, I don't think there would be a problem. A lot of the scenes that were cut (like the death of Gilgalad, moria goblins attacking the Fellowship as they enter Lothlorien, the Uruk-Hai finding Eowyn in the glittering caves, young Aragorn and Arwen, Aragorn suiting up in gondorian armor, etc.) were scrapped in post production. So that means the sound effects, visual effects and color timing were already finished. A lot of the deleted, deleted scenes were used in trailers and other promotional material. I think the only problem would be a score/soundtrack to accompany scenes.

In the commentaries I know they mention a lot of the deleted scenes such as the epilogue that contained what happened to Legolas, Gimli, etc. were in the final cut of the film but were scrapped last second. They thought about putting them in the extended versions, but Jackson didn't think they were fun or cool enough.

 

[jye4ever]

Soundtrack to LOTR, especially Frodo/Shire theme, is very relaxing to my soul.

I hope my afterlife is in the Shire, relaxing and peaceful, with Scarjo exercising on my face.

 

[Irvy]

Soundtrack to LOTR, especially Frodo/Shire theme, is very relaxing to my soul.

I hope my afterlife is in the Shire, relaxing and peaceful, with Scarjo exercising on my face.

Sharing some old toby with Scarjo. Radsgast watches from the bushes.

 

[jye4ever]

 

[a-dev]

Soundtrack to LOTR, especially Frodo/Shire theme, is very relaxing to my soul.

I hope my afterlife is in the Shire, relaxing and peaceful, with Scarjo exercising on my face.

Aaaaaaannd back to the Avengers thread I go...

 

[jye4ever]

I was just there.

 

[The Josh]

Soundtrack to LOTR, especially Frodo/Shire theme, is very relaxing to my soul.

I listen to the EE OST a lot when I'm going to sleep at night and when I do my yearly reading of the books. Same goes for The Hobbit stuff.

 

[ZaCHw117]

Missed this page somehow..

This.

After the council and the fellowship is formed, having to changes discs kills the flow. I saw the extended versions of the trilogy in theaters and no intermission or changing discs was a huge plus. The Fellowship extended is my favorite of all of them. It makes a great film even better. There are some things I could do without, but I wouldn't change a thing with the Shire/Bilbo introduction. I remember getting chills the first time I saw "The Fellowship of the Ring" title as it pans through the Bag End corridor with Bilbo writing his book.

The Two Towers Extended has the Boromir/Faramir/Denethor dynamic is pretty important to me as well as Saruman and Wormtongue in Return of the King, but a lot of the Extended scenes other than that in Two Towers and Return of the King is pure fluff. There's a point midway though Return of the King where it feels like it's dragging not long after Grond.

One thing I would have done is taken the Aragorn/Arwen scenes from Two Towers (the ones where Elrond tells Aragorn to stay away from Arwen and Aragorn tries to give her back the evenstar). Those cuts just don't seem right in the Two Towers narrative via flashback, especially when the Fellowship Extended has Elrond talking about his mom and the departure of the Fellowship. Those flashbacks in Two Towers happen within minutes of what goes on in Fellowship, just keep them in it. It seemed like they were just trying to give Liv Tyler a part in Two Towers by spreading them out.

fantastic post fabio.

Watching the title scroll in FOTR EE was a "oh wow, i already like this much better somehow" moment.

I was so excited when the EE were announced on blu, then they still had two bloody discs

Right?

If they can fit 4 games on one blu-ray disk these days, there's no reason they can't fit 3 hours of HD footage on one.

It is a good bathroom break time.

The pause button does that too josh.

 

[The Josh]

The pause button does that too josh.

I look at it like I'm exercising my bladders ability to hold it.

 

[JAWS]

He was a Son of Gondor who got in the way of Frodo's mission, just like his brother. Boromir didn't need any extended backstory in FOTR and neither did Faramir. I do like those scenes but the movies aren't about Faramir. TTT doesn't hit it's stride until Helm's Deep and the EE is inferior because it makes the first half drag even longer. And interrupting the "Where is the Horse and the Rider" speech with more TREEBEARD instead of cutting directly to Aragorn suiting up is just criminal.

TE FTW.

I choose TTT because of the impact alone made on Faramir. He's fairly unlikeable in TTT TE and because of the EE he more resembles the honorable character you get in the book. I don't think anything about TTT is hurt by what was done in the EE. I'm with you that I love that these movies are long because you get to just spend so much great time in a fantastic world with fantastic characters. As you said you get to know them and all the motivations that are going into why things are being done. It's why I watch them every year and why I read the books every year.

Faramir was an awful character in TTT.. Unlikable and boring... Made much richer in the EX version of the film and thus made much richer and more important and relatable in ROTK.

And so I say.. Khev is just wrong, wrong, wrong. wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong.

 

[The Josh]

Jaws agrees with me (sort of)? I feel dirty.

 

[JAWS]

Jaws agrees with me (sort of)? I feel dirty.

Ummm No..... YOU agree with ME.

 

[The Ween]

My mother watched the trilogy yesterday on TNT while she did other things. I came into the room at one point where Brego finds Aragorn. At least in the EE it explains where Brego came from and that he wasn't some random horse who came upon a human and decided to help him out.

 

[The Josh]

That's why the EE are just a smidge better. They fill in the gaps.

 

[The Josh]

Ummm No..... YOU agree with ME.

Either way I still feel dirty.

 

[Fritz]

1. Two opening narrators. To me the beginning loses some elegance having Galadriel and then Bilbo giving voice-overs. It was perfect the first time.

As long as Galadriel did the Last Alliance stuff it's ok. Bilbo doing the hobbit stuff seems natural to me.

2. Sam's redundant awe about seeing elves. In the TE he got excited about Aragorn mentioning Rivendell because "we're going to see the elves!" And then when Arwen appears his awe struck whisper, "She's an elf." But then the EE gives weird redundancy to those scenes by having Frodo and Sam spying on the departing wood elves. By the time Aragorn mentions them they're already old news. It's just very clear to me that whenever PJ realized he was going to cut the wood elf scene he arranged Sam's later scenes to imply that he had never seen them before. The extended version just adds weirdness to his reactions. "Wow, wood elves!" "Hear that Frodo, we're going to see the elves!" "She's an elf!" Too much. It reminds me of the extra Jabba scene in the ANH SE where he basically repeats Greedo's dialogue to Han Solo. Clearly the two scenes weren't meant to share the same movie.

I don't think that's redundant at all. I mean every time I see Kate Beckinsale I say wow each time.

3. Boromir. He had a real gradual succumbing to the Ring in the TE, beginning with mere surface comments at the Council of Elrond and then his slight pause when giving the Ring to Frodo on the mountain. A nice evolution. But in the EE he practically goes full Gollum right in front of everyone, and then they just carry on like nothing happened. I see him standing up and reaching for it and the sky going dark and all I can think of is, "Well he's obviously disqualified from the quest, wait they're TAKING him?" And then when he is overcome at the end of the movie it just seems like "duh, what'd you expect." I don't care if any of these scenes were in the book, it really calls the wisdom of the group into question the way they are presented in the extended film.

Then technically no one should have been in the group because they all could have succumbed to the ring power. Boromir just showed it outwardly during the council but Elrond knew that everyone could be corrupted by it's power.

4. The dumb dialogue about the Mithril shirt. In the TE its this private gift from Bilbo to Frodo that shocks everyone. And then in the EE five minutes before Frodo's shirt is revealed Gandalf gives this long speech about an awesome Mithril shirt that Bilbo had and how cool it is. Then everyone sees Frodo wearing it and...they're still shocked. "Mithril...." Yeah, duh. Everyone was just talking about it.

They were talking about it but actually seeing it was impressive to them. I could be talking to someone about a 1967 Mustang Shelby GT but if I actually saw one moments later the reaction would still be great.

5. A minor one but I really liked how Galadriel's elves first apprehended the companions in the TE. Gimli's "these woods are perilous" line was cool and I didn't like that it was deleted out of the EE.

It was weird that it was changed from Haldir not letting them leave Lorien to not letting them in.

Sauron goes to the Elves and tricks them into teaching him how to create the Ring of power. It's a skill only they know so he has to learn it from them. So he uses the fair form of Annatar to fool them and the ring maker of the High Elves was Celebrimbor (you see him in The Shadow of Mordor game) that teaches him the skill.

I'm pretty sure Sauron taught the Elven Smiths how to make the rings of power not the other way around.

 

[The Josh]

As long as Galadriel did the Last Alliance stuff it's ok. Bilbo doing the hobbit stuff seems natural to me.

I don't think that's redundant at all. I mean every time I see Kate Beckinsale I say wow each time.

Then technically no one should have been in the group because they all could have succumbed to the ring power. Boromir just showed it outwardly during the council but Elrond knew that everyone could be corrupted by it's power.

They were talking about it but actually seeing it was impressive to them. I could be talking to someone about a 1967 Mustang Shelby GT but if I actually saw one moments later the reaction would still be great.

It was weird that it was changed from Haldir not letting them leave Lorien to not letting them in.

I'm pretty sure Sauron taught the Elven Smiths how to make the rings of power not the other way around.

This is what I found and what I recall from reading.

The Rings of Power were the masterwork of the elven-smiths of Eregion headed by Celebrimbor, who was descended from Fëanor. The impetus for their creation came from Sauron, who could at that time still assume an appearance fair enough to deceive the Elves. A total of nineteen Rings of Power were forged by the Elves, sixteen of which Sauron had a direct hand in creating. The greatest three Rings Celebrimbor crafted alone. Many other lesser rings were made, described in the The Silmarillion and by Gandalf, though they were generally considered as having been mere essays in the craft: practice, as it were, for the smiths.

 

[Fritz]

...This is what I found and what I recall from reading.

Where's that info from?

This is from the Silmarillion...

Therefore they hearkened to Sauron, and they learned of him many things, for his knowledge was great. In those days the smiths of Ost-in-Edhil surpassed all that they had contrived before; and they took thought, and they made Rings of Power. But Sauron guided their labours, and he was aware of all that they did; for his desire was to set a bond upon the Elves and to bring them under his vigilance.

[EDIT]

Also from the Appendices...

The Elven-smiths instructed by Sauron reach the height of their skill. They begin the forging of the Rings of Power.

 

[The Josh]

Where's that info from?

This is from the Silmarillion...

Therefore they hearkened to Sauron, and they learned of him many things, for his knowledge was great. In those days the smiths of Ost-in-Edhil surpassed all that they had contrived before; and they took thought, and they made Rings of Power. But Sauron guided their labours, and he was aware of all that they did; for his desire was to set a bond upon the Elves and to bring them under his vigilance.

Also from the Appendices...

The Elven-smiths instructed by Sauron reach the height of their skill. They begin the forging of the Rings of Power.

I got it from one of the major LOTR wikis.

Here's what The Tolkien Gateway says. Now, I'm confused.

Around S.A. 1200, Sauron started to corrupt the Elves.[1] He did not manage to approach Gil-galad and Elrond but he had better luck with the Elven-smiths of Eregion. The Gwaith-i-Mírdain of Eregion were mostly Noldor, and wished to have the same joys in Middle-earth as the Elves who had returned to Valinor. Sauron therefore presented himself as "Annatar", an emissary from the Valar,and tempted the Elves by offering the knowledge to transform Middle-earth.

"Annatar" taught the smiths the knowledge how to create Rings, which would grant the Elves who wear them certain powers. At first the Elves created some lesser rings were only essays in the craft before it was full-grown. In approximately S.A. 1500 the Greater 16 were created.When Annatar departed from Eregion, Celebrimbor went on to forge the Three Rings using the knowledge he had gained from him, but without his involvement, and finished them around S.A. 1590.

Sauron then created The One Ring around 1600, alone, in the heart of Mount Doom. Its purpose was to rule over all the other rings, and Sauron put a great part of his power into it. The Elves, upon creation of the One, heard Sauron speak the spell, and realized they had been betrayed.