The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

[The Chev]

I do. I thought there were areas that needed some tweaking/extension and we got it with the EE.

I'm sure there is but I haven't found that place yet. :lo



Khev is the only one I've ever seen that likes the TE of FOTR and TTT more. I don't think I know of another fan of that feels that way. All three TE are great but their EE counter parts are the definitive versions.

They are and I love them as well, but when I first watched the Two Towers EE I felt at the time that they kind of threw a little too much extra stuff at the end. Over time I warmed up to them and couldn't imagine watching the TE.

 

[jye4ever]

I do. I thought there were areas that needed some tweaking/extension and we got it with the EE.

I'm sure there is but I haven't found that place yet.



Khev is the only one I've ever seen that likes the TE of FOTR and TTT more. I don't think I know of another fan of that feels that way. All three TE are great but their EE counter parts are the definitive versions.

I meant do you think AUJ EE should've been even longer, or are you content with the way it is now?

LOL at not finding that place yet.

And thanks for schooling Khev.

 

[The Chev]

So, I just got back from seeing it in High Frame rate. Some thoughts and reactions.

Spoiler

Really enjoyed the film. Pace and energy felt more evident in this film. I knew going in that the prologue was going to be Gandalf and Thorin in Bree, but I thought it would mention something that was essential to the story. Everything mentioned was stuff we already knew, making the entire scene kind of redundant. Unless I missed something?

Lee Pace is Awesome. Beorn felt like a Cameo. One thing I loved was the addition of new characters like Bard and the people of Lake town. The LOTR trilogy always brought in new and interesting characters to care about.

The CGI criticism is valid, but it never took from my enjoyment from the film. The last 40 minutes are epic, but how does Smaug know all about the Oakenshield name? Also, he mentions other bits of Info that I was curious as to how he would know that.

The abrupt ending got a reaction from the audience at my theatre. lol

 

[The Josh]

I meant do you think AUJ EE should've been even longer, or are you content with the way it is now?

LOL at not finding that place yet.

And thanks for schooling Khev.

I'm content with the way it is now.

Khev is still young he will learn. I'm not gonna fault the guy for liking Middle-earth the way he does.

So, I just got back from seeing it in High Frame rate. Some thoughts and reactions.

Spoiler

Really enjoyed the film. Pace and energy felt more evident in this film. I knew going in that the prologue was going to be Gandalf and Thorin in Bree, but I thought it would mention something that was essential to the story. Everything mentioned was stuff we already knew, making the entire scene kind of redundant. Unless I missed something?

Lee Pace is Awesome. Beorn felt like a Cameo. One thing I loved was the addition of new characters like Bard and the people of Lake town. The LOTR trilogy always brought in new and interesting characters to care about.

The CGI criticism is valid, but it never took from my enjoyment from the film. The last 40 minutes are epic, but how does Smaug know all about the Oakenshield name? Also, he mentions other bits of Info that I was curious as to how he would know that.

The abrupt ending got a reaction from the audience at my theatre. lol

Spoiler

The Bree bit is to show us how this journey got going and why it got going. Think about The White Council scene and with Galadriel's comment about the Dragon having long been on Gandalf's mind.

I can't say I agree about the CGI. It looked good in the 48fps especially Azog and Smaug. Damn they're good. I think Smaug knows that stuff because he's kind of a wise beast.

 

[greygoose]

Is there a decent amount of dragon action in the last 30 minutes or so of the movie?

 

[rushmore223]

Is there a decent amount of dragon action in the last 30 minutes or so of the movie?

You could say that. I doubt you'll be disappointed.

 

[gagaliya]

I really liked the way the elves killed the orcs, just mowed them down.

I thought smug was a wise intelligent dragon, but in the movie he was just an *******

 

[Khev]

Don't let The Josh fool you, he'll take a 20 hour Middle-Earth film, regardless of pace or content. But there's nothing wrong with him liking it the way he does.

FOTR TE was a perfect movie. Perfect like Jaws. Perfect like Raiders. Every scene connected perfectly to the next, every scene was pretty much flawless in and of itself. Not so with the EE. It had lots of cool bits, but other parts that diminished the whole. Yes its "more." But also less.

TTT is all about Helm's Deep. And the EE takes forever to get there. Then when the battle finally is about to begin the pacing is halted throughout by cutaways to talking trees. In the TE Theoden delivers his awesome "horse and the rider" speech and it then cuts immediately to Aragorn suiting up. Awesome. In the EE Theoden makes his speech then they cut to Treebeard saying nothing's worth saying unless it takes a long time to say. THEN they cut to Aragorn suiting up. Huh?

I do believe the best version of TTT is somewhere in between. Basically I'd want the TE with ONLY the Boromir flashback added in. That'd be awesome. But as it stands TE is the way to go.

ROTK EE has some flaws but it was borderline criminal of the TE to exclude Saruman's fate. So EE wins out on that alone, plus a couple other cool bits.

AUJ EE somehow doesn't obstruct the flow with its extra scenes and gives more insight into the various characters and their motivations.

 

[The Josh]

20 hours is probably too long.

 

[Khev]

"Probably" he says.

 

[greygoose]

You could say that. I doubt you'll be disappointed.

Good stuff!

 

[Khev]

The Smaug sequences are practically their own movie. Dang I need another fix.

Soooo glad they nailed Smaug. I wonder why they showed that awful close-up of his head looking for Bilbo in that first trailer. The finished version looked a thousand times better.

 

[JAWS]

He knows what? About the Ring? He doesn't know that its that particular ring until he goes to Gondor. He just doesn't know it. All this little confrontation with Sauron starts the process you see in The Lord of the Rings. He isn't very strong yet hence why you only see the cloud because he cannot yet take shape and even the eye bit isn't strong enough yet. You will see why even with Sauron/Necromancer in this movie why things get quiet again with The Battle of Dol Guldur in There in Back Again.

So like I said none of this makes Gandalf look dumb. At least not in my opinion as someone whose read a lot of material on this stuff.

Well Josh I know you are going to defend the film no matter what (not a bad thing) but even others who love of the book say that Gandalf was a bit slow coming to the conclusion of it being the One Ring... And he did not Battle Sauron in the book or appendices. At least not that I can find. However full disclosure - I Never read the books so I could be wrong about all of this.

However I am willing to have hope that the third film takes care of this. But having a battle with Sauron and having a magic ring suddenly appear in Bilbos possession should have set off red flags. I mean they know that the ring has a will of it's own yet...... Meh.. No big deal??

And Like I said... If things continue down this path it ruins the Sauron is back feeling of dread that the FOTR had.

But all could be made well in the third film...







Actually now that I think about it Gandalf did not seem surprised that the Nine were released by Sauron... So apparently there was so knowledge that Sauron and the Nine had come back..

But the way the event played out and caracters behaved in FOTR I would never had guessed that only 60 years ago Gandalf had his own fight with Sauron.

 

[The Ween]

The theater was better where I saw the first one, but I didn't make the drive because my local theater offered HFR this time. I guess that since I'm used to watching movies on my HDTV, I don't have a problem adjusting to the frame rate. I just enjoy the clarity and detail and ability to comprehend the action scenes far more than usual. I totally understand that others hate it, but for me it enhances my enjoyment of the movie and so I'm glad that it's available as an option. (My theater offered 2D, 3D and HFR 3D, so people could choose the presentation they wanted, and I like that approach so nobody is forced one way or another.)

There was a bumblebee moment with great 3D and it really made the barrel sequence pop.

That bee was great. Really too cool.

 

[The Josh]

The Smaug sequences are practically their own movie. Dang I need another fix.

Soooo glad they nailed Smaug. I wonder why they showed that awful close-up of his head looking for Bilbo in that first trailer. The finished version looked a thousand times better.

Obviously that wasn't a totally finished cgi at the time.

Well Josh I know you are going to defend the film no matter what (not a bad thing) but even others who love of the book say that Gandalf was a bit slow coming to the conclusion of it being the One Ring... And he did not Battle Sauron in the book or appendices. At least not that I can find. However full disclosure - I Never read the books so I could be wrong about all of this.

No, its actually not that at all. Its called I have a pretty solid knowledge base of the source material and how it relates to the movies. I'm trying to explain to you why you're line of thinking is not correct. As far as Gandalf being slow to realize its The One Ring you can blame that on Tolkien I guess. He isn't any quicker to knowing which ring it is in the books. As a matter of fact how he finds out in the movie is like it is in the books. All anyone knows is Bilbo has a magic ring and until Gandalf reads the scroll and tosses it into the fire (allowing him to see the runes on the ring) its just a magic ring. Its assumed that it was lost in the Anduin and floated out to sea from there. He does not battle Sauron but The White Council does fight the Necromancer (Sauron) to chase him out of Dol Guldur

However I am willing to have hope that the third film takes care of this. But having a battle with Sauron and having a magic ring suddenly appear in Bilbos possession should have set off red flags. I mean they know that the ring has a will of it's own yet...... Meh.. No big deal??

And Like I said... If things continue down this path it ruins the Sauron is back feeling of dread that the FOTR had.

But all could be made well in the third film...

There is no reason to believe the ring Bilbo found in Gollum's Cave is The One Ring (they don't know what happened to it ie read above). As Gandalf says there are lots of magic rings in Middle-earth and none of them are to be used lightly. Again, this is in line with the book.

It won't. You're going to see the Necromancer defeated in film three and vanish. He will then lay in wait until the event of FOTR occur and he starts to reppear and announce it is Sauron tha

 

[The Ween]

Midnight Update: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug opened to $8.8 million at midnight, which is the second-highest midnight performance ever in December. Unfortunately, it ranks second behind last year's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which brought in $13 million at midnight. That's a 32 percent decline—if Smaug continues at that pace through the rest of the weekend, it will open to a very disappointing $58 million.

Of course, using midnight grosses to project the full weekend is far from an exact science. And it is entirely possible that Desolation of Smaug's attendance is more spread out throughout the weekend. However, this is a pretty clear sign that excitement just isn't as high this time around—as a result, it's now safe to say that Smaug will not come close to matching An Unexpected Journey's $84.6 million debut.

There are so many states that had terrible weather, mine included. There are 20 getting snow today even.

 

[Khev]

Obviously that wasn't a totally finished cgi at the time.

Obviously. My question was: why show it? Doing something like that could really backfire because it wasn't very impressive and who knows how many people just assumed that that's what they'd be seeing on film.

It's not like there was a caption saying "work in progress" or anything. As far as everyone knew we were seeing what the finished dragon would look like.

 

[Biojex]

That barrel scene was impossibly fun.

 

[The Josh]

Obviously. My question was: why show it? Doing something like that could really backfire because it wasn't very impressive and who knows how many people just assumed that that's what they'd be seeing on film.

It's not like there was a caption saying "work in progress" or anything. As far as everyone knew we were seeing what the finished dragon would look like.

I don't know. I guess because it was a dark scene and to get people excited about Smaug. I thought he looked fine at the time but the finished product is even better.

That barrel scene was impossibly fun.

I liked it except for I would change out one part because I think both were a little much maybe.

 

[The Chev]

If I remember right, TT didn't have as strong of Opening as FoTR did. Nothing to be worried about.

I actually can't wait to see this again. A lot of hate being flung at this movie on other message boards.