It appears a lot of people hate the dragon sequence... how are you all so certain that Smaug was dumb or couldn't find them? I never read the books so I don't know how things played out there. My interpretation is that he is toying with his prey since he knows for a fact that they can't do shit to him. The fact that he takes off for Laketown after learning they care about Laketown kinda drove that home for me.

Valiver

Caldeum1977 Posts

December 31 2013 00:42 GMT

#1642

On December 31 2013 07:25 TheRabidDeer wrote:
It appears a lot of people hate the dragon sequence... how are you all so certain that Smaug was dumb or couldn't find them? I never read the books so I don't know how things played out there. My interpretation is that he is toying with his prey since he knows for a fact that they can't do shit to him. The fact that he takes off for Laketown after learning they care about Laketown kinda drove that home for me.

I think he was toying with them for a while, especially after the conversation with Bilbo to start that whole thing off. The whole thing in the forge though I still thought was overdone.

BigFan

TLADT24920 Posts

December 31 2013 00:55 GMT

#1643

I enjoyed the dragon sequence. As mentioned, I saw it as him toying around with them since they can't do much to defeat him. The only part that seemed a bit odd was when they melted the gold statue and he seemed to get caught up in that and get pissed off rofl. Other than that, his scenes were very enjoyable.

Noocta

France12578 Posts

December 31 2013 06:18 GMT

#1644

I just watched the second movie, and holy fucking shit, CGI these days is amazing.
Smaug is fucking majestic. Probably the most impressive monster I've seen in a movie to date.

I don't really care for the problems people are pointing at. It's a red dragon, it's pretty common in mythology about this kind of beast to toy with people and be very arrogant.

Seriously tho, the whole part of the movie with the dragon inside the mountain is a representation of my dreams as a boy liking fantasy. You know, when you imagine it in your head ?
God. Majestic and enormous.

Mensol

14536 Posts

January 08 2014 23:56 GMT

#1645

Legolas is so fkn cool. Smaug's im fire, im death part was amazing too

But my favorite thing about this movie is its songs. I See Fire is so FUCKING good.

Thorakh

Netherlands1788 Posts

January 18 2014 19:21 GMT

#1646

Terrible, terrible movie. This isn't a movie adaptation of the Hobbit, this is Jackson losely basing a mindless Transformers-like action movie on important events from the Hobbit. Sure, the CGI was fucking amazing and yeah, the movie was entertaining... if you disregard the plot, which made no sense at all.

The only things I liked about it besides the CGI was Bilbo's conversation with Smaug, Martin Freeman's acting, the portrayal of Erebor and... yeah well that was it, really.

At least during the making of the LotR trilogy Jackson seemed to control himself and deliver a product that could be called a decent adaptation of the books. It seems like with these movies he was given the greenlight to go batshit crazy and instead of making a good adaptation he made an endless rollercoaster ride of stupid action scenes and random love bullshit without any concern for pacing (seriously, what the fuck was wrong with that?) and a plot that at least has some semblance of coherence.

If Tolkien was alive he'd have killed Jackson and all others responsible for this.

Lebesgue

4542 Posts

February 01 2014 19:32 GMT

#1647

On January 19 2014 04:21 Thorakh wrote:
Terrible, terrible movie. This isn't a movie adaptation of the Hobbit, this is Jackson losely basing a mindless Transformers-like action movie on important events from the Hobbit. Sure, the CGI was fucking amazing and yeah, the movie was entertaining... if you disregard the plot, which made no sense at all.

The only things I liked about it besides the CGI was Bilbo's conversation with Smaug, Martin Freeman's acting, the portrayal of Erebor and... yeah well that was it, really.

At least during the making of the LotR trilogy Jackson seemed to control himself and deliver a product that could be called a decent adaptation of the books. It seems like with these movies he was given the greenlight to go batshit crazy and instead of making a good adaptation he made an endless rollercoaster ride of stupid action scenes and random love bullshit without any concern for pacing (seriously, what the fuck was wrong with that?) and a plot that at least has some semblance of coherence.

If Tolkien was alive he'd have killed Jackson and all others responsible for this.

Totally agree. I seriously do not understand how it got better reviews than the first part which was already not that great, but was OK and enjoyable. This one felt overlong and boring. Seriously, a few times I was looking at my watch to check how much more of the movie there is left; which I never do unless the movie is damn boring.

This movie has so little to do with the book it is just astonishing. I mean, at most 15% of the events in the movie are in the book and this is being generous. The part with Beorn, Mirkwood, spiders is just a sad joke. And it only gets worst from there on. Orcs everywhere chasing all the time the dwarves, Legolas and Tauriel, Kili being left behind with the wound, the fight with Smaug are all unnecessary or way too long. And the scene of the movie made me feel as if I am watching a TV series not a movie trilogy.

Jackson added all those unnecessary scene to the movie that there is no time left character development whatsoever. By the half of the movie I didn't care about the dwarves, Bilbo or anyone else.

At the beginning I was sceptical when I've heard that the hobbit will have three parts. But I thought that this not necessarily bad. It would allow Jackson to elaborate on issues that the book mentions only in passing, like the necromancer in Dol Goldur.

Instead, this felt just like Star Wars: Phantom Menace. A movie made for teenage boys and a slap in the face of older fans. Congratulations Jackson, you are following the footsteps of George Lucas...

Torte de Lini

Germany38463 Posts

March 23 2014 02:55 GMT

#1648

Smaug's appearance and voice was frightening, best part of the film.
The rest I did not care about; in contrast to the book the movie feels like a Tex Avery cartoon of chasing without any light-heartedness.

Staboteur

Canada1873 Posts

March 23 2014 04:57 GMT

#1649

It annoys me on some level that the tiered conflicts of "Middle Earth" are gone. It might just be me and a hazy memory from having the book read to me as a kid (the hobbit), but I remember being fascinated by the levels of conflicts. I mean, on the surface/"human"/relatable level there was all the shit that hobbits/humans/dwarves went through. But then there was also the elves, who were still relatable but a step above that. Then the Wizards, who were some kind of apparently mortal but timeless humanlike dudes, basically human demigods. Then there was Tom Bombadil, who came across as a god of sorts, not completely indifferent to the problems of lesser creatures, but not willing to interfere too much either.

Obviously a fleshed-out world is harder to create via cinema, but I think the magic of the story is lost in the films, and we're left with a cool bunch of action sequences and seeming epicness.

That said, smaug is cool as fuck.

{CC}StealthBlue

United States41117 Posts

April 24 2014 18:00 GMT

#1650

The final film's name has changed to "Battle of the Five Armies"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/24/the-hobbit-the-battle-of-the-five-armies_n_5205488.html

Valiver

Caldeum1977 Posts

April 24 2014 18:07 GMT

#1651

On April 25 2014 03:00 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
The final film's name has changed to "Battle of the Five Armies"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/24/the-hobbit-the-battle-of-the-five-armies_n_5205488.html

It does make more sense this way. They are all there already, so the "there" part of There and Back Again wouldn't apply. If I remember correctly the only stuff left from the book at least is the battle and the journey home (which was what, 2 pages?), although I guess they've added stuff with the Necromancer and all that. It should be a fairly action-packed movie.

Dunmer

United Kingdom568 Posts

April 24 2014 19:39 GMT

#1652

The DVD boxset should all together have There and back again - A hobbits tale written on it :D

Falling

Canada11525 Posts

April 24 2014 23:56 GMT

#1653

There and Back Again is a great name for Tolkien lovers. Battle of Five Armies is much better name to pull butts into seats.
I like that they were going to name it that. But if you are driving past the theatre marquee, I am certain Battle of Five Armies sound like a much more appealing film then going and coming back again.

{CC}StealthBlue

United States41117 Posts

July 22 2014 16:31 GMT

#1654

First official stillfrom 'The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies':

[image loading]

Serejai

6007 Posts

July 22 2014 17:25 GMT

#1655

Is it just me or does the guy on the right look like a slightly older Orlando Bloom? When I first saw Desolation of Smaug I thought it was Orlando Bloom playing two roles.

Caladbolg

2855 Posts

July 23 2014 04:47 GMT

#1656

On July 23 2014 02:25 Serejai wrote:
Is it just me or does the guy on the right look like a slightly older Orlando Bloom? When I first saw Desolation of Smaug I thought it was Orlando Bloom playing two roles.

He's like Aragorn and Legolas' lovechild. They should've gotten Bard a more beefy-looking actor.

Warlock40

601 Posts

July 23 2014 05:55 GMT

#1657

When's the teaser trailer gonna be out? Only six months left and all we have is one image? And still no word on running time. I mean, if I recall correctly, all that's left is the fight with Smaug and the battle at the end, right? Can't be more than two hours. Unless we get a half hour's worth of endings to find out about what happened to every single character at the end of the movie, like they did with RotK. Oh, and then there's Sauron stuff, too, I suppose.

Dunmer

United Kingdom568 Posts

July 23 2014 11:02 GMT

#1658

The white council is going to fight the necromancer though and all the other stuff that happens around the hobbit but isnt actually in it. Also I imagine they will have like 10-15 mins at the end reminding people of the coming events of the lord of the rings.

Falling

Canada11525 Posts

July 28 2014 19:19 GMT

#1659

New trailer is out. I've updated the OP.

Musicus

Germany23579 Posts

July 28 2014 19:52 GMT

#1660

You know there were some things that annoyed me in the second movie, but you really can't go wrong with the third, it's mostly battles from now on and it can only be epic. I am still incredibly hyped and will watch this on the first day!