The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug

[Scotty_ffgamer]

Psychotic hit on one of my favorite things about this movie: the visual design. Yes, I do prefer practical effects/make up/etc to CG, but the set design and such is all pretty beautiful. These were my favorite aspects of the Lord of the Rings honestly, and I think it's still pretty strong in these movies.

That being said, the old 1977 cartoon movie is still the best movie adaptation so far .

Speaking of which, I almost want to try to organize a EoFF watch party of the cartoon Hobbit. I think that would be fun. I don't think I own the movie, though.

[Botchmun]

warning: I'mma do a big angry rant post. It's big and It's angry.

In the original book, Bilbo came into his own as the big fooking prawn fantastic hero of the story. He manned up, saved the dwarves from giant spiders (which gets bonus points because regular sized spiders make most EoFF users wet themselves with fear*) and then proceeded to hack and murder them WHILE SINGING A SONG ABOUT HOW STUPID AND LAZY THEY WERE. A few of my friends were thoroughly disappointed by the turn of events that is how the scene played out instead, but this is where my first personal gripe with the movie comes up.

Imagine you go into a theater, you get the seat you like (back row wall seats are my favorite.) and you put on your cheap viewmaster "3D" glasses. The movie starts, there's all the actors using awesome camera angles and scaling to look shorter than Gandalf, the humour is there and the music kicks in and takes you to that magical place only a good fantasy story can take you. Then you reach one part and the music stops. You're wondering why the music stops, why'd the music stop? Orlando bloom wearing a platinum blond wig walks into the foreground, completely blocking the entire movie. Without a word he just drops his little elf breeches and wanks. This is the rest of the movie.

If Peedar Jikksun wants to remind us that he made the sequel to the hobbit before making the hobbit then good for him, pat on the shoulders and give the fuzzy little munchkin a Jaffa Cake. If Legolas showed up in the background drinking a diet pepsi through a straw and gave us an uncharacteristic thumbs up I'd have been fine and thrown a double-thumbs up and a dorky grin at the movement screen. No, we get hardcore CGI poncy pansy elf Orlando Bloom movie takeover porn for two lifetimes longer than we should've. I'mma spoiler the rest because the rest is my other huge gripe about the movie and it is a spoiler so spoiler tags. 'Sup dawd, I heard you don't like spoilers, so I spoilered that I'm using spoiler tags so you can have your spoiler spoiled by my spoiler spoiling spoiler.

(SPOILER)Go to hell, the writing and directoral staff of Desolation of Smaug. Don't end with a huge dramatic cliffhanger after adding a ton of worthless and groundless faffing about to detract from Bilbo's encounter with Smaug. Bilbo was supposed to show how our little hero was able to keep talking and working while gripped by terror, his presence known to the great and looming Smaug. You added a ton of needlessly stupid running about and background effects that were not in the original book, and as such you wasted a huge chunk of time that could've been spent with the death of Smaug and gearing up for the third movie. Hell if they'd cut down a lot of the drek from Desolation of Smaug we could do this in two movies flat!

[Freya]

If they kill smaug in this film, how many will want to see the next? How many who weren't book fans would say, " oh the bad guy they set out to kill is dead. I sure do wonder what happens next after the main bad guy they've built up for two films is dead." Not many. Even if there is more to the story, making it into three films has just made them string it out. Non book readers wouldn't want a movie about taking back a mountain by dwarves and a hobbit from a dragon if there was no dragon left.

The problem this movie/series has much like every movie adaptation is its source material. It has source material. So rather than being seen as its own entity its basedoff that source. Everyone knows, or should know, the movies/shows will never be exactly how it was wrote and how the reader interpreted. They are two different mediums. What works in a book doesn't always work in a film.

If you ignore the source material, forget it exists (which I can do since it's been so long since I read it) this movie and its predecessor was fun and entertaining. Its when you start tearing it apart at the seams from the source material that it's less enjoyable. It isn't and never was made to be exactly like the book, it's an adaptation and I personally thought it was done well. I was entertained.

If I wanted the book, I'd read the book. My mind has better special effects anyway.

[Shorty]

an elaboration
If the amount of time and care went into this movie as went into Lord of the Rings, I think I would have appreciated it so much more. Everything felt rushed - from the shots to the dialogue to the action scenes. With the resources that have clearly been demonstrated with LotR, why the smurf were so many of the action scenes so poorly animated? Unacceptable.

As the movies go on, I am having a bit of trouble feeling Martin Freeman for Bilbo. I love Martin Freeman - I absolutely adore him. I think his little ticks, his furrowed brows and concerned facial expressions are so absolutely wonderful and he brings a sort of "real" feeling to the character in that he behaves in ways and has these characteristics that we all do and he doesn't appear to be perfectly, flawlessly acting. He just flows as an actor and convinces you of his part. And he's so smurfing lovable and handsome as trout, and therein lies the problem. I've always thought of Bilbo as a sort of almost borderline annoying grumpy mid-life hobbit who becomes irritated at the slightest upset in his life and becomes annoyed easily. The whole point of this journey is to change him into an adventure-seeking soul, and the more I watch Martin Freeman, the more I don't think I see that change happening because he already reflects the adventure-seeking so well already. I guess I'm still stuck on Ian Holm because he perfectly encapsulates the grumpy leave me alone well-to-do sort of hobbit that Bilbo is in my mind. But he does wonderfully in his role and that's all I can ask for, because I have no complaints whatsoever of seeing him onscreen.

I wish the scene with Beorn had been a little longer. Going back to my original complaint, it felt rushed.

The bit with Gandalf visiting the ruins and the Necromancer were okay. I did like seeing Gandalf more involved in the journey and this film than I originally thought I would. I greatly dislike Radaghast and was relieved that he was only on screen for a few minutes.

I still hate the fact that the orcs and Azog have been involved up to this point.

Legolas was atrocious and I loathed him. It's all fine and great to want to include the fact that he was very exclusive and racist as part of the Woodland Elves, but I wish it didn't mean that he had to act like a stupid emo bitch. Legolas was so great in Lord of the Rings because of how mysterious he was and how little he spoke, yet how filled with wisdom he always seemed to be. It could have been possible for those same elements to be applied to his character in this time while steering him toward racism of the hobbits and general protectiveness of the elves and servitude of his father. Instead, he just seemed to be glaring at everyone the entire time. Just glaring like a stupid emo bitch, and I wanted to slap him. Additionally, in Laketown when he and Azog faced off, it made no sense to me for his character to go for swords and to enter into an actual fight with him. I don't feel like Legolas would ever do that - he's too smart to be deluded by the pride of winning a sword battle when he clearly has the capacity to stick an arrow into Azog's eye within a second. That is something that a man would fall for. Instead, he made a poor decision of picking up a sword for seemingly no other reason than honor, and it all felt completely out of character to me. If Jackson didn't want to give Legolas an opportunity to kill Azog so he could be included into the next film and such, he should have just forgone that entire scene, because it was completely senseless.

I already mentioned the bit about the river and barrels scene with Legolas hopping on heads in my first post and how outraged I was. I just don't understand why anyone thought that would be a good idea. Why was it a good idea for Bombur to go rolling down next to the rapids taking out orcs left and right, and then his barrel flying across the river and then allowing it to do the same thing on the other side? The whole thing was just so, so stupid. I don't get why Peter Jackson feels the need to pull these stupid smurfing gimmicks. Is it because the viewers legitimately love them? I was so disappointed with that scene.

Right after the river barrel scene, I lost all hope. I thought there was no smurfing way that this movie could be salvaged and that it was over. I was so pleasantly surprised with Bard. He was wonderful. His entire story, from being hesitant to help the dwarves at first, to smuggling them in and caring for them and attempting to help them and standing up for his own ideals as soon as he found out what they were up to was marvelous. I was so happy to see him deny the dwarves instead of just going along with what they wanted because they paid him. Additionally, I found myself so curious about his reaction to hearing Thorin's name and rushing to find the tapestries. I couldn't figure out if he was pleased or horrified, and was legitimately on edge to find out what his reaction was going to be. As Psychotic said, I, too, loved that the town politics were focused on, and that he threw himself in the middle of it. I loved his sense of justice and the fact that he stood up to the rest of the town in the face of their greed to try to convey the consequences of helping the dwarves. How such a perfectly flawless character can be written among a pile of trash is beyond me. Bard is what Legolas should have been.

Smaug was the crown jewel. This scene has always been my favorite in the book. I love the riddles that Bilbo and Smaug toss back and forth at eachother, both sortof playing with and amusing eachother. I love the banter between the two of them, I love the fact that Bilbo manages to keep his cool in light of the fact that he is conversing with a beast who can turn him into ash in a second. I love the fact that Smaug is so curious about Bilbo - probably his first interaction with another being in a long time - and is so chuffed about being in control about the situation that he simply allows it to continue for his amusement. I was absolutely amazed at the Smaug that I was staring at onscreen, and being smitten with BC only adds to the fact that Smaug was a total and complete badass. His visual representation was absolutely beautiful, and he couldn't have looked more like how I pictured him in my head when I read the book for the very first time. It was wonderful.

Tauriel. Tauriel was an obscenity. The fact that Peter Jackson feels it is within his own right to tarnish the work of Tolkien like he has with so much of the crap in this movie and then to add his own character in because he is so utterly obsessed with Middle Earth that he has a compulsion to make himself a part of it in someway is... pathetic. There was such a clear difference in Tauriel's character from the rest of the characters, even with all of the changes made and she just did not belong there. At all. Her lines were over-rehearsed, over-acted, unnatural. There was absolutely no need, no point whatsoever in having her a part of the story. It made no sense, and was only there to please the masses with a lovestory. And the worst crime of all is that it was a troutty smurfing lovestory at that, and is thus unforgivable.

My biggest complaint in this movie is that I feel no emotional connection to anything or anyone. I don't feel an emotional connection to Bilbo, nor to Thorin, nor to any of the dwarves. Only at one time did I feel the slightest inkling of it, and that was when Bard was rushing to stop the town from aiding the dwarves because he didn't want anything to happen to his children. Aside from that, all I felt like I was doing was spectating. I didn't feel involved, I didn't feel encompassed by the story, I didn't feel anything tug at my heartstrings. As the biggest bleeding heart on this forum, if I can sit through a three hour film and not feel anything for it, there is something wrong with it.

I'm sick of Peter Jackson. I'm sick of seeing him muddle his hands in Middle Earth and becoming so obsessed with it that he just absolutely destroys it. He is a smurfing obsessive geek who has too much power in his hands with these rights to the stories and he needs to just sit down and shut up about Tolkien for the rest of his life because he has taken too many outrageous liberties with it so far. He nailed Lord of the Rings as well as he could - I think that very little feasible improvements could have been made to those films under his direction, but they turned out okay. These Hobbit films are something else. Should have quit while he was ahead.

There were a lot of other little complaints I had (like about the dwarves all rushing in to try and outsmart Smaug and thinking it was a good idea to cover him in gold - why, exactly?) but I'll just leave it at that. Oh, but I do feel like it ended on a terrible note. There was no transition into the end and no real purpose for them to stop it where they did. Again, felt rushed, like they had no time to properly plan a good stopping point.

I give this movie a 4/10. 3 points to Smaug and 1 point to Bard.

[Elskidor]

I really was not crazy about Bard, and until we see more of Beorn I suppose I'm on the fence there too. But I also was not that crazy about anything in Laketown. I think Martin owns a young Bilbo and can no longer see anyone else pulling it off, except for Ian but only as older Bilbo. I'll have to reserve judgment on the rest until the Extended Edition is released though. I do find it amusing how popular Legolas was 10 years ago, and how he's almost despised now. I do contest that via PJ's fan fiction Tauriel is done much better than Legolas in DoS. It does not really bug me even though the love story is not needed whatsoever, but I find Tauriel more believable in the Tolkien world rather than Legolas. If anything this may take a way from his LoTRs character rather than add anything good to it. He does not come across very likable.

Taking the liberty to create and delve more into Tolkien's universe is a very bold move on Peter Jackson, but I can see why he does it. Who would not? It's an awesome world and directors do it constantly in nearly every film they adapt from, but it so happens he's been given the honor to mess around in a world that is protected by millions of fans, and his footsteps are observed closely.

[Psychotic]

I greatly dislike Radaghast and was relieved that he was only on screen for a few minutes.

how is this possible

You made some points that, while I disagree with you, I can accept, but this? How can anyone smurfing hate Radagast? Sylvester McCoy is a brilliant actor and I absolutely adore his loopy Radagast.

[Shorty]

I mostly dislike him for the crazy antics they had him perform in the first one when the party was struggling to get away from the orcs and the wargs and so it's instilled into my opinion of his character, I guess. He didn't do anything I disliked in this film, but whenever I look at him I smurfing cringe because of all the bird droppings plastered to his face and his hair.

[Elskidor]

I greatly dislike Radaghast and was relieved that he was only on screen for a few minutes.

how is this possible

You made some points that, while I disagree with you, I can accept, but this? How can anyone smurfing hate Radagast? Sylvester McCoy is a brilliant actor and I absolutely adore his loopy Radagast.

Besides for the bird poo I love Radagast and his bunnies! The bird poo stuff is a little crazy, lol.

[Freya]

Well if you had birds living in your hat, where do you think the poo goes?

[The Captain]

Overall I enjoyed it quite a bit. I went in expecting a departure from the book and was still taken on a journey. At times I had a bit of whiplash from all of the constant action but Middle Earth is not a bad place to spend time. I greatly enjoyed Laketown as well, felt very lived in.

I do wish some of the CGI was toned down, as a lot of what made LOTR so fantastic is that in spite of the fantasy and epicness, so much of it was REAL. Real actors, real fight scenes, real physics and gravity. After a while, the constant Legolas doing flips over a hundred orcs really just feels like a fan video.

Smaug was majestic and worth the price of admission on its own as well.

Which book do you think they'll extend in to a trilogy next? I'm sure someone will throw a boatload of money at PJ to do stories about the First Age of Middle Earth.

Take care all.

[Tavrobel]

Which book do you think they'll extend in to a trilogy next? I'm sure someone will throw a boatload of money at PJ to do stories about the First Age of Middle Earth.

It would be terrible as a movie trilogy. It would be phenomenal as an HBO season-long series.

[Slothy]

Just got around to seeing this tonight, and I've got to say; for all of the complaining book fans will do about changes in the movies and stuff, and all of the hate I'm sure Peter Jackson will get for it, the movies are good. In fact, he's taken four books, only 1 and 2/3rds I could actually stand to get through because Tolkien was an excellent world builder but an absolutely awful story teller, and made five movies out of them so far that are actually really enjoyable. I may be a bit biased here, but whatever he may do that angers the book fans, I'm willing to give the man a pass because he's managed to make movies that are actually watchable out of some of the most boring novels I've ever tried to read.

But as much as I enjoyed this movie, there is one thing I do feel the need to criticize a bit: Weta need to get their act together on the CGI. For most of the movie it wasn't terrible. In a lot of places it was actually pretty good aside from some really wonky physics (the barrel roll, or when they were going over at least one waterfall and fell at the same velocity they were traveling down the river rather than gradually accelerating down to the water. You know, like gravity makes things do), but by the end when they lit the furnaces the CG took a nosedive. The integration of the lighting with the real actors was spotty at best, during parts like the column Bilbo was standing on collapsing the texture quality and lighting were atrocious and made it look so fake it was hard to witness. During one part while Smaug was flying through the mine attacking them the animation got so choppy that were it a video game I'd swear it was dropping frames, and the molten gold looked like it was barely a step up from the T-1000 in his liquid form.

Now despite all of this stuff I still really liked the movie, but I have a hard time believing this stuff is coming from the same company responsible for Gollum ten years ago. The LotR trilogy had some spotty CGI in places because it was being made ten god damn years ago, but those places were few and far between and the majority of it still holds up well today. I don't know what the hell has happened to them since. They've done some genuinely great work on other films in the interim, so why they're dropping the ball so often on more Tolkien stuff is beyond me.

[Del Murder]

Oh yeah, I saw this about a week ago. It was ok. Everything involving Smaug was great but the first half of the movie was pretty dull. The Beorn stuff in particular was really unnecessary. If they are going to cut out the best part of the Beorn scene (the introduction), then why even show it at all?

I felt this movie was way too long and would have been better at about two hours of length or little less. It just dragged on.

The crazy barrel scene didn't bother me because you could tell they were trying to be as over the top as possible. I enjoyed it. I didn't enjoy the rest of the Legolas stuff though. Too much of him just being a badass and slaying orcs when there's no reason for it and it doesn't make sense for his character at that point in time.

[fire_of_avalon]

All of the elf stuff they did could have been replaced with more Beorn/some Bombadil and been just fine.

[Pike]

I saw this and I liked it. More than the first one, in fact.

The elf girl and dwarf guy romance thing was freaking adorable and I don't even care. OTP for life.