The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug

[Miriel]

Saw it.

Forgetting all the book stuff, just looking at it purely on it's own as a movie, I thought it was just ok. It felt too much like a fluffy action flick, with not enough depth.

I thought the only poignant moment came from Thorin's reaction when he was all, "I know these walls" and finally entered Erebor.

Even though the pacing was much faster in this movie, I still thought it was way too god damn long. So many sequences just went on forever or felt totally unnecessary. I actually thought the barrel scene was kind of fun and I don't mind that kind of raucous action fun. I just felt like that's pretty much what the whole movie was, just Peter Jackson doing as many tricks as possible.

With the exception of the weird ass sequence where the dwarves were running around with Smaug chasing them, I loved everything with Smaug. Smaug and Bilbo were wonderful. But Thorin riding down a river of molton gold? Pretty dumb.

I love Legolas. I had a poster of him up in my bedroom wall through high school. But he was in this movie way too damn much. I also didn't think it made sense how serious and angry Legolas was, given how bright eyed and young he was in Fellowship. I mean, I know you can't help that Orlando Bloom has aged, but I didn't get any kind of sense that he was younger than the Legolas we saw in LotR. Tauriel wasn't as horrible as I had anticipated, but the stuff with Kili, good lord. Ughghghg.

I was impressed with Bard and thought he had a great presence and liked that his role was expanded, but the Lake Town stuff was just weird with how there were orcs everywhere and no one noticed. That really bothered me. The Sauron/Gandalf thing wasn't done as well as I had hoped, but a lot of that has to do with how crappy the orcs are as villains. What was so wrong with having physical real life actors play orcs rather than the CGI crap? For some reason, the CGI looks way worse than it did 10+ years ago with the LotR. And just visually, it's nowhere near as beautiful as I had hoped. I think a part of it is how this was all shot on digital rather than film. Just didn't have that magical quality to the imagery. The music by Howard Shore was also surprisingly lackluster.

Now that's just movie stuff. Going back to the movie as an adaptation... well, it was pretty god damn awful. It only vaguely follows the basic plot points, but going beyond all that, it doesn't stay true to the feel and spirit of the books at all. That makes me so sad.

It was an ok movie. Pretty entertaining in parts. Pretty crappy in others. I hope one day they re-do these movies and make them a true children's classic like it deserves to be.

[Sephiroth]

This is the best scene ever in Middle Earth for me:

Gandalf vs Sauron HD - The Hobbit : The Desolation of Smaug (1080p) - YouTube

[Elskidor]

Yes, that scene is epic. I love it, but really wish PJ had not screwed up and let the Witch-King break Gandalf's staff in ROTK. How many times must we watch his staff break, lol? The Witch-King would never have been able to do something so ridiculous though, so at least this makes more sense. Epic fight and I wish it had lasted longer.

[blackmage_nuke]

The two elves annoyed me to no end. Cant we just have a nice adventure movie about short people?

[Psychotic]

Saw it again last night and I think I liked it more.

I agree with Miriel. I think I said after the first one that the CGI orc (Azog?) is poor and I can't even care about anything he is involved in because he just looks so out of place and bad. On the subject of bad CGI, extended Return of the King. The Paths of the Dead escape - those skulls. Those CGI skulls. What the smurf? They were PS1 quality skulls. The appendices say they made millions of little skulls for another shot, why not re-use those? Damn.

The River of Gold Slide was also weird, I don't get the point of it too. Incidentally the emotional bit for me happened at the same bit for Miriel, but it was Balin only being able to choke out the word "Thorin" that did it for me.

On Legolas, I think I'm going to hold judgment on it until I see the last film. Obviously there's a situation with him and Tauriel that needs to be resolved and I'm hoping we'll see some emotional growth on his part. If it ends up as just The Story of How Legolas Hated Dwarves because she chooses Kili over him or dies horribly or something then I have trouble believing it'll be great, but I will give it a chance. I am hoping for something a little bit more deep about his prejudices than "YOU STOLE MAH GURL!" though. I did like seeing his interactions with Thranduil.

[Bubba]

A bit late to the party but me and the girlfriend saw this at the weekend. I did very much enjoy it and was suitable blown away by Smaug. Extremely well spoken given the difficulties of having an elongated dragon mouth.

Legolas I think was been ruined beyond repair for me now. Like Shorty said, he just seemed to be scowling at everyone and I can't see how the third film can salvage anything from his character. Such a shame as I loved him in LOTR.

I didn't actually mind Tauriel though. She should definitely get it on with Kili so they can have weird Dwelf babies. I'm sure Tolkien would approve.

I have to agree though that the barrel scene was stupid.

[Jiro]

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 had this thought. The Beorn scene was pretty rubbish, really.

I'm willing to let this Legolas thing slide because at times it is cool but like, why is he here being significantly better at killing orcs than he is in the LotR? I dunno. Tauriel is hot though. Worth it for that.

Bard is pretty awesome but like Miriel I found the Lake Town stuff to just feel off. Maybe it's because it's addition, but yeah, I dunno, Lake Town is kinda dodgy for me despite having kickass Bard as well as Stephen Fry being a wackjob. Should've been a winning combination.

Barrel scene was the best departure imo. I'm a big fan of the book and so I like it to kind of stick to it but smurf that was brill.

[blackmage_nuke]

Not enough Bombur fat jokes or comments from hungry Dwarves

And I dont get the fuss about Cumberbatch being Smaug, with all the effects in place I couldnt even tell it was his voice, it could have been anyone to me. Thats not to say Smaug wasnt awesome though, I liked the mountains of gold effects.

I liked Radagast. He was an enjoyable character in the LoTR book but was cut from the movie so I didnt mind his inclusion. Not that i liked gandalf's side plot but since they did do it Im glad Radagast was wedged in to show Wizards arent all just bright lights and destroying things.

I assume the only reason they included Beorn was to avoid the flak they got from taking out Tom Bombadil because they did Beorn pretty halfassed. No intro and not nearly as large, hairy and rude as I wouldve expected.

Also I really dont think so many shots of the ring were necessary. Yes thats the Ring, it's a prequel we get it.

[Niale]

Great movie, you should see it

[Sephex]

Did Smaug steal all of the Dwarves YouTube money? They should have got a real job.

[Freya]

You guys are all wrong TaurielxKili is the best on screen coupling in forever

[Shorty]

You guys are all wrong TaurielxKili is the best on screen coupling in forever

You dishonor Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, Cary Elwes and Robin Wright, Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal, Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes, Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher, Emily Mortimer and Christian Bale, Zachary Quinto and Zoe Saldana, Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, and literally every other couple ever to make it to the screen in the history of time because they are all better than TaurielxKili and they always will be.

Except for Bella and Edward. They can be better than Bella and Edward.

[blackmage_nuke]

"The Hobbit is sexist theres no females in the book! Lets make the movie less sexist by including a female and making her entire motivation based around a guy she likes"

[Freya]

Dude hot dwarfxelf action. Can you really blame me?

[Shorty]

Oh yes, I blame you. I blame you. He's not even the best-looking dwarf!

also what are you talking about action there was no action. It was 100% action-less.