The Desolation of Smaug

Hey, Orcs! Attacking unarmed Dwarves is already a bad idea, but if you see these two about, you might want to delay a bit.



On the other hand, if you don't see them...too late... :dead:

 

I thought it was a very good movie, if a little long. The graphics were astounding and it had a good amount of action.

I still truly believe it is a major sellout taking the smallest of the 4 books and turning it into a 3 movie exploit, but they are at least doing it up decently.

They could have condensed the first two movies, easily, into the nearly 3 hours this one took alone.

Edit: Evangaline Lily is Hot. She was a nice addition, and I really, really like her storyline. I did not see that love interest coming. And when I suspected it, I didn't think they'd have the cajones to actually do it. Best I have ever seen her look too, but then I guess I could say that about Orlando Bloom as Legolas, as well. My wife does not like him at all, out of this series of movies. She says he looks like an infected emo Calvin Klein model. LOL.

 

Er, I don't remember Legolas being in the novel The Hobbit.

I thought the first movie in The Hobbit trilogy was better than any of the movies in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I thought the first movie in The Lord of the Rings trilogy was the best of the 3.

Director Peter Jackson is quite mad turning the short novel The Hobbit into a trilogy, yet he omitted SO much rich material from The Lord of the Rings movies. I was disappointed that Old Man Willow, Tom Bombadil, Goldberry, and the Barrow Wights were left out of The Lord of the Rings movies, yet we had to suffer watching the last movie end over and over again with all of that crap filler!

I agree with you about the "profit-before-artwork" priority that many modern-day movie-makers have. It was the same with the last Harry Potter novel (being split into 2 movies), and the last Twilight novel (being split into 2 movies).

I hope that the collection of short stories in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion is turned into a series of movies in future.

Is anybody actually looking forward to seeing the upcoming Star Wars movies being made by Disney Studios? Personally, after the 3 prequel Star Wars movies ruined the original Star Wars trilogy forever, I wish George Lucas would have never let another Star Wars movie be made ever again!

At least I have the rest of the Game of Thrones series to look forward to watching.

 

Obviously, the only way to stretch the short novel "The Hobbit" into a trilogy is to pump in a lot of filler material.

Legolas (Greenleaf in Anglish) is the son of Thranduil, the "ElvenKing" of the Mirkwood. While his father is in the Hobbit, his son is not.

 

I agree. The first extended edition movie was the best of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The two following were too short and made too many shortcuts.

But the scene where the director truly succeeded in the Fellowship of the Ring was the confrontation with the Balrog and Elorin/Mithandir/Gandalf. Throughout the movie the nasties were after the ring bearer as they were henchmen of Sauron. But the Balrog who was an equal with both Sauron and Elorin (all three were of the ainur, maiar of the flame) went after the gray wizard and not of the trivial hobbit with his meaningless task. That was a reference to the real story behind the children’s tale of Lord of the Rings, that of the Silmarillion. Which is presented in the books too. Sauron was nothing more than a maia, a spirit of fire, Elorin or Saruman or even Radagast could have defeated him at will. If Eru would have allowed it. That scene with the Balrog and Elorin hinted of the animosity far older and greater than the hobbits. I have not seen any of the hobbit movies and I shall not until the final one is released, as I want to see the whole story as one, But I have been told that the Hobbit serves as the background story of the LotR (as does the Novell) and has for that reason many elements not mentioned in the actual book. For the benefit of the illiterate and or uneducated.

And NO, I would rather see hell freezing over than a filmation of the Silmarillion. To shorten that epic story to just a few hours would be sacrilege. Think of Hurin, Beren, Feänor not to mention Melkor, they all would be worth a movie trilogy. Or the exodus of Noldor! To film any of that would be far mor than Ben Hur.

 

Just saw it last night and maybe its just me and what I've come to expect, but I'd rate it about 6/10. Peter Jackson imo can make a scene that should be exciting become tedious and boring. The fight scenes just go on for too long so by the end rather than being on the edge of your seat you're asleep in it.
It's not really the hobbit, and not quite fanfic either, just some kind of parallel middle earth where events happen just a little different.

I know some of what happens is written down elsewhere, like the appendices, and legolas COULD have been there, altho he would've been an extra in the back ground.

It didn't suck, and it looked pretty, was just too drawn out for me in the end.

 

I enjoyed the first movie, (The Hobbit) is this one not as good?

 

I thought it was better than the first, but Cujo nails it: the story is just plain different, and I'm not sure I'd say "better" than the book.

 

Ahh, the book is always better imho, because I do have a rather vivid imagination and the scenes in movies can't even come close to what I imagine in my void ... mind, I mean.

 

My opinion is that the second The Hobbit movie was no where near as good as the first one! I think the first The Hobbit movie is a masterpiece! The only things that I didn't like about the first movie were:
1. Radagast being portrayed as a short fool with animals living on his person;
2. one of the dwarves saying in the gayest voice ever "I wonder if he has any chips?";
3. the way the goblin king died and his pathetic last 2 lines of dialogue: "What are you gonna do now, wizard?" and "That'll do it.";
4. Radagast's sled being hauled by rabbits was SO lame - like Jar Jar Binks lame!

I thought the second The Hobbit movie was competently made. The movie states quite clearly at the start that is is "based on Tolkien's novel", so we are prepared for any deviation from the novel. I didn't like the love triangle between Legolas, Tauriel, and the handsome, "tall" dwarf (now there's an oxymoron!).

I thought the treatment of the character Bard was pathetic - Peter Jackson basically gives away the plot of the third movie by his treatment of the character Bard in the second movie!

The way the giant spiders were portrayed in the second movie was pathetic! They may as well have been giant rats for all the use they were.

The combat scenes with the orcs and Sauron were the highlights of the second movie - the CGI combat really takes your breath away - the CGI vistas in the movie are stunning and couldn't be any better!

I don't have any problem with Legolas and Peter Jackson's created character Tauriel being in the movie. Evangeline Lilly was stunningly seductive as the elf patrol captain Tauriel!

Peter Jackson doesn't understand the engineering properties of rock/stone and the laws of physics, chiefly "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction". One example is when the dwarf standing in the barrel floating on the river hurls an axe overhead at an orc, yet his barrel remains perfectly upright, defying the laws of physics.
There's no way that some of those rock bridges (inside the Lonely Mountain) could support their own weight, let alone the physical impact of and weight of a dragon on them!

I don't remember Gandalf ever fighting Sauron in the novel The Hobbit.

The kaleidoscope effect of Sauron was just bizarre! Peter Jackson must smoke an awful lot of wacky weed!

I hated the ending of the second The Hobbit movie because it ends without a climax, but it teased the viewer of what was about to happen at the start of the third movie, forcing the viewer to desperately want to see the third movie so they can see the climax that they should have been able to see at the end of the second movie. You have been warned!

One thing that watching the first 2 movies does make the viewer want to do is read the novel The Hobbit again to see what is authentic and what is made up by Peter Jackson, and whether Peter Jackson did a competent movie adaption of the novel.

 

I thought the fight scenes were really the best part of the second movie. They were hilariously over choreographed. My fellow nerds and I were rotfloao.

I was confused though. I thought it was based on "Bored of the Rings". Legolamb is actually IN that one.

 

I think I'm just going to wait for it to come to Pay for View, (cable TV).

If I only pay $4 to see it I wont mind the creative license as much as I would if I had paid $14.

I'll pay $4 just to see Gandalf and Gimlie doing nothing but standing around and talking about the weather.

Bored of The Rings .... Legolamb .... too funny!

 

I agree with the first two paragraphs, but does anyone else find it kind of annoying (but not surprising) that they ended with ANOTHER FUCKING CLIFFHANGER!?!?!? D:<