Film: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)

[dimejinky99]

Oh god. Just finished watching. What an unmitigated disaster this film is. I have little or no hope for the finale.

[Mecca]

it was enjoyable, dime.

[stip]

ohh, I didn't realize this was out yet. Now I kinda want to go drag the girls to best buy

I only saw it once, but I enjoyed Desolation of Smaug quite a bit more than the first one on pretty much every level

[dimejinky99]

I'm gonna watch it again with himself. Usually when he knocks holes in things I tend to stand up for them.

And Stip, upon review, I prefer AUJ much more than DOS. that's tentative but almost a lock.

[stip]

why is that Dime? From what I've gathered (anecdotal and reading reviews) that's a pretty unusual opinion.

[stip]

The extended edition of the first film definitely enhanced my enjoyment of it. The pacing is still pretty weak, but the extra scenes and depth help make up for it. If it is going to be slow it makes sense to offset it with thoroughness.


I still feel fairly good about arguing that many of the most glaring problems with these movies (compared to LotR) are primarily due to the source material.

[Alex]

I still feel fairly good about arguing that many of the most glaring problems with these movies (compared to LotR) are primarily due to the source material.

not that i particularly care about lotr, you, or peter jackson, but why do you feel good about this? that seems like a weird feeling for a person to have.

[dimejinky99]

why is that Dime? From what I've gathered (anecdotal and reading reviews) that's a pretty unusual opinion.

The whole laketown sequence is totally unnecessary. Smaug is rendered impotent in that ridiculous chase scene in the mountain. That golden dwarf section is ludicrous. Also hated the depiction of the wood elves, Thranduil in particular. Too much time on invented sequences and important evens from the book breezed over too quickly. Also a lot of the CGI is really terrible. Looks like a video game from the 80s

Just as a whole. It's a rollicking Hollywood blockbuster and pitched to be he there was no need for that to happen, it was going to be hugely successful anyways. But then to compound confusion it is about an hour longer than it needs to be.

I could rattle on all night, don't tempt me.

[dimejinky99]

The extended edition of the first film definitely enhanced my enjoyment of it. The pacing is still pretty weak, but the extra scenes and depth help make up for it. If it is going to be slow it makes sense to offset it with thoroughness.


I still feel fairly good about arguing that many of the most glaring problems with these movies (compared to LotR) are primarily due to the source material.

I'd almost agree but the source material was handled poorly would be my retort.
Naturally they had to ramp things up to create excitement but it comes across as gimmicky and most often, really silly. It doesn't know if its being an action sequence or a comedic one, in a lot of cases.

(I'm referring to DOS here moreso)

[dimejinky99]

The score is really featureless and forgettable too.

[dimejinky99]

I want to build a small hobbit hole at the end of my garden. And despite there being a million website out there about people making their own, there are none to be found telling you how to do it. Frustrating.

[WtOB?]

the spiders are gonna love that.

[epilogue]

I don't think I'm going to watch this movie.

[stip]

It's really enjoyable, Joey. Much better than the first one to everyone on the planet whose name is not Dime.

[dimejinky99]

All it needed to do was make Smaug amazing.
And I guess It does that.
I just reread the final chapters of the book this morning, trying to figure out what Athe filmmakers are going to do.
It'd be really hard to screw up the last one.
Though how Gandalf is going to be rescued is my biggest concern.
I think the white council expels the necromancer from dul guldur.
So presumabley Galadriel, elrond and saruman come to his aid.
Better see some kick ass elven magic. Can't figure out how else they'll do it.

[daft twat]

It's really enjoyable, Joey. Much better than the first one to everyone on the planet whose name is not Dime.

i just watched this. i have only read the hobbit once, so i don't really know what is taken from the source material and what is not.

was the golden statue part in the book? that was really lame.
was the dwarf's leg injury in the book? watching him writhe on the table for 20 minutes was nearly insufferable.
didn't gandalf go to the lonely mountain with the company? what the fuck was all that?
why not just cast jeremy renner as bard rather than get his stunt double?

i know legolas and kate from lost weren't in it, but i didn't mind the addition. they provide a nice break from the dwarves.
martin freeman is awesome. in everything he does. are we all watching fargo this tuesday?

if jackson was going to take so many liberties, i wish he would have whittled the number of dwarves down. maybe it works in the book, but the only ones i like are thorin, the nice white-haired one, and the fat ginger.

[daft twat]

i worded that poorly. i don't like thorin, but i get why he's necessary. i like whitey and ginger.

[WtOB?]

All it needed to do was make Smaug amazing.
And I guess It does that.
I just reread the final chapters of the book this morning, trying to figure out what Athe filmmakers are going to do.
It'd be really hard to screw up the last one.
Though how Gandalf is going to be rescued is my biggest concern.
I think the white council expels the necromancer from dul guldur.
So presumabley Galadriel, elrond and saruman come to his aid.
Better see some kick ass elven magic. Can't figure out how else they'll do it.

this is a great poem !!

[stip]

It's really enjoyable, Joey. Much better than the first one to everyone on the planet whose name is not Dime.

i just watched this. i have only read the hobbit once, so i don't really know what is taken from the source material and what is not.

was the golden statue part in the book? that was really lame.
was the dwarf's leg injury in the book? watching him writhe on the table for 20 minutes was nearly insufferable.
didn't gandalf go to the lonely mountain with the company? what the fuck was all that?
why not just cast jeremy renner as bard rather than get his stunt double?

i know legolas and kate from lost weren't in it, but i didn't mind the addition. they provide a nice break from the dwarves.
martin freeman is awesome. in everything he does. are we all watching fargo this tuesday?

if jackson was going to take so many liberties, i wish he would have whittled the number of dwarves down. maybe it works in the book, but the only ones i like are thorin, the nice white-haired one, and the fat ginger.

None of that stuff is in the hobbit. The hobbit source material is really weak. The dwarves are utterly interchangeable vaguely anti semetic sterotypes, bilbo is basically batman, and everyone else is a moron.

I think/hope a lot of stuff in the second film is there to set up payoff in film 3. But I'm an optimist. There definitley did not need to be 3 films so a lot of it is padding, so in the end it'll come down to whether they make the padding worth it. In general I enjoyed all the scenes. I thought smug was great, and I don't know that the fact that he was kinda foolish in the end hurt his character since people being corrupted by greed/losing their best qualities/becoming ineffectual is an on going theme in both hobbit and lotr (a lot of parallels between smaug and thorin)

[bada]

Must.....never.....pass.....on.....a....chance.....to.......bash......Tolkien......

Spoiler: show

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