Just watched Desolation... actually a week ago.  But no one made a thread on it, so here it is!

 

I enjoyed it greatly!  Sauron appearing and BECOMING the eye was badass.  Sauron unleashing an army from Dol Goldur fits nicely as the 4th army in the Battle of the 5 Armies.  And Smaug stole the 3rd act.  I am nerd raging on Smaug being a 4 limbed drake and not a 6 limbed dragon... small things I guess. 

 

When Bilbo puts on the ring, he becomes invisible AND can hear the spider's language.  It goes from clicks and noises to full on language (since they talk in the book, naturally PJ had to find a way for the audience to understand the spiders.)  What you didn't notice: Bilbo takes off the ring and announces himself to the spider, then stabs the spider in the face to which it says "It stings!  It Stings!"  So... are we all supposed to ignore that blatant error in movie logic, where first you need the ring on to understand the spiders, to just whatever?!

 

I'm so glad Beorn was in the movie... for 4mins. 

 

Atleast Thorin is learning to trust Bilbo... no he isn't!

 

Azog the defiler, our favorite orc from the previous movie... you go away!  We hate you now!  Your on PJ's shit list!  We want to watch a completely different giant cgi orc fail at killing people!

 

Legolas, so good to see you agai-- BLUE CONTACTS!!!

 

Am I watching The Hobbit, or a perpetual trailer reel for The Hobbit?  So much trailer dialogue...

 

Oh hey Stephen Fry! (and hey hey Stephen Colbert)

I tend to disagree with a lot of people about the Hobbit movies. I love them. I already have the book version (in the form of the book... obviously); So I'm glad that the movie is a bit different.

 

As for the Spiders talking, I believe that you can take that as the Ring allows Bilbo to understand the Spiders' language (as they work for Sauron), but the Spiders are capable of speaking languages that Bilbo can understand without the ring. Why a Spider would choose to changes languages to say "It stings!" as it is getting stabbed in the face... well. I'll leave that one untouched. But the book spiders were clearly capable of normal speech, so that seems to be the logical conclusion. They're no different from Orcs and Trolls, who also have their own languages but speak Common Tongues.

 

I still like the more "realistic" tone of the LotR movies better, but this is about what I expected of the Hobbit as a story and movie presentation... So I'm good. I'm actually surprised that they made this movie as dark in tone as they did. I suppose they have to if they want to ramp up to what is going to happen in the third movie; but still it was a rather large shift from the first installment.

 

Can't wait for the Silmarillion movies. 

I loved it.  I don't mind them bending the story a little bit, like bringing Tauriel into it as an excuse to greatly expand Legolas's role.  I'm all for it as it makes for a more exciting movie.  If I want the original, I can always read the book (again). 

 

Man, I hope they make a Silmarillion movie(s).  But I doubt it...

Well I'd at least like to see the Children of Hurin and the The Lay of Leithian. The rest of the book doesn't stand alone all that well. Not that I would mind a 100 movie series based on the entire thing. 

Every time I tried reading the Silmarillion, it put me to sleep!

I loved it.  I don't mind them bending the story a little bit, like bringing Tauriel into it as an excuse to greatly expand Legolas's role.  I'm all for it as it makes for a more exciting movie.  If I want the original, I can always read the book (again). 

 

Man, I hope they make a Silmarillion movie(s).  But I doubt it...

Silmarillion movies would be awesome.

 

 

why am I so far away? LOL

Loved it. Smaug absolutely owned it all, and Cumberbatch was a perfect choice to voice him.

 

I enjoyed the Sauron bit, it was good to see him take such a direct hand in events, instead of just watching from afar. He should have slapped Azog for giving him lip though haha ;)

 

It was funny in the end how Smaug says the "I am fire! I am... death!" When there is nobody at all who could hear him (but us). It was badass and awesome, but from Smaug's perspective, we weren't there so he was... reassuring himself? Haha Smaug the insecure- his daily intonations: "I AM fire... I AM death! I AM a worthwhile Dragon! I AM feared by all!

Hey, he probably didn't have anything else to do besides listening to self confidence tapes. I mean, he clearly didn't do any yoga whilst in there.

Bard the Bowman. That is all.

 

 

Also Legolas getting pissed because Bolg beat him up was hilarious. Especially since Legolas is really quite an ass in this. Unless he's interacting with his oh so charming father.

Smaug didn't have anything to kill in Erebor, so he needed other ways to reassure himself that he was fire and death aha.

 

 

Like father like son. Love how bolg is all like "ah you stabbed me!.... NOT!"

*ahem*  HOLY **** SMAUG WAS AMAZING!  I loved every single minute he was onscreen, I think my cheeks were hurting from smiling so much at how well they pulled him off.  Yeah, him being a drake-style dragon instead of the Western quadruped with wings was a pretty big sore point, but considering the hype about drakes that emerged after Skyrim I'm not exactly surprised they went with this route.

 

But seriously, Jackson knew EXACTLY how to use him to the best effect.  Even his reveal with the gold sliding off him, Bilbo's reaction as he compares his own size to Smaug's was done beautifully (and hilariously).  I was really worried about how Smaug would be pulled off in this movie, there was a very strong risk of him ending up as crappy as Saphirra.  But his execution was perfect and then some, so all hail the chiefest and greatest calamity of our age!

 

Sorry Draco, but your position as my favorite live-action dragon has been replaced.

Smaug was killer as a wyvern. Wyverns are the sh*t.

Loved this movie!!!!! Smaug was awesome!!!!! The barrel ride, was a real hoot!!!! Had everyone in the theater clapping and cheering with each kill and laughing with that one barrell. Every orc kill was top notch!! Best action sequences of the year!!! ( yes, better then Supes vs Zod)

I love how the Dwarves and Lakemen were giving Bard grief for his ancestor missing the dragon with the Windlance. "If the aim of men had been true that day, much would have been different." Really Thorin, really?   How many dragons have YOU killed lately? Don't think that you can give anyone crap in that regard, you failed to kill Smaug as well! If you Dwarves had of had better defences prepared for the freaking inevitable Dragon attack then much would have been different as well.

 

hahaha

Smaug was awesome, Ed Sheeran's song is good. Those are the only things I liked about the movie. I struggled to stay awake during most of it and kept thinking that I should've waited for it to come out on dvd.

At least we can agree on those two counts, I See Fire is my new favourite song! :D

When bilbo put the ring on it might have changed him so that he now has the ability to understand spiders if he wears the ring or not?

Look at what it has done to gollum over the years.

That was an odd and really obvious inconsistency.

 

I figure that the spiders can speak in both Common (or whatever) and Black Speech, like Orcs and Sauron can. It is possible (if odd and unlikely in context) that the spider would have spoken in Common (or whatever) to scream out "it stings! it stings!" while speaking in Black Speech beforehand. 

Or perhaps as Lilbaz theorised, the Ring allowed Bilbo to understand Black Speech for an unspecified amount of time even after taking it off.

At least in the books they can understand and speak common, since theres the whole taunting part.

Smaug was awesome, Ed Sheeran's song is good. Those are the only things I liked about the movie. I struggled to stay awake during most of it and kept thinking that I should've waited for it to come out on dvd.

Agreed, except the part about the song. I didn't really like it that much. For my part, I give the movie one star out of five. Half for Smaug and half for Bard. I was in pain the rest of the movie. The action didn't look like real action, the cgi was obvious and WAY too much. The story was really messed up and implausible. I hated it. Pete really missed the boat on this one. Lotr was WAY better, though by no means perfect. 

Watched it last night. Here are some thoughts.

 

-The beginning felt disjointed. Where did the eagles go? Didn't they get away from the orcs? How exactly was running in the house supposed to help when the orcs could either break down the door or set the house on fire?

-Beorns part felt kind of rushed. They're doing this in 3 movies that are all verging on 3 hours long when the source material is a fairly short book. Nothing but a "chase" scene should feel rushed, if you know what I mean. I'd rather they just skipped Beorn at this rate like they did Tom Bombadil and gave us more time in the elven kingdom which also felt a bit rushed.

-WHY DID THEY HAVE TO MAKE THE GIANT SPIDERS SO FREAKING SCARY?! ARE THEY TRYING TO GIVE PEOPLE ARACHNOPHOBIA?!

-I didn't mind the girl elf's character much. Honestly she felt more in place than Legolas and he's the son of the king and could have actually conceivably been in the Hobbit while she's completely made up. I did think it was weird that she like fell in love with...Fili? Kili? Whoever.

-I am like 90% I caught a cameo in the Bree scene but I don't know who I was seeing. It was the guy eating the carrot. I am going to assume it was Peter Jackson until told otherwise.

-I kind of expected the new stuff with Gandalf to be a bit more...epic. I thought it was be, you know, an assault by the White Council on Dol Guldur not Gandalf getting himself caught and needing a rescue mission.

-That said, Sauron was pretty cool. I liked the trippy evil inside of evil infinity thing they did for a bit there.

-Oh hey it's Bolg. That's cool. Maybe now people will stop complaining about Azog being the main antagonist.

-Ok correct me if I'm wrong here but during the battle of five armies doesn't Thorin have Orcrist? I could have sworn they got their gear before stuffing themselves into the barrels but in the movie they just leave the stuff and go.

-Loved the barrel fighting scene. Bombur and Legolas deliver.

-The CGI with Smaug shifts between awesome and awful from scene to scene.

-I kind of missed Bilbo outsmarting Smaug and then the dwarves having to retreat into the mountain without knowing what's going on. I think that makes for a tenser breaking point than what the movie left us with. Although I can kind of understand why they wouldn't want to leave that kind of cliffhanger for the movie. People would feel cheated that they don't get to find out what happens for another year while if you're reading the book...you can just turn the page and keep reading.

 

All in all it was good but I liked the first one better so far.

Watched it last night. Here are some thoughts.

 

-The beginning felt disjointed. Where did the eagles go? Didn't they get away from the orcs? How exactly was running in the house supposed to help when the orcs could either break down the door or set the house on fire?

-Beorns part felt kind of rushed. They're doing this in 3 movies that are all verging on 3 hours long when the source material is a fairly short book. Nothing but a "chase" scene should feel rushed, if you know what I mean. I'd rather they just skipped Beorn at this rate like they did Tom Bombadil and gave us more time in the elven kingdom which also felt a bit rushed.

-WHY DID THEY HAVE TO MAKE THE GIANT SPIDERS SO FREAKING SCARY?! ARE THEY TRYING TO GIVE PEOPLE ARACHNOPHOBIA?!

-I didn't mind the girl elf's character much. Honestly she felt more in place than Legolas and he's the son of the king and could have actually conceivably been in the Hobbit while she's completely made up. I did think it was weird that she like fell in love with...Fili? Kili? Whoever.

-I am like 90% I caught a cameo in the Bree scene but I don't know who I was seeing. It was the guy eating the carrot. I am going to assume it was Peter Jackson until told otherwise.

-I kind of expected the new stuff with Gandalf to be a bit more...epic. I thought it was be, you know, an assault by the White Council on Dol Guldur not Gandalf getting himself caught and needing a rescue mission.

-That said, Sauron was pretty cool. I liked the trippy evil inside of evil infinity thing they did for a bit there.

-Oh hey it's Bolg. That's cool. Maybe now people will stop complaining about Azog being the main antagonist.

-Ok correct me if I'm wrong here but during the battle of five armies doesn't Thorin have Orcrist? I could have sworn they got their gear before stuffing themselves into the barrels but in the movie they just leave the stuff and go.

-Loved the barrel fighting scene. Bombur and Legolas deliver.

-The CGI with Smaug shifts between awesome and awful from scene to scene.

-I kind of missed Bilbo outsmarting Smaug and then the dwarves having to retreat into the mountain without knowing what's going on. I think that makes for a tenser breaking point than what the movie left us with. Although I can kind of understand why they wouldn't want to leave that kind of cliffhanger for the movie. People would feel cheated that they don't get to find out what happens for another year while if you're reading the book...you can just turn the page and keep reading.

 

All in all it was good but I liked the first one better so far.

The eagles went home at the end of the first movie.  In the book it says they are friends of gandalf and only come to his aid when there is something immediate they can do to help him out.  (And before anyone starts the usual "use the eagles to fly to mount doom" crap, the Witch King's power stops them from going anywhere near the place in the Lord of the Rings books.)

 

Agreed, pacing was the movie's biggest flaw.  Jackson is trying to treat the Hobbit movies as a grand epic, like Lord of the Rings was.  Problem is, Hobbit is not an epic, it's an adventure, and no amount of effort or rewriting can make it into an epic.

 

Her relationship with the dwarf was surprising watching it the first time, but the second time you can see how it developed.  Impressed by the fact that he had the nerve to make a joke like that when in the heart of enemy territory, she went back to talk to him out of curiosity and it was their subsequent conversations that resulted in them growing to like each other.

 

The White Council assault will probably be coming in the last part of the trilogy.  Gandalf sent Radagast to get Galadriel, but went in alone knowing it was a trap because he had to force Sauron's hand before the guy could get any stronger.  He just underestimated how strong Sauron had already become and got stomped into the ground for it.  I'm expecting the White Council to either assault the keep outright and get Gandalf free, or Galadriel alone will save him and then he'll go get the White Council for an attack.  Either way, there should be something to look forward to.

 

Yes, Thorin has Orcrist in the book right up to his death.  The sword is buried with him under the mountain after the battle is over.  I'm guessing there's going to be some redemption scene where Legolas stops being a jealous asshole and gives Orcrist to Thorin personally before the battle begins  (essentially giving him the excuse for why he's willing to work with Gimli in the LotR saga)

 

I don't mind losing that part of it.  Smaug was a damn clever dragon, and the idea of anyone - even bilbo - being able to straight-up outsmart him when he's calm and focused always seemed.... unlikely to say the least.  Plus the idea that Smaug knew full well what the Arkenstone is going to do to Thorin is just so fitting.

 

 

I still love the second one more though.  Despite the weaker pacing and the more disjointed back-and-forth perspective swaps that worked well for an epic but not an adventure, the movie is redeemed in its entirety by Smaug.  I've been waiting for a good live-action-movie dragon since Dragonheart, and now that they've done this maybe we'll start seeing more of them - or at least more attempts to make something better than Saphira was. *shudder*

 

Smaug was awesome, Ed Sheeran's song is good. Those are the only things I liked about the movie. I struggled to stay awake during most of it and kept thinking that I should've waited for it to come out on dvd.

Agreed, except the part about the song. I didn't really like it that much. For my part, I give the movie one star out of five. Half for Smaug and half for Bard. I was in pain the rest of the movie. The action didn't look like real action, the cgi was obvious and WAY too much. The story was really messed up and implausible. I hated it. Pete really missed the boat on this one. Lotr was WAY better, though by no means perfect. 

 

I didn't like the movie either. The first one was also quite boring toward the end, but at least it had more feeling in it. By feeling I mean that it wasn't all running and fighting and some cliche romance, which is all I remember from Desolation of Smaug. The Forest and Gandalf's adventure were the only good things I can recall. Especially I disliked the romance between Tauriel, Fili/Kili and Legolas. It added nothing to the story IMO.

I didn't like the movie either. The first one was also quite boring toward the end, but at least it had more feeling in it. By feeling I mean that it wasn't all running and fighting and some cliche romance, which is all I remember from Desolation of Smaug. The Forest and Gandalf's adventure were the only good things I can recall. Especially I disliked the romance between Tauriel, Fili/Kili and Legolas. It added nothing to the story IMO.

 

That's pretty much judging a book by it's cover before you've read it. They aren't done with that story. You cannot really say that it didn't add anything until it has existed and HASN'T added anything. Clearly, it HAS added something; 1) a reason for Legolas to even be there (it is unnecessary that he be there, but seeing as it happened there might as well be a reason.), 2) a female character (Also technically unnecessary, but I think you can understand why they would want some female connection to the story), and 3) a reason to be emotionally attached to one of the dwarves, or at least to remember who he is, and that he has a story, personality, and life. Lets be honest, without Tauriel in there, there is little reason to care about any dwarf but Thorin (and maybe Balin). So I'd say that this side story is adding quite a bit, given upcoming events.

Good points, though I wouldn't say I'm judging a book by its cover, but rather by it's first chapters. I am going to watch the third movie and hope it's better. When is it coming, by the way?

 

I agree the story needed a female character, but they could have come up with a more original one. Tauriel is a basic action girl who has so far existed mostly just for romance reasons. True, it's something "added to the story" and I haven't seen the last movie yet. Desolation of Smaug is, however, its own, (too) long movie, so it should be able to show that there indeed is something of value in it and that there is something more to come. I didn't notice much of that in Tauriel/Kili.

 

 Lets be honest, without Tauriel in there, there is little reason to care about any dwarf but Thorin (and maybe Balin). So I'd say that this side story is adding quite a bit, given upcoming events.

 

 

What else is Tauriel doing in the movie except making us care about Kili (not herself?) and be a female character in a story full of men? Again, maybe we'll see more of her in the next movie but so far it's not looking good.