Bilbo

There are a lot of fast cuts in the final third while Laketown is being attacked and the Dwarves are fighting the dragon. I thought the pace was fine and added to the tension.
It is moonlight which reveals the keyhole, The thrush knock on it again.
Bilbo sees Smaug's "wound".
Thorin's theme during "Forest River" is the one thing that stands out that I can't say with any certainty was present. It may have been dialed out or I may have missed it being caught up in the visuals.
Is there a second version of the Durin theme being hummed on the albums because where it is on the album doesn't fit with where it is on the standard album. It doesn't seem as if the scenes were chopped and changed though so maybe it was placed where it was on the album for some other reason?
There was a nice version of Gandalf's theme in Dol Guldur which is unreleased I think.
This is all a bit over the place but I'm just typing stuff down as I remember it.
For all the complaints about splitting up the Dwarves it actually works. When the third film begins Smaug will be attacking Esgaroth and Thorin will have to cope with the fact that he wouldn't let Kili come with him. He made him stay in Lake-town and now he's injured. We care more about Lake-town now because Bar, his family, Tauriel and the Dwarves are there. Legolas took off after Bolg. Kili was made stay behind because of his wound and Fili wouldn't leave him (Thorin wasn't happy about that), Oin stayed behind because he's the healer and Bofur got left behind because he was drunk and overspelpt.
Your casual viewer wouldn't miss Thrain and I saw no scenes were I though Thrain must have been present. It seems wise to leave it him out of TE because we know Gandalf got the map and key off him and we know he went missing. Adding him in would have slowed things down unnecessarily.

I guess the fact that Beorn is in the film for about 5 minutes hinders full development of his material. But it is among the most subtle of the new themes. Despite this I like the right dusky hued atmosphere it conjures. Beorn is not a fun fellow but a capricious and fierce being. More fierceness if coming in the third film, hopefully. Bard's theme is clearly waiting for film 3 to rise to prominence. Now it seems to be one for a grim and cautious boatsman used to dealing with the treacherous Master of the Lake-Town. He'll remember his noble roots in the end, mark my words.

Hmm, at that point I was so transfixed by what was happening on the screen to remember specific details. IIRC The Courage of Hobbits underscores Bilbo's talk with Balin and going down into the mountain to look for the Arkenstone. He picks up a goblet and this causes a mini avalanche that reveals part of Smaug and the dragon begins to wake, Inside Information starts and it basically covers Smaug's reveal and his conversation with Bilbo.

I think I can be forgiven over the "Minus" Morgul thing. It was late at night and I had a very long day, I'd be surprised if that was my only spelling mistake

Please don't let this discussion be thrown back by several months ....

My official label is "Doug," which technically is a variation on "Douglas," but I prefer to categorize it separately.
Thanks for all the fish,
D

It's ok guys, there's no random LOTR's theme put into this one.
I haven't heard the SE soundtrack yet but I wouldn't say there was a whole pile of extra music in the film. Others are probably better qualified to talk about this than me so sorry if I'm not much use. The music (as it is on CD) seems to be in a much better state than it was in AUJ. Nothing major stood out as if it were out of place. There a source cue of a trumpet fanfare (not by Shore) in Laketown, that's the one new thing that stood out. It wasn't great though.
It seemed to be largely what was on the CD. I don't want to say there were no changes but there didn't seem to be anything major. Tauriel's theme is really good in the film and probably the most memorable as you hear it mostly in fight scenes. Sound mix could have been better.
Bilbo's fussy theme played at one point in Laketown, was that on the CDs?

Just seen it, spoilers ahead.
Ok, so the film is great, much better than AUJ (which I really liked). The most controversial part is the 3rd act but I think it would have been a flaw of the film if they built up the dragon and didn't have the Dwarves confront him.
Smaug looks terrific. Easily the best on-screen dragon I've ever seen and seeing him talk really works. Top marks to Cumberbatch., he was excellent.
Beorn isn't in it too much. If you hadn't read the books you'd probably wonder why they'd bothered with him. They couldn't really have justifiably spent any more time with him in this but I wouldn't be surprised if there was more in the EE.
The music seems to be largely as it is on the soundtrack. I don't want to stand over this 100% but there's no Ringwraith/Gondor Reborn moment in this film. There's no Company theme at all. The hummed Erebor theme plays when Thorin sees the bodies of his kin who had tried to find a place to hide in the mountain and got trapped. Think Mines of Moria but a little less decomposed. It was very touching I thought.
Tauriel rocks but she'll divide opinion. I think the love story is well handled. It isn't too over the top. They make a joke about the height issue early on I dunno, I'm sure BB and KK won't like it anyway but I'm interested to see what they do with it. Kili says something about having all sorts of dangerous things down his trousers that certain people will role their eyes at but it got a good reaction from the audience.
Can't really fault the special effects. They all looked great and vastly improved from the early trailers. Smaug is laughable in the trailers compared to him on screen.
Freeman is excellent as always. The ring is already starting to take hold of him. Smaug can sense the ring when Bilbo is wearing it but doesn't know what it is and he seems to be aware of the Necromancer and what he is doing. The transformation of the Necromancer looks better than the guy on TORN described and so does the molton gold (although it probably is one of the weaker aspects it's still not terrible).
Bolg is cool, I definitely prefer this design. He had Legolas have a good fight although the lack of music during it was a poor choice.
The film ends and the credits and Ed Sheeran's voice happen simultaneously. No lead in music by Shore
The film got a round of applause from the audience. Everybody seemed to really enjoy it and the cliffhanger ending was met with "Argh, I wish we could stay watching" rather than "WTF?!? IT JUST ENDED ALL OF A SUDDEN" reaction from the crowd.
It really is a very enjoyable film.
That's a random stream of consciousness, I'll try and address and questions if anyone has any but I'll probably go to bed shortly.

It's ok guys, there's no random LOTR's theme put into this one.
I haven't heard the SE soundtrack yet but I wouldn't say there was a whole pile of extra music in the film. Others are probably better qualified to talk about this than me so sorry if I'm not much use. The music (as it is on CD) seems to be in a much better state than it was in AUJ. Nothing major stood out as if it were out of place. There a source cue of a trumpet fanfare (not by Shore) in Laketown, that's the one new thing that stood out. It wasn't great though.
It seemed to be largely what was on the CD. I don't want to say there were no changes but there didn't seem to be anything major. Tauriel's theme is really good in the film and probably the most memorable as you hear it mostly in fight scenes. Sound mix could have been better.
Bilbo's fussy theme played at one point in Laketown, was that on the CDs?

Just seen it, spoilers ahead.
Ok, so the film is great, much better than AUJ (which I really liked). The most controversial part is the 3rd act but I think it would have been a flaw of the film if they built up the dragon and didn't have the Dwarves confront him.
Smaug looks terrific. Easily the best on-screen dragon I've ever seen and seeing him talk really works. Top marks to Cumberbatch., he was excellent.
Beorn isn't in it too much. If you hadn't read the books you'd probably wonder why they'd bothered with him. They couldn't really have justifiably spent any more time with him in this but I wouldn't be surprised if there was more in the EE.
The music seems to be largely as it is on the soundtrack. I don't want to stand over this 100% but there's no Ringwraith/Gondor Reborn moment in this film. There's no Company theme at all. The hummed Erebor theme plays when Thorin sees the bodies of his kin who had tried to find a place to hide in the mountain and got trapped. Think Mines of Moria but a little less decomposed. It was very touching I thought.
Tauriel rocks but she'll divide opinion. I think the love story is well handled. It isn't too over the top. They make a joke about the height issue early on I dunno, I'm sure BB and KK won't like it anyway but I'm interested to see what they do with it. Kili says something about having all sorts of dangerous things down his trousers that certain people will role their eyes at but it got a good reaction from the audience.
Can't really fault the special effects. They all looked great and vastly improved from the early trailers. Smaug is laughable in the trailers compared to him on screen.
Freeman is excellent as always. The ring is already starting to take hold of him. Smaug can sense the ring when Bilbo is wearing it but doesn't know what it is and he seems to be aware of the Necromancer and what he is doing. The transformation of the Necromancer looks better than the guy on TORN described and so does the molton gold (although it probably is one of the weaker aspects it's still not terrible).
Bolg is cool, I definitely prefer this design. He had Legolas have a good fight although the lack of music during it was a poor choice.
The film ends and the credits and Ed Sheeran's voice happen simultaneously. No lead in music by Shore
The film got a round of applause from the audience. Everybody seemed to really enjoy it and the cliffhanger ending was met with "Argh, I wish we could stay watching" rather than "WTF?!? IT JUST ENDED ALL OF A SUDDEN" reaction from the crowd.
It really is a very enjoyable film.
That's a random stream of consciousness, I'll try and address and questions if anyone has any but I'll probably go to bed shortly.

yes it was.

Being able to rely on BB and SUH being locked in eternal struggle in this thread is a great comfort to me.

I can't possibly imagine cramming all those major plot sequences (and I'm talking about the ones from the book alone) into a 90 minute movie....

Hey guys, don't worry. I just listened to the score, and it's still as great as we all thought it was before someone said it wasn't.

Don't tempt me, Bilbo!

I'm calling it now: all you guys who dislike AUJ will dislike DOS. Possibly more, possibly less, but I'd be very surprised if you did a 180 on this franchise.

The EE is the superior version of the film, GK. You should check it out!

LOL Howard Sore!

Listening to I See Fire for the very first time.
Hmmmm.....the arrangement not annoying like Song Of The Lonely Mountain. but it's utterly unremarkable. Guitar strumming and singing, the tried and tested singer/songwriter way of making a popsong. Seemingly no thematic connection with the rest of the score. And no attempt to make it fit stylistically. It's just a pop balad dumped at the tail end of a fully orchestral score.
I love all 3 the chart oriented end title songs for the LOTR trilogy. Stylistically, thematically they fit in right with Shore's music. They feel right.
This is another skipper....

The mocking of the Tolkien terms and language is very childish, you have to admit that. Suggests he was never going to like this if he can't get past things like that.

12:40 on Friday for the first time. 16:30 on Friday for the second.

As Bloodboal said, it is out here Tuesday 00.00 as a pre-screening even, but that is too late for me so I took the earliest screening the day after which is the official release date

You, hello! Long time lurker, yadda yadda. But seriously, isn't ripping on the whole thing a tad premature? For instance, imagine a romantic moment between Galadriel and, of all characters, GIMLI. I mean, like... ewwwww, right? That could never work.

Nobody's trashing the score because of fantasies in their head based on absolutely nothing. They're trashing the film because of fantasies in their head based on absolutely nothing.

Wrong! There are people in this thread who no longer like the Tauriel/Kili love theme because it's for "Jackson Brain Fart" and not something they wanted the music to represent!

Some of the people in this thread make me sick. Why would anybody be so mad about so many aspects of the film before you've even seen it? Why not wait till you've seen the damn thing before you start putting it on blast? Any going from liking a theme to hating it just because of which characters the theme is for? That is absolutely insane! Just enjoy all this wonderful music fellas! Shore has knocked this one out of the park!