The Hobbit Film Trilogy Thread

[Incanus 5,715]

I've read a few things about Tauriel, and let me tell you: it is far worse than anything I could have imagined...

Also, one interesting little tidbit (not a major spoiler, it's just about the minutes of screentime of a character):

Apparently, Beorn is in the film for only 5 minutes or so...

That's bound to disappoint a certain JWFAN member...

I hope the EE will have more of Beorn then since I remember PJ specifically saying somewhere that because Persbrandt was so great in the role they shot extra material involving him.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Lewya 360]

does he mention about the legs of smaug?

Two legs. It also walks along on its wings like a bat or pterodactyle

If we believe that guy.

[Barnald 365]

I've read a few things about Tauriel, and let me tell you: it is far worse than anything I could have imagined...

It's not great but surely you could have imagined far, far worse? It's what we feared I'll grant you that, but I just hope they don't go too far with it.

[Jay 37,364]

does he mention about the legs of smaug?

Two legs. It also walks along on its wings like a bat or pterodactyle

If we believe that guy.

It?

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Lewya 360]

does he mention about the legs of smaug?

Two legs. It also walks along on its wings like a bat or pterodactyle

If we believe that guy.

It?

Haha, typo probably

[Barnald 365]

I've read a few things about Tauriel, and let me tell you: it is far worse than anything I could have imagined...

It's not great but surely you could have imagined far, far worse? It's what we feared I'll grant you that, but I just hope they don't go too far with it.

I didn't imagine that it would go this far, to be honest. You guys were all like: "Come on, Bloody, shut the fuck up. She'll probably be just a minor character with little screentime", and for a time, I decided to believe you. Well, I shouldn't have! I mean, it looks like she's a major character of one of the main three storylines in the movie.

And the love story thing seems to be true.

I resigned myself to her being more prominent many months ago.

I know it sounds bad but it might still be friendship rather than love. Love would be ridiculous, surely they're aware of how laughable it would look if they kissed?

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Barnald 365]

I know it sounds bad but it might still be friendship rather than love. Love would be ridiculous, surely they're aware of how laughable it would look if they kissed?

Do they? I'm not saying that they will kiss anyway, but it does seem to be more than just friendship if what the guy who saw the film said is to be believed.

I don't know. Can they really bond that much over a brief chat in the cells, a good while before she comes and heals him? I'm guessing he might be infatuated, but she doesn't like him in that way. I'm trusting nothing will come of it. Though now I'm really concerned Kili will feel obliged to sacrifice himself for her, when it needs to be him and Fili dying by their uncle's side

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Lathspell, I name you. Ill news is an ill guest.

I'm sure you'll love her anyway.

I saw the clip with her and Legolas. Seemed quite hum-drum.

[Lewya 360]

Some live event coming up in ~3 minutes -

Edit: strange, it vanished.

[Bilbo 3,709]

I seriously can not wait for the Barrels out of Bond sequence, it looks excellent. Freeman is as good as ever in it too!

[mrbellamy 6,287]

The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug closes out Time Magazine's Top 10 of 2013

Who could guess, after the meandering first feature in a seemingly unnecessary eight-hour trilogy of films based on a novel of less than 300 pages, that Peter Jackson had such a vigorous and thrilling middle episode in store? With Bilbo (Martin Freeman), Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and the dwarves finally done with introductory dawdling, they dive into a nonstop adventure among the noble Elves, the rough-hewn humans of Laketown and the ferocious dragon Smaug (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch). This time, Andy Serkis has not lent his presence to Gollum, but his work as second-unit director is spectacular. Each complex encounter, especially a flume-ride escape of the dwarves, boasts a teeming ingenuity of action and character. A bonus: the budding romance of the warrior Elf Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) and the dwarf hunk Kili (Aidan Turner). In all, this is a splendid achievement, close to the grandeur of Jackson's Lord of the Rings films.

[Bilbo 3,709]

The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug closes out Time Magazine's Top 10 of 2013

Who could guess, after the meandering first feature in a seemingly unnecessary eight-hour trilogy of films based on a novel of less than 300 pages, that Peter Jackson had such a vigorous and thrilling middle episode in store? With Bilbo (Martin Freeman), Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and the dwarves finally done with introductory dawdling, they dive into a nonstop adventure among the noble Elves, the rough-hewn humans of Laketown and the ferocious dragon Smaug (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch). This time, Andy Serkis has not lent his presence to Gollum, but his work as second-unit director is spectacular. Each complex encounter, especially a flume-ride escape of the dwarves, boasts a teeming ingenuity of action and character. A bonus: the budding romance of the warrior Elf Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) and the dwarf hunk Kili (Aidan Turner). In all, this is a splendid achievement, close to the grandeur of Jackson's Lord of the Rings films.

Positive reaction to the film? Well we can't take that at face value!

[Quintus 5,399]

Even so, it's a maddening shame that AUJ will forever (needlessly) be the chink in Jackson's Middle-Earthian saga. Maddening because there's so glaringly a really good movie buried in there amongst all the bloated tat fighting to break out but failing and suffocating beneath Jackson's insistent excess. George might have fatally wounded his saga; but Jackson has purposefully hobbled his for crazy reasons only known to his knighted self. AUJ is fixable and always will be!

[crocodile 8,017]

So the next video blog sometime this month will cover the scoring sessions.

Karol

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Excited about that. Also in this latest one, the bit showing how PJ "shoots" CGI sequences with a camera that can look around the digital environments... that's really cool.

[gkgyver 1,645]

"Dwarf hunk Kili"?

My god ...

Are they really shoehorning Luthien's story in with an invented warrior elf and a random dwarf?

They should have rather added Aragorn's and Arwen's first meeting into to the EE.

[Jay 37,364]

Five new clips!

Production Diary 13!

[KK 3,307]

I've read a few things about Tauriel, and let me tell you: it is far worse than anything I could have imagined...

Also, one interesting little tidbit (not a major spoiler, it's just about the minutes of screentime of a character):

Apparently, Beorn is in the film for only 5 minutes or so...

That's bound to disappoint a certain JWFAN member...

That explains the brief length of the Beorn material and the huge emphasis on the Tauriel stuff.

I haven't read what you read, but I don't think the Tauriel stuff will be that bad now. And I don't think its a romance between Tauriel and Legolas. Just a close friendship.

Five new clips!

Production Diary 13!

Doh! Still have to wait one more for the recording sessions!

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Lewya 360]

I saw Pope.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Lewya 360]

The film has a 8,9 score on IMdb currently with 4310 votes

I think the final score will be a bit above 8.0. Maybe 8.2.

[Glóin the Dark 1,222]

On the basis of a quick look at the scores for some recent films, I'll guess that The Desolation of Smaug will settle (in the medium term) at about 8.5.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Glóin the Dark 1,222]

I'm hoping for something like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SnhmTKGbsk

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

The IMDB cast list has been updated. There are some interesting bits in there:

- A shitload of Laketown spies (and one in particular is kind of famous).

Yep. My brother read that his wife and kids also have roles.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Bilbo 3,709]

His main complaint seems to be CGI so that doesn't worry me much.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Bilbo 3,709]

Yeah it's interesting that he says he isn't a purist yet his biggest complaints (aside from CG) are the invented things.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Bilbo 3,709]

Yeah it's interesting that he says he isn't a purist yet his biggest complaints (aside from CG) are the invented things.

How does not liking the added stuff make someone (automatically) a purist? Could it be that the added stuff is just not good?

I won't know myself until I've seen it. I'm just saying that it's interesting that he posts on a Tolkien message board and what he dislikes most is the invented stuff. Maybe he really isn't a purist and what he said is true, I just think it's worth mentioning.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Bilbo 3,709]

God forbid you might go into to film with an open mind!

I'll make my own mind up. I go into every film wanting to like it. From what I've read I'm optimistic about the film. Positive reactions from Empire, EW, Edgar Wright and Time give me reason to me optimistic, I'm not getting worried by some random guy on TORn.

[Barnald 365]

I just thought it was odd how he focused on the bad stuff and yet wants to keep the good stuff secret. Why would you do that? It comes across as a very imbalanced review as a result, and that makes me question him a bit. I don't doubt he's seen it, but it makes me wonder about agendas and such, how he just dwells on the things he didn't like. He admits to there being lots of good stuff in the film, so why not talk about that as well?

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Barnald 365]

The thing is, I really, really liked AUJ. I know a lot of people on here don't - shoot me. But I'm concerned that I won't like DoS as much, because it will include things I don't particularly like (Legolas and Tauriel, Tauriel and Kili) that might tarnish it. I'm also concerned that it might not have the same feel, since people are talking about all the action. If you recall, a lot of critics said that AUJ really picked up in the last hour, because it was pretty action-packed and fast paced. Now if the second film is more to their liking, then that would suggest it doesn't let up and has little time to breathe. I don't know if that will appeal to me as much, since some of my favourite parts of AUJ were contained in the first half.

I'm not sure if I'm articulating this properly, but just because critics like DoS more really doesn't mean LOTR films and Tolkien fans who disliked AUJ will find more to enjoy here. If anything, those who found the Stone Giants and Goblintown sequences over the top and altogether 'too much' may really object to this one. If they felt that AUJ was lacking character development and calmer scenes, again I can't see them being any happier from what we've heard about DoS. My concern is that Jackson has taken the criticism of AUJ to heart and has now gone for a breakneck pace, pandering more to the critics and general audiences. I also have to wonder if WB had a word in his hear to this effect.

So to be succinct, my worry is that DoS will appeal to critics and the masses more, but disappoint some of those who liked AUJ and further disappoint those who didn't. Just my two cents, and I hope I made myself clear.

[Quintus 5,399]

Looks like I withdrew from this thread in the nick of time.

Now we have analysis of reviews posted by no-marks. Where will it end? Anyone wanna know what my dog thought about it?

You can always tell it's the festive season when it's time to set BloodBoal to ignore again!

Merry Christmas everyone!

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Well I'll say that my excitement is reaching fever pitch. In one week I'll be returning to Middle-Earth with a great group of people in the theater. A slightly different Middle-Earth than I might wish but so what? With the production values of Alan Lee, John Howe, Weta, the acting of Freeman, McKellen, Cumberbatch, the fun of Stephens Fry and Colbert, Evangeline Lilly making me swoon with red haired, leather booted badassery, and of course, the great score, I have enough to enjoy even if the film itself is, at worst, just stupidly fun.

So there.

[KK 3,307]

Ahh, you are JWFan's beacon of hope and optimism!

I guess we'll have to bring out the BloodBoal to shoot you down.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

I will break him.

[Lewya 360]

Empire gave the film a 5/5 rating - http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=137814

[Bilbo 3,709]

Dems fightin words Empire!

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie/hobbit-desolation-smaug/review/663372?mobile_redirect=false

Very positive from Hollywood Reporter as well.

[Incanus 5,715]

Can we trust this Empire?

[mrbellamy 6,287]

Here's Variety's (another positive): http://variety.com/2013/film/reviews/the-hobbit-the-desolation-of-smaug-review-1200919206/

Interesting that Variety and The Hollywood Reporter both used the word "purpose" to describe it.