Re: The Desolation of Smaug pre-release thread [SPOILERS]

[David H]

Sinister enough, but he looks like he's on his hands and knees, ready to stand up. I wish his body was less human and more serpentine.

[Norc]

this sherlock/benedict cumberbatch (plus a lot of other things)-fan draws a really good smaug.
here (she's made a benedict cumberbatch alphabet and S is for Smaug): http://reapersun.tumblr.com/post/55874113356/abcs-with-benedict-cumberbatch-s-previous
and n is for Necromancer:
http://reapersun.tumblr.com/post/54989001657/abcs-with-benedict-cumberbatch-n-previous

[chris63]

[Mrs Figg]

now thats what I call a fantastic gif  

[azriel]

That IS a good one Chris !!  

[Eldorion]

Encouraging news from PJ's live-blogging of the last day of pick-up shooting (yesterday):

The score for Film 2 is going to be terrific. Last year, we were a little frustrated because we had to revisit so many of the LotR themes - The Shire, Rivendell, Galadriel, Gollum, and the Ring - we did this because I'm wanting these 3 Hobbit movies to have great unity with the Rings films in design, wardrobe, story and music, so it meant "An Unexpected Journey" had to acknowledge what had gone before.

But this time around, apart from a couple of Ring moments, it's all new: Beorn, Mirkwood, The Woodland Realm, Laketown, Bard and Smaug all give Howard the chance to write brand new themes, and he's knocking it out of the park!

The derivativeness of the score for AUJ was one of the more surprising disappointments of the first film, but I'm hopeful that we'll get more of Shore's genius and less plodding reproduction of what came before in DOS.  Hopefully there will be more variation instead of continual replaying of the "Misty Mountains" theme, too.

[Mrs Figg]

that is good news.  

[Pettytyrant101]

I suspect the most pissed off person at the first film score was Shore himself- its was his name took the kicking for not producing much new.
I suspect this is as much a response to the crappy soundtrack in 1 and its last minute construction as much as anything else, as presumably some of the new music would have been in the original first film when there was only 2 of them.

[Eldorion]

The most baffling musical choice in AUJ was playing the Nazgul theme over Thorin and Azog's "climactic" fight. I can understand reusing the themes for places or characters that appeared in LOTR, that makes total sense, but with Azog it felt like they were afraid audiences wouldn't care about him so they needed to dredge up something from LOTR to get people excited. Regardless, the end effect of such choices is to make the film feel insignificant compared to its predecessor and cheapen both the scene and the piece of music.

</crabbit>

[Pettytyrant101]

Im pretty sure the reason for the Nazgul theme over that is they invented that scene at the last minute after the 3 film split just to have a big fight ending but didnt have a piece of music for it due its rushed inclusion.

[Eldorion]

There's a good chance that's true (since basically every aspect of Azog in the film was poorly thought-out), but they did have a theme for Azog that was introduced earlier in the film. It wasn't especially memorable though -- I had to check the track listing to confirm it was there -- so I suspect they went back to the LOTR well in the absence of a better musical choice. Probably for the reason you mention.

[Rigby]

Damn, I wish the whole Hobbit soundtrack was done in the style of the Neil Finn.

[Eldorion]

I did actually like the ending song quite a bit. I wasn't sure about it at first but I thought it was very good and it fit surprisingly well.

[CC12 35]

i agree

[Sinister71]

That does seem to be the look that PJ is going for.  It may be more bleak than the book's depiction (it's been a long time since I've read that part), but I don't think it's an unreasonable way to visually depict the decline and impoverishment of the people of Long Lake since Smaug's arrival.  I'll be curious to see if the films reflect the generation gap between those who still remember/care about Smaug and those who don't, though.

Since Jackson has shortened the timeline, will there even be that much of a gap? I'm thinking all of Laketown will remember the dragon and it will be a big deal about the way the town is ran. Always in fear of Smaug. I hope for something closer to the books details about Laketown and the split between the younger generation even doubting Smaug's existence, but 60 years is just a short period of time. I would have much preferred the 170 years like the book.

[Pettytyrant101]

Yeah sadly I think with the time line so shortened everyone will know of the dragon and know its still there.
Shame. Tolkien knew what he was on about- when I was a kid we got told tales about a local rocky hill being a troll that had been sleeping for hundreds of years.
Go back a thousand years in time and people might actually have believed that (especially if it was prone to rock falls or something and so was a spot people disappeared or were found dead more often than most) and easy to see how a younger generation might grow up doubting the tale of the hill being a sleeping troll.
Difference in this case of course is that there really is a dragon under the mountain- but Tolkien got the general sense that people in folk tale times had no problem with things like dragons and trolls lying dormant for far longer than any human life expectancy.
Bu shortening the time line PJ will lose that aspect and another little bit of the scholarly knowledge Tolkien brought to his work is chipped away.

[Eldorion]

Maybe I'm being dense here, but did PJ actually come out and say what the time period from the destruction of Erebor until the start of The Hobbit was?  I know with LOTR there was the 17 year gap (that wasn't explicitly stated but was clearly removed), but I don't recall the issue coming up in The Hobbit.

Edit: the 60 year figure is the time between The Hobbit and LOTR, which is actually the same length of time from Bilbo's journey to the long-expected party as in the book.  But the LOTR timeline meddling shouldn't effect events that took place before The Hobbit (or so I'd think).

[Mrs Figg]

I just watched AUJ on Sky in English for the first time. There's no fast forward. Boy was it boring.

[Eldorion]

I kind of want to see AUJ again to see what I think of it now that all the hype is several months removed, but first I have to muster enough interest (and a willingness to actually buy the DVD).

[azriel]

I cant. I cant buy the DVD this time ! I got all the LOTRs dvds but, I joost canna do it !

[Pettytyrant101]

Watch my edit instead Eldo   - save yourself (most) of the pain of PJ's abominations.

[Ringdrotten]

Watch my edit instead Eldo   - save yourself (most) of the pain of PJ's abominations.

Give it a go, Eldo - the theatrical cut I won't ever watch again if the choice is mine, but Petty's edit is a version I can enjoy a lot. It really is very good

[Pettytyrant101]

 Ringdrotten

[Sinister71]

Maybe I'm being dense here, but did PJ actually come out and say what the time period from the destruction of Erebor until the start of The Hobbit was?  I know with LOTR there was the 17 year gap (that wasn't explicitly stated but was clearly removed), but I don't recall the issue coming up in The Hobbit.

Edit: the 60 year figure is the time between The Hobbit and LOTR, which is actually the same length of time from Bilbo's journey to the long-expected party as in the book.  But the LOTR timeline meddling shouldn't effect events that took place before The Hobbit (or so I'd think).

I believe someone said something like "it has been 60 years since the dragon was last seen"

Actually it was in Baggend during the unexpected party by Thorin after the dwarfs ask how many dragons Gandalf has killed and before Thorin is given the key. His exact words are "rumors have begun to spread, the dragon Smaug has not been seen for 60 years"

[Ringdrotten]

I can but help spread the word ;)Partly because your work deserves it, and partly because it shows that Jackson only fucked up half of the film, and (in my opinion) did a really good job with the rest