Re: The Desolation of Smaug pre-release thread [3] [SPOILERS]

[Mrs Figg]

Eldo has this guy seen the film? I have lost the thread of whats the spoilers are.

wow Tauriel, who knew? little tinkerbell's got jiggy with it

[Eldorion]

It's two guys answering questions but they agree with each other. One of them posted his ticket stub from the world premiere.

[Mrs Figg]

oh. thanks. Its worse than I thought, but its probably more enjoyable this way, its a bit of a laugh.

[bungobaggins]

This will be PJ and crew as I'm watching the movie.



And this will be me watching the movie.

[bungobaggins]

Clip of Turdy Smell and Plank-face. Watch at own discretion.

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2013/12/03/hobbit-desolation-of-smaug-orlando-bloom-clip/

I don't understand the random lines in elvish. What's the point?

Spoiler:

[Radaghast]

Wow, "Plank-Face" is right

[Eldorion]

Honestly, I don't think the clip was bad.  I'm not a fan of the whole "waaah? You mean evil is still a thing?" plotline, in part because it messes up the timeline and runs contrary to the very existence of the War of the Dwarves and Orcs, but the scene itself is fine.  Evangeline Lilly seems pretty good too.  I've never seen Lost or anything with her in it but I have no reason to think she won't turn in a good performance, and this clip shows nothing to the contrary.

Orly is definitely pretty wooden in that scene, but I suspect it's because they're trying to to stay consistent with character at the beginning of Fellowship of the Ring. He was fairly stiff and humorless at the beginning of that film, which worked out because it gave him somewhere to grow from. But since The Hobbit is a prequel, any character growth he experiences has to stop at the same place he began from a decade ago. So presumably he'll be even more stiff, humorless, and distrustful of outsiders (especially dwarves) in this movie than he was in FOTR.

I don't understand the random lines in elvish. What's the point?

Presumably they're trying to strike the balance between fanservice, since a lot of people want to hear lines in Elvish, and not having the entire conversation be subtitled, since a lot of people don't like reading subtitles while watching a movie.  They did the same thing in LOTR.

[bungobaggins]

Yeah I was pretty impressed by Lilly in that clip. Not impressed with Orlando, though.  

[Radaghast]

She could match Laurence Olivier and I still wouldn't care. It's not Tolkien.

[Mrs Figg]

Turdarella Turdarella
where is your blonde fella
oh look he's so bella
he's trippin the light fantastic
lookin quite plastic
its gettin rather drastic
divin on invisible elastic
boing! boing! boing!
Turdarella Turdarella

[Eldorion]

Yeah I was pretty impressed by Lilly in that clip. Not impressed with Orlando, though.  

I edited in some comments on Orly.  I think he's being let down by having bad material to work with.  Not saying he'd be Oscar quality otherwise, but the script didn't do him many favors in LOTR and it's not doing so here either.

She could match Laurence Olivier and I still wouldn't care. It's not Tolkien.

Why even bother watching the film if you've already made up your mind that it's completely worthless if it's different from the book?  Oh wait.

[Radaghast]

[Eldorion]

Also, it's time for me to eat crow about the whole movie breaking point thing.  I was pretty vocal in my belief that DOS would include Smaug's death, because I thought doing otherwise would create a ridiculous cliffhanger. PJ has seemed averse to those so far, most noticeable in TTT when he drags the ending on and on trying to give it some sort of resolution.  However, assuming the reports from the IMDb boards are true, Smaug will not die in this movie.  So it appears that I was wrong. I do think it's going to be one of the most ridiculous mid-trilogy cliffhangers ever seen, though.

[Mrs Figg]

she was ok really she does a good English accent. 

[bungobaggins]

Yeah, can't say the material that he is working with is great or anything, and his reputation as a plank precedes him.

[Eldorion]

I honestly think that Bloom was good in Pirates of the Caribbean, but I've said my fanboy piece on POTC elsewhere.

[Bluebottle]

I can see your point Eldo. It's almost as if he plays Legolas wooden at least a bit on purpose.  

[bungobaggins]

Also, it's time for me to eat crow about the whole movie breaking point thing.  I was pretty vocal in my belief that DOS would include Smaug's death, because I thought doing otherwise would create a ridiculous cliffhanger. PJ has seemed averse to those so far, most noticeable in TTT when he drags the ending on and on trying to give it some sort of resolution.  However, assuming the reports from the IMDb boards are true, Smaug will not die in this movie.  So it appears that I was wrong. :)I do think it's going to be one of the most ridiculous mid-trilogy cliffhangers ever seen, though.

Didn't the second Matrix movie end on a cliffhanger?

[bungobaggins]

I can't remember if it was mentioned by the imdb poster, but will Bolg be named in the movie? Or is he going to suffer from Lurtzitis?

[azriel]

I dont know who was more bored, Legolas or me ? Orlando looked as tho he was thinking " I hope I havnt scuppered my chances of a REAL acting role ?!" And Lily was thinking, "IL show them what actings really all about!" while being as cardboard and monotone as best as she could, they were like 2 androids, A blind man's seen better acting. The daleks put up a better performance & they are tin cans on wheels.

[halfwise]

In a fit of nostalgia I've been watching the original star wars (takes me 3 or 4 nights on my schedule). I have to say, R2D2 could give acting lessons to anyone. Manages to emote to perfection all by tone of voice and a very limited physical repertoire. You tie Daniel Day Lewis to a wheel chair squawking out the side of his mouth and he wins an academy award. Why that little droid didn't win any prizes is beyond my ability to fathom.

[bungobaggins]

I thought he was fantastic in There Will Be Blood.  

I haven't seen My Left Foot, and overall, I'm not sure how I feel about actors portraying mentally and physically disabled persons when they themselves are not.

[David H]

I just scanned through all the new spoilers, and the one bright spot I see is that it sounds like many of the subplots are still just stuck together like Legos, which means that Petty should be able to take them apart just as easily.  White Council - gone. Sauron - gone. All the love interests - gone!

And hopefully the the legos that are left will snap back together into a nice 3 to 4 hour movie, which would be the perfect size for an adaptation of one small book.  

{{OK, my optimism's stretched to the breaking point, but I'm trying, dammit! I'm trying! }}

[Pettytyrant101]

Thats more optimistic than me, but I live in hope.

[Radaghast]

Seems strange that the LotR trilogy is more editable than the new one.

Then again, maybe not, since PJ and his Coven pretty much rewrote the danged story.