Critics review 'Desolation of Smaug' | POSSIBLE SPOILERS

Radaghast wrote:

Eldorion wrote:

bungobaggins wrote:The one review I'm really looking forward to.

Spoiler:

Definitely. :DI enjoyed their AUJ review too.

I started watching that but stopped when one of them said you couldn't pay him to read Tolkien (or something like that).

I'm pretty sure it's Mike who says that he tried reading FOTR and quit after the first two chapters or so. And that's fine, the books aren't for everyone, but I still love hearing their perspective as non-book readers and I really respect them as film critics, mainly because they actually make movies!

  molton gold?  

note to PJ:

HAVE YOU SEEN THE SIZE OF HIM????

it would take years to make that much.

No talking ravens from the sounds of it, apparently only the Evil creatures have the power of speech in the film.

*Grumbles to himself*

Still...the prologue in Bree sounds really cool.

malickfan wrote:No talking ravens from the sounds of it, apparently only the Evil creatures have the power of speech in the film.

*Grumbles to himself*

In a set of films where all manner of animals have the ability to speak, the ravens that Tolkien wrote about who had a long friendship with the dwarves of the lonely mountain cannot speak but rabbits would win the damn iditarod.

bungobaggins wrote:I'm pretty sure it's Mike who says that he tried reading FOTR and quit after the first two chapters or so. And that's fine, the books aren't for everyone, but I still love hearing their perspective as non-book readers and I really respect them as film critics, mainly because they actually make movies!

Yeah, I don't mind that they're just judging the movies and I don't want to make it seem like I'm the Tolkien police or anything, but I just find that comment rather annoying. As for the reviews, I'd like to see more of the Plinkett ones. In this type of review, all they're doing is sitting and talking and not even trying to be funny.

Beleg wrote:

malickfan wrote:No talking ravens from the sounds of it, apparently only the Evil creatures have the power of speech in the film.

*Grumbles to himself*

In a set of films where all manner of animals have the ability to speak, the ravens that Tolkien wrote about who had a long friendship with the dwarves of the lonely mountain cannot speak but rabbits would win the damn iditarod.

And ravens actually can learn to speak words in the real world.

malickfan wrote:Eldo why oh why don't we have a Vomiting Emoticon?

If we did, it would probably be the only one certain people use.

Radaghast wrote:As for the reviews, I'd like to see more of the Plinkett ones. In this type of review, all they're doing is sitting and talking and not even trying to be funny.

That's what I like most about Half in the Bag.  There can be some genuinely funny moments in HitB, even outside of the occasional skits. Best of the Worst is also a really good show, it's kind of a mix between MST3K and HitB. I like the Plinkett reviews too, but they take Mike a lot of time, and I'm not sure if there's one on the horizon at the moment. They've been really busy the past few months filming Space Cop, it's a miracle that they've put out any HitB and BotW in the past months.



Another new feature they're trying are Quick Cuts, in which the sexy Jay Baumann stares deep into the camera and gives his opinion on whatever movie he wants.



I guess my point is RLM has a lot of talent, and I'd hate to see them only do Plinkett reviews.

If they had taken any care to the inner logic of their own story they would know just how little sense having the dwarfs tauntingly attack Smaug in the Lonely Mountain looks?

Particularily as they made his attack on the Lonely Mountain all the more impressive than it was in the book.

In the book the dwarfs didn't know what they were facing so they rushed out of the mountain and Smaug sinply walked in through the open door. In the film he not only breaks down the door with ease, but then proceeds to deal with the full resistance of the now prepeared dwarfs without problems.

At least be aware of the logic of your own script.   Is that too much to ask?

Bungo, I guess might give that review another look.

bungobaggins wrote:I guess my point is RLM has a lot of talent, and I'd hate to see them only do Plinkett reviews.

WHEN'S THE NEXT PLINKETT REVIEW YOU FRAUDS?!

In all seriousness I do enjoy Half in the Bag a lot. I understand that the Plinkett reviews are probably time consuming to make. They're sort of like Christmas presents: If they gave them out all the time, it'd diminish their value.

Bluebottle wrote:In the film he not only breaks down the door with ease, but then proceeds to deal with the full resistance of the now prepeared dwarfs without problems.

And somehow fixed the door up again, if this poster is any indication:

Here's RLM's HitB AUJ review for anyone who wants to watch it.

Radaghast wrote:

Bluebottle wrote:In the film he not only breaks down the door with ease, but then proceeds to deal with the full resistance of the now prepeared dwarfs without problems.

And somehow fixed the door up again, if this poster is any indication:

A desolation of script paradoxes.

It's as good a collective noun as any.  

http://www.craveonline.com/film/reviews/614747

It’s an enormous improvement on An Unexpected Journey, although it doesn’t – as some hoped it would – make the first film look any better in retrospect.

Yes, we meet Smaug, voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, as we all knew we must (given the title and all). Yes, Bilbo wanders in on his own to confront the godlike behemoth. But no, their famous confrontation doesn’t go as Tolkien originally planned. In an effort to beef up the presence of the dwarves in what used to be Bilbo Baggins’ story, Jackson shoves half of them into the finale of The Desolation of Smaug, giving them tons to do but nothing to accomplish. It all ends as it must for the story to continue, regardless of anything the dwarves do, leaving the last half hour of the film feeling like the kind of pointless overblown filler that turned An Unexpected Journey into a sumptuous slog.

This guy gave AUJ 6/10 last time.

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/reviewsnews.php?id=112204

Captivating and exciting from start to finish, "Desolation of Smaug" is a welcome return to form for Jackson that should help remind everyone why they loved "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy so much.

I tried watching AUJ again last night and it actually had a lot more action than I remembered.  And it was incredibly boring for it.  I'm feeling rather suspicious of anyone who says that DOS is more exciting because it has even more action now.

The Crave Online review's tone and the rating at the end seem oddly discordant.

Why dont you try the purist edit as a comparison Eldo?

Pettytyrant101 wrote:Why dont you try the purist edit as a comparison Eldo?

I'd like to give the actual film a fair shake and wanted to refresh my memory on the story so far. (I failed at this btw, but that's a story that requires a longer write-up.)

Its the same story- just better told  

I'm not sure that counts as giving DOS a fair shake, then, to have watched the purist edit right before.

The general public are clearly 70% nincompoops. At the end of the yahoo review I posted, I made the following comment:

"While Peter Jackson could most definitely be described as a Tolkien purist, he's not above taking a few liberties with the text..."

The guy's a blithering idiot. What PJ has done is no where NEAR what Tolkien intended, to describe him as a purist is laughable.

It got two thumbs up, but five thumbs down.

Bunch of Yahooligans.

halfwise wrote:It got two thumbs up, but five thumbs down.

That's what you get for leaving Internet comments (especially on Yahoo).

Although I used to comment on THM, but stopped when Ady introduced a thumbs up/down system (since deleted) and I kept having my comments hidden since too many people had thumbs-downed them.

Has Petty noticed the Heroic Wheelbarrowing yet? He's awfully quiet.