In theatres: 'Desolation of Smaug' | SPOILERS

Whew...for a moment there I was worried there you were gonna subject us to a 10 minute mashup of the love scenes from Attack of the Clones. Brrr...

Hobbit 2: Electric Boogaloo opens to $31 mil on Friday. $6 mil lower than AUJ's $37 mil.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/showdowns/chart/?id=vs-lotr.htm

I saw it described on another board it as "Hobbit 2: Wood Elves on Patrol"

halfwise wrote:

wisdom4madness wrote:
Also just wanted to share the replica ring I found with all the movies. 1 ring

Do you actually have that ring?  Or are you trying to get us to enter the give-away?   

I entered the giveaway. And was just sharing it.

Sinister71 wrote:

Tinuviel wrote:Another thing that bugged me was how much Smaug knew about current events, particularly Sauron. How did he know Bilbo was wearing the Ring? And how did he get him to take it off? It's something you're just supposed to accept, but it makes absolutely no sense to me.

Yeah interesting since Smaug hadn't been seen since destroying Erebor and Dale all those years ago. Another downfall IMO to Jackson shortening the years between Smaug taking the mountain and the dwarfs quest.  I thought Smaug himself was well executed but I didn't get why they felt the need to have Bilbo put on the ring only to take it off and talk directly to Smaug. I prefer Tolkien's version where Bilbo stays hidden from the dragon. And the whole dwarfs fighting back stuff was crap.

In the end of the first one. The birds were communicating with Smaug by tapping rocks on the mountain. It happened again just before Bilbo found the key hole. I thought it was obvious what they were doing.

wisdom4madness wrote:In the end of the first one. The birds were communicating with Smaug by tapping rocks on the mountain. It happened again just before Bilbo found the key hole. I thought it was obvious what they were doing.

Were the brids tapping in morse code or something? I didn't pick up on that at all, though perhaps it's because I assumed the bird was based on the thrush of the book, who is a good guy.

Ringdrotten wrote:On Star Wars prequel trilogy vs TH trilogy - the SW prequel trilogy kicks TH so hard in the ass, and the SW prequels had Jar Jar Binks.

To each his own, but I can't agree with that at all. I would much rather rewatch AUJ or DOS than any of the Star Wars prequels (except maybe Revenge of the Sith).

Norc wrote:Love hurts. No but srsly, cumverbatxh has ALOT of good movies too, and more coming up. E.g that alan turing movie.

Well I haven't seen any of his early movies, so I can't comment on them, but he's only been a big name for a year or two. I do hope that his future movies are good and successful, though.

bungobaggins wrote:Those bastards!

Gustavo Fring Bilbo Baggins: I will kill your infant daughter spider!

What really drove home the comparison for me is that after Bilbo raged out and stabbed the spider to death, he picked up the Ring and shoved it in its face and hissed "Mine!" It seriously felt like something Walter White would say.

And @ the mashup video

Eldorion wrote:Are you sure? A Stalinist dictatorship town swarming with guards and spies is suddenly deserted for the sake of an action scene? To think having the guards there would have made the action scene bigger? Isn't that what Jackson wants?

The dwarves giving up when they're at the secret door? All the dumb-Gandalf stuff? It all sounds pretty Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones to me.

I mean ... there's a lot of dumb shit here. There's no getting around that (and I said as much in my initial very brief reaction post ). But I don't think it's as bad as TPM or AOTC. The emotional beats are there, even if they're weak and too few, and Thorin is actually IMO noticeably better this film. At least until the very end during the fight with Smaug. Although this is me trying to be as charitable as possible in my assessment of DOS; I may grow harsher over the course of the next year.

Eldorion wrote:I'm going to hate this movie, aren't I.

I enjoyed your review Eldo, and at this point I'm pretty much spoiled for the entire movie, so I'll know what's going to happen. I have no expectations for this movie. Actually I think I have negative expectations for this movie.

You wouldn't want to have bad taste, would you?

I'm glad you enjoyed it. I was pretty thoroughly spoiled myself, although there were a number of minor things I hadn't known to expect, which I did appreciate. The utter lack of expectation contributed to my very slight feelings of positivity at the end.

Radaghast wrote:Thanks for that review/description. Really kills any curiosity I might have had. I also think a small part of me might have died after reading it, which is not a reflection on your writing but on PoS DoS.

Anyway, I know all I need to about this movie. Thanks to all who've posted reviews.

No problem; I'm glad people are reading it. I do think you should watch the movie at some point just to see for yourself, but totally wait until its on TV or something if you don't want to pay.

Anyone else also find it ridiculous that all the dwarves gave up and left when they couldn't get inside the mountain door? As if you would spend months and months preparing, travelling and risking death multiple times only to give up and go home the instant something doesn't work first time... Felt like such an obvious and cheap effort to make things more dramatic when it really wasn't required.

Eldorion wrote:

Norc wrote:Love hurts. No but srsly, cumverbatxh has ALOT of good movies too, and more coming up. E.g that alan turing movie.

Well I haven't seen any of his early movies, so I can't comment on them, but he's only been a big name for a year or two. I do hope that his future movies are good and successful, though.

I do think it's a bit of a shame Cumberbatch is being turned into a bad guy actor by Hollywood. Though I have always had the impression that you americans see the english as slightly sinister as a rule. I do feel he has the talent to do a whole lot more though.

Actually, I was floating the idea to a friend of mine not to long ago that he might have made a good Bilbo.

Now if there was an "the most obviously baiting post" at the awards I'm sure that one would win hands down.    Still, I see it got the desired response.

That happened way too much throughout the entire movie. They couldn't trust the story they had, so they raised the stakes at every moment. Instead of relying on the actors, they relied on the script, which as absolute shit.

Bluebottle wrote:Now if there was an "the most obviously baiting post" at the awards I'm sure that one would win hands down.    Still, I see it got the desired response.

I was deliberately being a snarky asshole but I wasn't trying to bait anyone.

Really?

Well your subconcious certainly did a good job of it then.  

I'll withdraw my comment though, I don't want to get dragged down in libel actions.  

I was mainly refering to the original Cumberbatch comment in your review, which I enjoyed reading by the way.   

Eldorion wrote:

Radaghast wrote:Thanks for that review/description. Really kills any curiosity I might have had. I also think a small part of me might have died after reading it, which is not a reflection on your writing but on PoS DoS.

Anyway, I know all I need to about this movie. Thanks to all who've posted reviews.

No problem; I'm glad people are reading it. :)I do think you should watch the movie at some point just to see for yourself, but totally wait until its on TV or something if you don't want to pay.

If it ever gets the RiffTrax treatment, I'll borrow a copy from the library. They've still to take on AUJ, though, so it may be a while

Bluebottle wrote:I was mainly refering to the original Cumberbatch comment in your review, which I enjoyed reading by the way.   

I really wasn't trying to criticize Cumberbatch, I was just saying that his recent choice of roles have been pretty forgettable. That's not his fault, since he was one of the best things about both STID and DOS, but I don't think either of those movies are going to be remembered for very long except as footnotes to their predecessors.

Radaghast wrote:If it ever gets the RiffTrax treatment, I'll borrow a copy from the library. They've still to take on AUJ, though, so it may be a while

That would be fun to watch. I've seen clips of their LOTR trax and they're great.

It's funny but I have yet to see those

Eldorion wrote:I really wasn't trying to criticize Cumberbatch, I was just saying that his recent choice of roles have been pretty forgettable.  That's not his fault, since he was one of the best things about both STID and DOS, but I don't think either of those movies are going to be remembered for very long except as footnotes to their predecessors.

Never said you did.   

It just came across to me as searching for a reaction, which it got. If that was just in my reading, nevermind.   

I do partly agree with you on both points. Yes, Cumberbatch should take great care if the roles he chooses now. They will end up defining his future career.

And yes, the total irreverence to Tolkien, the quality of their original writing and the overconfidence in the latest technology will mean these movies will age very quickly. I've seen quite a bit of early green screen from the 70s, and in a couple of years all of Jacksons state of the art technology will look as silly as that does now.

Sitting in the theater. Movie starts in 8 minutes. Wish me luck.

Eldorion wrote:
To each his own, but I can't agree with that at all.

Agree to disagree it is

bungobaggins wrote:Sitting in the theater. Movie starts in 8 minutes. Wish me luck.

I can't wait to hear what you think of it, bungo!

Ringdrotten wrote:Agree to disagree it is

Good luck, bungo. Hope you don't feel it's a total waste of time and/or money.

Well I just got back from my Free viewing of DOS. The theater had all of 12 people in it...all I can say right now is