In theatres: 'Desolation of Smaug' [2] SPOILERS

 Chris. I was wondering where you had got to.

Nice to see Bilbo on the cover, somewhere.....

If I didn't know what a hobbit was, I'd assume from that cover that it was a synonym for wizard.

I wonder if they'll have another "live online event" or otherwise start the TABA marketing shortly after the DVD release.

Pettytyrant101 wrote: Chris. I was wondering where you had got to.

Nice to see Bilbo on the cover, somewhere…..

Spending a little less time on the computer these day's, been fixing the back yard up

Dang, lookin' nice, Chris.

Looking really good Chris! Much more interesting than mine...

I think I'll wait for the EE/when I'm drunk and surfing youtube to watch DOC again...

Eldorion wrote:I wonder if they'll have another "live online event" or otherwise start the TABA marketing shortly after the DVD release.

I remember the live event for DOS. It was the tipping point for me, and what made me change my mind about this whole Hobbit movie endeavor.         

I mostly remember even the highlights being incredibly dull and it seeming like neither PJ nor Jed Brophy really wanted to be there.

Looking good Chris (and the garden!)

Nice garden Chris ! I can feel the warmth pervading thru ! (lucky sod) I cant wait to get out in mine, minus the Eskimo outfit & wellies  

The UK steelcase cover for DroS. Maybe its like a game of Wheres Wally? But with Bilbo? Is he in the background somewhere?   



I still think they should have changed the name to 'Some dwarves, a wizard, and oh yeah occasionally a hobbit'
I suppose I should be grateful they have stopped insulting Tolkien by putting his name anywhere near this nonsense- in fact its absent all together. Sadly not so PJ- "From the director of Lord of the Rings Trilogy"- more like 'from the director who also destroyed the Lord of the Rings Trilogy comes an even worse abomination"

Maybe it's a variant cover? (Not to give any leeway to Jackass)

Not sure as the site that image is from is all greek to me   (Actually I think it might be Greek!)

These articles/reviews should give you a few laughs, or a massive crabbit attack:

http://kalimac.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/stupid-hobbit-tricks.html

http://www.scifiwright.com/2014/02/the-hobbit-the-desolation-of-tolkien/

From the second article:

I loved the first Hobbit movie and hated, hated, hated the second.

Really? AUJ and DoS were so different as to mean the difference between love and hate, hate, hate?

Glad to see someone actually taking Olsen to task. He's used his soapbox to promote the movies for years. Obviously he's entitled to his opinion about them but he spreads a lot of misinformation in the context of his defenses of the films.

I found this description of Olsen to be very accurate.

usually a sober if unimaginative scholar

I tried listening to his Hobbit lectures on iTunes and found it to be quite dull.

Personally I tolerated a slim majority of AUJ (Until Trollshaws the film is excellent IMO, it actually feels like a film about you know a hobbit...) though I can't grade the film as a whole (it's too much of a mess) I was at least ambivalent about it. DOC I was bored/angry thoughout, I'm not sure if this was an improvement or not, but at least I had a clear feeling!

I've heard very mixed things about Olsen, as far as I can tell he seems less a scholar than an excited bloke with too many facebook friends, I haven't listened to his lectures, but I find him pod casting about the Hobbit films together with The Silmarillion as if they are somehow equal, rather nauseating.

It put me off buying his book, which again I've heard mixed views about.

And how do we know if these films are what Tolkien wanted or not? I at least am being Crabbit largely on my own terms.

The huge problem with DOS is that there is no first, second or third act; no beginning, middle, and end. There is literally no story arc. The climax is immediately thrown away when it turns out they didn't kill Smaug and the conflict isn't resolved. I know that filming middle films is hard, but TT at least had a resolution. DOS said f*** it, let's just throw a million things at them so they're confused enough to watch another film!

Tinuviel wrote:. DOS said f*** it, let's just throw a million things at them so they're confused enough to watch another film!

Exactly! Especially if it's in 3d, then the the confusion is extra shiny!

That second article was pretty entertaining (outside of a few oddities and errors) and it really underlines the monumental (literally) stupidity of PoS. It does almost, almost, make the first movie seem watchable.

Radaghast wrote:From the second article:

I loved the first Hobbit movie and hated, hated, hated the second.

Really? AUJ and DoS were so different as to mean the difference between love and hate, hate, hate?

A lot of AUJ was good, I thought. They had stuck as close to the book as I had dared expect where they actually followed the book's storyline. It was all the added stuff that ruined it. I think Petty's edit showed how much they'd actually kept from the book, and that the movie wasn't all bad. With AUJ, as Petty's edit shows, it is possible to separate the added stuff and that which is based on the source material. In DOS there's nothing left from the book, it's all a mix of new and better ideas to improve Tolkien's story.

I guess AUJ does look better by comparison, but the LotR films look better in turn by comparison to AUJ and I still don't like those

malickfan wrote:
I've heard very mixed things about Olsen, as far as I can tell he seems less a scholar than an excited bloke with too many facebook friends, I haven't listened to his lectures, but I find him pod casting about the Hobbit films together with The Silmarillion as if they are somehow equal, rather nauseating.

It put me off buying his book, which again I've heard mixed views about.

And how do we know if these films are what Tolkien wanted or not? I at least am being Crabbit largely on my own terms.

I wasn't aware he was podcasting about the movies. I rather enjoyed his book podcasts. Not brilliant, but some new ideas. I'm surprised he liked the movies, though perhaps that was only the first one, which did have quite a few salvageable bits, especially early on as has been noted.