Hobbit 2 - Despoiling of Smaug (Page 1 of 4)

The Hobbit: The Recession of Smaug

edit: not sure why this post appears before avatar's, but it's in response to his.

Last edited by Doctor Submarine (2013-12-18 19:18:28)

Well, that could be why within a few decades Balin felt the dwarves had to go reopen the mines of Moria. They needed the riches from there just to keep up with inflation.

very possible. So, how does adding the riches of Moria work into the mix?

Mostly adding more riches would cause inflation, not vice versa. But reading your post again I'm thinking you meant that the dwarves just felt like they needed more gold in the post-Smaug economy, inflation be damned. Classic dwaves.

During his hajj to Mecca Mansa Musa gave away so much gold he devalued the metal across northern Africa for a decade oops

I lolled.

My roommate returned from a showing the other day saying this was worse than Prometheus. Ouch.

Just got back. I enjoyed it but was constantly saying to myself "this isn't needed, I'd cut this whole section out of my hypothetical 1 movie supercut". Specifically, the entire sequence with the dwarves inside Erebor where Smaug uselessly chasing them around. There's a whole damn movie coming, so don't expect us to believe that the dwarves are going to prevail in their plan! Especially when you heavily foreshadowing that Bard's remaining black arrow is going to do the killing... Meanwhile your big bad villain is looking weaker with every minute that goes by without a dead dwarf.

Smaug and Bilbo was utterly brilliant (and Smaug in general, truly amazing work done on him), and is the highlight, much the same as the Gollum scenes in the first.

I was baffled by some decisions though, they add so much junk into the story, including a love triangle that seems almost entirely for the benefit of broadening the film's appeal, but skim over the Beorn scenes in just a few minutes. I guess I was disappointed as I always remember that chapter fondly - and the way that Gandalf introduces the dwarves gradually in groups so as not to overwhelm Beorn. It would have been a really nice call back to their introduction to Bilbo as well.

Finally, my main complaints about the Hobbit continue sadly, way too much going on, way too many cartoon stunts, and absolutely no subtlety. Further, the writers don't trust the audience to get anything without somebody saying it (and Bilbo appears to be the main voice here). But goddamn it, I still like them - they're Tolkien.

Well, I saw it last night.  And in full IMAX 3D HFR Kitchen-Sink-O-Vision, too.  Never seen a feature in IMAX or HFR before, figured what the hell.  Short answer, didn't hate it at all.  Very pretty. 

So just as with LOTR: never read the book, don't know what's supposed to happen, don't know or care what's been added or left out or "ruined" etc.  Just wanted to see a movie.   And that movie was... very busy.  Many things happened, but not all of them seemed to matter.   

Bear Guy served no function that I could see - which makes me suspect he must show up again in Movie 3.  If he doesn't then shame on you, PJ.  Fifteen years ago you decided (correctly) that Tom Bombadizzledoozzle didn't actually matter to the plot of LOTR and cut him out.  You better not have done the opposite with Bear Dude or I shall be very cross indeed.

There was an Elf King-person who proved that not all Elf rulers are as well-written or acted as Galadriel and Elrond.  He sneered and said stuff that probably wasn't important.

Then there was a theme park ride with barrels that was really fun and made me want to buy a beer for everyone in the WETA previs department.  Meanwhile Legolas and Lost Lilly killed enough orcs to fill a school district.  I wasn't sure why, but whatevs.

And then Surprise Stephen Fry as the Mayor of Bartertown-on-Thames - a lengthy sequence featuring another Aragorn wannabe and a lot of delightful art direction.  It was okay, but my favorite part was when it ended.

There was a very well-done dragon voiced by that actor who's in everything now.   His scene with Bilbo was the best part, and a nice reminder that Bilbo was in the movie. 

Then all six hundred dwarves ran around while the dragon chased them and not one of them died which makes me worry that we're gonna get through this entire saga without one goddam dwarf getting killed.  Because if that's the case then they should have cut about six of them in the first draft.

Meanwhile in another movie Legolas killed more orcs because he really really hates orcs. And Gandalf went off to look at rocks and visual effects but that didn't matter because we know he doesn't die.

Also there were spiders.  The spiders were cool.

Didn't hate it at all, it held my interest the whole time and at least the dwarves didn't do more musical numbers.

I just got back. They should have called this movie The Hobbit: The Desolation of Sma- Hey, What Do You Think That Elf Chick Is Up To?

I didn't hate it. The pacing was much better than the first one. Same goes for the effects, mostly. There was one shot during the barrels sequence which looked like something out of a Gamecube cutscene from 2004. I was super annoyed by how obvious some of the effects were. Also, what was up with that random GoPro footage in the barrels sequence? Very distracting.

The Smaug scene was fucking phenomenal. Easily one of the best things I saw on screen this year in any movie. If only they didn't keep cutting away to boring subplots that I didn't care about. I actually really liked Tauriel, and her flirting with Kili was handled pretty well. But man oh man, PJ did his best to make me hate it. It was almost comical how many times he killed the tension of that scene by switching to Kili groaning on a table, or Gandalf doing something boring that I don't care about because I KNOW HE'S GOING TO LIVE. I know that the point of that stuff was to expand on the book and increase its scope, but it's not nearly as interesting as it needs to be.

So, I liked Smaug. He looked really scary. The whole climax in Erebor was like the Balrog scene times a thousand. The fight between Legolas and Bolg was pretty cool too. I was prepared to forgive literally any bloat in the first two thirds as long as they didn't screw up the dragon. And they didn't. But they couldn't leave that scene alone.