I've seen it thrice now, and I actually liked it less each time. I think the main problem boils down to the fact that there is not nearly as much of a focus on Bilbo as there should be. For a movie called The Hobbit, he sure gets lost in the shuffle once the journey begins. He barely does anything at all until Riddles in the Dark, and after that the movie wants to convince us that he's gone through some sort of character arc. It's totally unconvincing.

I just saw it in 3D HFR. The 3D was too distracting for my taste, but the HFR didn't bother me. One of the benefits of being an avid gamer I suppose. As for the movie itself...I didn't like it. It felt too cartoony to me. How am I supposed to believe this is the same world as LOTR with dwarves bouncing around stone tunnels and sliding down cliffs on bridges. Same goes for the goblins. I was hoping they would look similar (if not the same) to the goblins we see in Moria. Instead, we get a horde of furless gremlins led by King Goitre. Where's the sense of danger? And alas, Radagast. I object to the depiction of his character entirely. There's a difference between being a little silly and entirely ridiculous, and I think Jackson trod way more on the ridiculous side for The Hobbit. Rabbits pulling sleighs? (at high speeds...on grass ffs)  That's something I'd expect in Alice in Wonderland, not Middle Earth.

In my opinion, the biggest detriment of the movie (and possibly the trilogy as a whole, but I won't get ahead of myself,) was Jackson's decision to make 3 movies. I'm assuming this is the reasoning behind the implementation of the (almost) entire Azog storyline, the elongated action sequences, Radagast etc etc. I wish he would've remained more faithful to the book, but I don't think that's possible if you split The Hobbit into 3 parts. There's just too much nothing between the exciting bits, and the exciting bits are too long.

Despite all this, there were a few things I liked. I think Martin Freeman did a decent job as Bilbo, although it felt like he was channelling a bit too much  Dr. Watson. Most of the props looked great (almost like this took place in Middle Earth.) The only other thing that felt like LOTR was the score (probably because they reused quite a few of the themes), with the Misty Mountain theme standing out. Riddles in the Dark was well done too.

In summary: too cartoony, too childish, too boring and too long. I was hoping for a journey back to Middle Earth and what I got was not even close.

Just back from the VFX bakeoff, where I saw ten minutes of Hobbit in 3D and HFR...

...and  I really liked it. 

I might feel different after two and a half hours, but for those ten minutes I thought the 3D and the HFR were pretty cool.

I saw it in 24p3D, and enjoyed it quite a lot. The first time 3D wasn't in the way for me.

Also, Gorkil's death scene was pretty funny. The only thing that was weird about him, was the choice of voice. He just sounded like a regular dude.

Smaug looked pretty fucking good(the little we saw, obviously), and Gollum was every bit amazing as expected.

I'll agree that the film was a bit childish, but I went in thinking it's a film adaptation of a chilren's book so I'm more than okay with it.

EDIT: Trey, why the hell is it called the "bakeoff" anyway. Is there pastry involved?

Last edited by Tomahawk (2013-01-04 18:10:41)

Is there going to be another DIF about the bake-off this year? I really like hearing the inside scoop from those.

I could possibly be available to record.

Gary Busey weighs in:

First official look at Evangeline Lilly in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Last edited by AshDigital (2013-06-06 19:24:59)

Must resist looking at any pictures!

By the way, there appears to be an Extended Edition coming out later this year, featuring 15 minutes of extra stuff. Any thoughts as to what these could be? More dwarven antics, longer prologue, or some hobbiton scenes?

Cumberbatch plays, as far as I know, The Necromancer, not Smaug?

Why is this a bad thing?

It CAN be a ridiculous idea if used incorrectly.    It can also be really useful if used properly.   Just like everything else.