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Edited by Roose Bolton:
12/30/2013 10:50:29 PM
22
Desolation Of Smaug confessions.
So I finally got round to seeing the new Hobbit film today. And I have something to confess...
I preferred An Unexpected Journey. Yup, that's right. The first film was leagues ahead of Desolation. Here's why I didn't enjoy DoS that much:
-Poor pacing. I know everyone was pissed at the first film how they spent too much time in the Shire, but at least when they depart the movie picks up a bit. DoS was all over the place. Two and a half hours in and we finally see Smaug, the barrel scene was drawn out, the whole elaborate, complex plan to cover Smaug in, uh, gold? Yeah that was weird. It just was not properly paced at all.
-I did not care for Laketown/Esgaroth. I understand it was canonical, but it was so poorly done I didn't enjoy any of the scenes at all. The vibe was completely differing to the rest of the movie it was actually kind of jarring. It felt Georgian rather than Medieval. I didn't particularly care for Bard or his backstory either. He just felt complimentary.
-Legolas/Tauriel. I had no idea what Jackson/whoever was behind this idea was thinking. They aren't in the book, and in the movie they're just cheap rectifying plot devices for the characters. Oh, Orcs are on our tail? Legolas will eliminate them like some hyper lethal super soldier. Kili's dying? No worries, Tauriel's here to save the day. They were unnecessary, excess characters that didn't enhance the movie at all.
-Thorin's still a dick. We get it. He was pissed at losing his home. I understand that he's going to be a little grouchy. But I thought we had gotten over this in the first film after Bilbo saved him. Nothing's changed in the sequel. I thought he was going to be the Dwarf iteration of Aragorn but it turns out he's just the jock of Erebor. Nothing is likeable about him at all. "lol f*ck Bilbo even though he saved my ass" "muh jewel" "muh army"
I still enjoyed it as a popcorn flick, but I expected better. Especially after JeremyJahns hyped it up to be the immaculate bloody conception.
TL;DR: Unexpected Journey was IMO, better than Desolation Of Smaug.
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Tho Hobbit trilogy SUCKS. The book was Much better. It pains me to say this (because The Lord Of The Rings movies where AWESOME) but PJ (Peter Jackson) has failed the Professor (J. R. R. Tolkien).
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My opinion exactly.
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4 RepliesGuess I'm the only person in the world that actually liked it.
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Bullshit. The setup for seeing Smaug was perfect, and all the setup for Laketown was necessary. Lastly, Legolas and Tauriel were supposed to be there because they are in Silmarillion, just like Gandalf seeing Sauron in Dul Guldor
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I actually agree
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I have pretty much the same opinion, the movie was just too choked up with gimmicks. The barrel scene was needlessly tedious and almost the entire smaug encounter just had me rolling my eyes from the ridiculous amount of plot armor the dwarves had (riding a metal bin on a stream of molten metal without getting burned? Having smaug try to bit them instead of breathe fire on them? Seriously?). I didn't care much for the fight scenes either, while I know the LoTR trilogy was full of flashly moves it at least was somewhat convincing as combat, in this movie it just looked overly choreographed and I felt more like I was watching the characters practicing for a broadway special instead of trying to kill eachother. So overall my impression was that it was enjoyable but they threw in so many gimmicks and effects that I just couldn't take it seriously.
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Nope, I really enjoyed it. I don't even care about the new Godzilla film anymore, all I want to do is see Smaug in 3D again :D (sorry Goji woji) I must admit though, whilst I thought Bard was awesome, everything else about the Laketown scenes were terrible. Quite simply the town did not belong in middle earth. And whilst I love Stephen Fry in QI, he completely took me out of the movie. However, I thought the barrel scene was the funniest and best action sequence I've seen all year. Interestingly, I enjoyed the first film much more after watching this film. 8/10 for me :)
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Edited by Jem 7DZ: 12/31/2013 12:50:35 AMI thought it was an absolutely outstanding, tremendous film. I loved it. [i]'What have we done?'[/i] :-)
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Thorin seemed like he was corrupted by his "need" for the arkenstone very much like bilbo is with the ring. Not sure if that's how it is in the book, but i don't think this is still a case of thorin not accepting bilbo. He clearly very much has. for instance, he even praised him once or twice and generally seemed glad he was around. When it came to the arkenstone, he very much changed for pretty much one scene but was then immediately back to his old self when smaug attacked. I've a feeling we'll see more of this side of him in the third film, but what you have described him as just isn't the case as I see it. As for the rest of the film, it had some problems, but I very much enjoyed it overall. and hey, considering their options, attempting to drown smaug in molten gold probably wasn't the worst idea, and it's not like they could choose what metal was in the furnace before they got there, they used what they could.
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Agreed.
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Desolation of Smaug should be launched into the sun
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I loved the movie, but that Smaug confrontation made me unhappy. It would have been much more interesting to me if they had just stayed with the book at that point. I wasn't a fan of that or the entire Tauriel thing. Those were the only two parts I had a particular problem with.
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Same, and I especially agree with you on the pacing. The opening is also a mess, especially the sloppy introduction to Beorn. And I'm pretty sure the dwarves trying to drown Smaug in gold isn't in the book and Bilbo is the only one who goes into his lair. I'll also be honest and admit that I felt that the river scene felt like it was a random part of a different movie and wasn't really paying attention to it. All-in-all, seeing as the novel is shorter than all three LotR volumes individually, it could've just been one movie and I would've been fine with that.
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IMO if a movie is based off a book, it doesn't have to follow it completely in order to be a good movie. It obviously gets more praise from book fans and critics for doing so but it could still be entertaining and good. I liked both a lot. I've never read the books but will soon. And lol at people saying parts were boring. You must have a really short attention span to feel that way.
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3 RepliesI loved the hell out of the movie, I will admit I liked the first one more.
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I have to agree, the first one was better. While more happens in this one, the first was better done. After seeing DoS for a second time, I did end up liking it better, but still. The pacing really was all over the place.
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2 RepliesI fell asleep. Same with An Unexpected Journey. They were pretty boring movies IMO.
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The boring parts were emphasized and drawn out while the good parts were brushed over.
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I liked the first one better as well. That's not to say that I didn't like the second one, but the first was definitely better. I'll gather my thoughts and edit this post with a more in-depth explanation of the issues I had with the second one, because they aren't necessarily the same reasons you (the OP) had.
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18 RepliesYou're mad that Legolas is in the film? They go to Mirkwood and meet Legolas' father, so why wouldn't Legolas be in it?
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The ending pissed me off. I didn't really like either of the movies.
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I think Peter Jackson has shown he has enough good material to make [b]a[/b] good Hobbit film, just not three. This whole path just seems treaded alteady which is why the hobbit never captures the magic of the original LOTR films. The pacing is bad and every scene seems like its been in a Jackson film before.
