Watching AUJ...
 

just isn't in the cards for me.

My wife bought it on DVD when it was released, and then lent it to someone. From whose home it was stolen. Confusticate and bebother! :cool:

It is said the Egyptians constructed the pyramids while watching the LotR films.

:D

Thing is, though they didn't love it on the first viewing, they liked it well enough. And, despite all my grumpiness, so did I. However, the second watching was just beyond human abilities...

The reason being, most likely, that the Chinese have reserved the Hobbit movies for their Great Wall. ;)

Dwarves and cats and interweb memes
 

I'm sure Queen Beruthiel would not be amused.

The Hobbit and Cats

Ha! "Kind as summer" indeed.

Poor, darling Hugo..mind you most cats get grumpy when other cats take over their house and eat all their food....

A friend is threatening me with the extended edition. I am hoping I have moved house before that is released.

Those are spot on!

Extending the Already Interminable
 

Extending the already interminable. What a concept.

I can just imagine thirty additional minutes of "pixels hanging over the edge of a cliff" or "pixels falling without injury down into yawning chasms" -- that kind of stuff.

Saw it once. Shame on them for fooling me. Saw it twice? No way. That would make a fool out of me.

I just noticed that Thorin has several photos and look-a-likes.

Clearly a fan of the man!

The CIA tried to use the extended version in place of waterboarding as an enhanced interrogation technique. Unfortunately, many prisoners died of old age prior to divulging information.

I plan on taking my knitting..at least I might get a pair of socks out of it.

Hi everyone, new user, just registered. I lurked here for a bit about a month ago while I was active on the TORn forums. All I can say is I'm glad that this seems like a place where people can comfortably express their distaste for AUJ.

I saw AUJ twice in theaters (we all make mistakes right? ;)). Looking back I feel like I was probably in denial about the overall lower quality of the film. After unwisely purchasing the blu-ray in anticipation of the extremely disappointing live stream event (which felt like heavy handed PR with a Warner Bros representative off screen holding a gun to everyone's head), and several in-home viewings, the film just doesn't hold up for me anymore.

So now I'm stuck with a blu-ray/dvd pack that I just want to snap in half. :p

I'm sure you've all discussed the minor/major details at great length so I won't get in to that. Well I think I've learned my lesson now. No AUJ EE for me, and no DOS and TABA either.

Welcome to the Downs, What_about_Bilbo? Hope you enjoy your stay.

And always remember that there's more to Middle Earth than just AUJ. :D

Thanks! I find that I need to remind myself that more and more each day, and I do feel that I am long overdue for some Tolkien rehab! :)

-WaB?

This is a very minor point, but in the film do Gandalf and Radagast seem to pronounce 'Dol Guldur' with the emphasis on the final syllable (the 'dur')? It was my understanding that it should be on the penultimate syllable (the 'gul').
Also shouldn't 'Ungoliant' be pronounced something like 'oon-goll-ee-ahnt'?
This always struck me because they generally seem to do a decent job of pronouncing things correctly (ói and ái in Dwarf-names being the most egregious exception to my ear).

I say Dol-Gooldoor, and Oon-go-lee-aunt (like they say aunt in Brittain (here most people say it the same way as the animal ant))

I gave up trying to pronounce Middle-earthisms correctly in the 2nd Age. If someone says I pronounced something wrong, I merely reply that I'm using a Southron accent.

The only pronunciations that I found grating in the first film were "Dain" and "Thrain." Which...they fell into the Dane-Thrane pronunciation trap. But at least those aren't major characters that will continually be named. I was worried they would fall into the "Baleen" "Dwaleen" "Thoreen" traps, which would have been extremely hard to sit through...especially considering the rest of the film was difficult enough.

coincidentally, "Thoreen" is the nickname me and my friends gave the movie character. Probably to make it sound like chlorine, since there have to be some sort of chemicals in that hair to make it so well kempt.

Which is to say nothing of the product in Radagast's - because he's worth it.
'Radaghast' is the way I see that most commonly misspelled, incidentally. Seems appropriate.

I suppose I ought to report that I have now seen the movie a second time. It helps to view it from the confines of a soft sofa, but not by much.

I tried to rewatch AUJ the other night, but sadly I had to check if the paint was drying OK.

Still can't get over the albino fork monster.

Merciful Endings
 

Here in Taiwan, a certain cable television channel has threatened to show this cinematic abomination -- complete with commercial interruptions -- sometime during the month of September. Even "for free," I cannot decide whether to subject myself for a second time to such a grueling ordeal. Because:

Radagast
Left me aghast
Until, mercifully,
This miserable excuse for one-third of a movie
Ended
At last

For me it was the opposite. While I did not have the comfort of pausing the movie in the theatres, I was seeing it for the first time. As I've said before on this thread, when I was watching it for the second time with a bunch of schoolmates, we decided to extend the endpoint of the second bathroom break we had (around Rivendel) into infinity. In other words, we didn't have the patience to sit through it a second time, comforts or not.

Alas that choice was not available to me. I was screening it for a guest, someone who had not seen the movie, who was quite content to watch it all. :(

I can only sympathise and count myself lucky.

Well, what a hobbit-ish host you are, Bb, sitting through the film even though you were "bewildered and bewuthered"!

Only the Extended Edition will do;
And when the film's over we're not done!
Watch every single deleted scene too;
Then watch it again with the commentary on!

That's what Ms. Bêthberry hates!
So press "Play All" on the featurettes!

:smokin:

In one sitting? I assume they had a colostomy bag.

OK, its a long film but in total the trilogy will come in at half the length of a TV season or around the length of a HBO season. And its not like you're being charged by the hour - its the same price to watch as a movie half the length.

And if you really want you can watch something else instead.:)

You know, with the right spin, those could be great selling points!:)

I can't help but laugh bleakly to myself that after a decade of being told that films are a whole different media and so shouldn't be judged against the book, that it is now suggested that the films shouldn't be judged as films...
But the Hobbit from its origins as a bedtime story is a natural serial with the mini cliffhangers every couple of chapters..and now I am days away from Jackanory little else matters.

I only wonder if someone would be able to cut relevant scenes and make one movie out of three - the one that would contain only what is in the book. Will it be entertaining? :)

This looks like the new trailer. Sorry it's not a link to the trailer itself, but it's embedded in the story.

It's like looking at a 5 year old's drawing of a cat. You can tell what it's supposed to be, but as a representation of the real thing it's a bust. Nice to see the inevitable warrior-elf and Legolas romantic tension. :rolleyes:

I didn't want to watch - but I succumbed. And like the trailer for part one, it has me thinking "Oh, that actually looks quite fun, if a poor adaptation." But that's the point of trailers, isn't it, to bewilder you into watching something you otherwise wouldn't? I can't believe how much added angst and interpersonal conflict has been shoehorned in judging by those couple of minutes alone.

The thing that always confuses me is that you could make an amazing film that was accurate to the books, one that would be so fresh and original compared to what Hollywood is regularly churning out, one that would probably get people in the cinema in any event (based on the reputation of the book alone) and yet they don't. Then again, nothing in this project has involved any courage, has it?

Oh and, by the way, in the spirit of the other trailer thread:

"You have no right to enter that mountain!"
"I have the only right."

"Amateurish" scarcely begins to describe it. I can imagine a clip from the trailer for part three:

Bilbo: We can't do that!
Thorin/Gandalf: Yes we can.
Bilbo: Oh, okay then.
*epic music*

Shouldn't that be *loud but fairly uninspiring music* rather than epic...:p

Ach, I already know I'm going to watch it: once in the cinema, and enjoy it for what it is; and once more on DVD, enjoying it somewhat less; and probably not a third time.

Who's the girl?

That's Orlando Bloom. He's playing Legolas. :p

Really, that's I think Tauriel, another gem from the fertile PJ imagination.

I know I'm going to enjoy it for what it is: a parody. It's going to be hilarious.

I envision posters of Bakshi, Rankin and Bass going "Miss us yet?"

I still say it was a fun movie. And the new one looks fun too. It ain't The Hobbit, but it looks fun nonetheless. Somebody pass me the popcorn.