The Desolation

[Juicy-Sweet]

Another stupid thing ....

When they first think they failed to open the secret door into the mountain, thinking they are to late, they dwarves just give up and leave - and Thorin even tosses the key away !!!

Why the .... not just wait a year for the next Durin's day? Sure, it's cumbersome, but definitely doable to sit a year in Dale and wait for a year.

just dumping the key, the one and only chance for getting the mountain back after waiting that long, makes no sense at all - given PJs own portrait of the characters and the situation and all.

This I think is just lame Holywood over-emotionalism. Makes no sense to spent a lot of time protraiying the dwarves as being wiling to do everything to get that mountain - and then have them give uo so easily *shakes head*

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Owing to having many friends who want to see the film (my opinion nonwithstanding), I just had the chance to see it for the second time. This time, in IMAX 3D - therefore with really, really magnified visual experience. And I must say, it was really visually stunning (I have seen before only two or three other movies in 3D, and none of this scale). Though that, of course, is not saying anything about the movie specifically: any well-done 3D movie would have been equally visually impressive for the some reason. Still, what stood out here was already the first scene in Bree (the rain, very live, and making even PJ's carrot-eating much more atmospheric), chunks of ice floating around Bard's ship and house, the Mountain, the battle with Necromancer, and the gold of Smaug's (and Smaug himself).

So seeing this for the second time was about 500% better than the first time. Apart from the visual side, it was also supported strongly by the fact that I was no longer crushed by the awfulness of stuff like Beorn (though seeing his Wolf-man hairdo still made me wince) or other things heartlessly butchered or skipped.

Summary of impressions:

- 3D really makes much of the stuff much more enjoyable. Especially the otherwise dull long Smaug chase, and even the gold-rolling-over-the-floor interruptions to the dialogue before it.
- after reviewing the Master of Lake-Town's little assistant, I am solidified in my belief that actually he IS brilliant. I am taking back agreeing with Rune about the "little Grima". He is not, in fact; hardly at all. He is a very solid character, already in the scene with getting Bard through the customs.
- likewise, still strenghtened in the opinion that the Lake-Town (and its Master), Thranduil, Legolas, Tauriel, Balin and of course Bilbo are the best parts of the movie. Basically: all the made-up stuff is better than the book-stuff.
- the violence is seriously wrong, and what worries me the most (after seeing it in 3D) is really the moment when certain good guy is knocked out cold with a thick wooden pole. Such a hit would normally kill him, and this (with the portrayal it has here) makes me wonder whether kids watching this will get totally messed up idea about what it means to hit someone square in the face with a foot-thick sharpened stake.
- seriously thinking, cut all the book stuff and the Orcs and the whole Dol Guldur plotline (can keep the duel with Necromancer just for its visual beauty) and you have a quite enjoyable movie. Oh, and cut the horrible romance, too. Especially now, knowing what was coming, the line about love made me twitch beforehand, and wish to run away from the cinema with hands pressed over my ears.

I actually caught myself really looking forward to see how this will end. I am however worried that everything will take the turn for the worst (for instance, I'm pretty sure Dol Guldur will be emptied of all Orcs by the time the White Council guys, if they arrive in full strength at all, will arrive into an empty castle only to open a couple of cages and such - thus eliminating the epic conflict I've always considered the opportunity to see the Istari and Elven rulers in their full power - the only thing where exaggerated amount of lightnings, fireballs and all kinds of action nonsense would actually belong).

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by dancing spawn of ungoliant

Well, after TT, I haven't gone to watch PJ's movies for the plot either. The story can be found in the books, after all, but what the books are missing are things like landscapes, costume design, score, hearing the characters talk... So WCH's term CGI opera is quite good actually, but I don't find it to be an altogether negative description.

Anyway, I can see that even though there were some parts that people generally liked in the film, the bad things weigh more in the debate, so I'm going to leave it at that.

Spawn, I wouldn’t want anyone feel they’re not *allowed* to say they like this film, or any film– I’ve myself enjoyed plenty of movies that most people can’t stand at all (or parts thereof, anyway). "Why I liked such-and-such” is not always the same thing as “Why you should like it” (or, “Why it should be considered a good movie”).

Originally Posted by Kuru

The computer animation: for Smaug it was good enough. The gold looked awful, awful, awful! I play video games that have more realistic images than that. What Jackson ended up doing was creating a set-piece that not only was absurd and not at all based on anything in the book, he didn't even have the tools at his disposal or maybe the artists with the ability (not sure which, could be either or both) to make said set-piece look anything approaching good or believable. The giant gold statue in particular looked laughably bad. I think part of the problem lies in that I've observed in CGI it is paradoxically easier to make complex things look realistic as opposed to simple things. I'm not sure why, it may have something to do with texture.

Real objects not only have many tiny details and imperfections, they interact with light in a way that’s hard to reproduce fully, even now. You’re not seeing this stuff consciously whenever you look at something, of course, but it must register on some level. A complex model just has more to distract you from noticing anything “off”. Plus, unlike dragons, coins and statues actually exist, so you have some basis for comparison.

That said, what I’ve seen of Smaug really does look quite amazing. My guess is that they blew a large part of the fx budget on the dragon alone, and there wasn’t enough left to do the rest properly– or time ran out, or both. Certainly these movies have included some surprisingly cheap-looking CGI– and as far I know it was all done by Weta, so it’s hardly likely to be a matter of simple incompetence.

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

This film was a lot less enjoyable than the first one. I wouldn't consider it an abomination, but then my expectations were very low.

Good stuff

- Smaug (visually).
- Bilbo and Balin (and Bofur is hilarious to me, too).
- Thranduil.
- Warrior-Tauriel.
- Scary Orcs

Bad stuff

Beorn looked and acted nothing like I pictured him. That whole scene could have been really fun, but they made it miserable.

Healer-Tauriel & Kili/Tauriel. Just blargh. I liked her as a warrior, thought it worked pretty well. But spare me these glowing elves! I didn't like their representation in LotR and now we have more of it. Especially when it comes to elves, I wish Del Toro stuck around to give us something different.

So many fight scenes. Who are they for? Basically, people who don't like The Hobbit

That whole Gandalf bit with Sauron. Terrible.

Bard and his family. Again, why? Bard's job is to kill the dragon. That's all we need him for. Don't give me more people to care about. Bilbo needs to be the priority but he's constantly side-lined.

The bit Juicy-Sweet just mentioned, where the dwarves throw away the key and give up. Utterly stupid.

But by far the worst part of the movie was the final half-hour where the dwarves enter the mountain. That was, I think it's fair to say, catastrophic. Why did the dwarves do half of the things they did? All this pulling levers and releasing melted I-don't-know-what: what was that actually for? A ridiculous use of time, and really dull. Juxtaposed with Gandalf being captured (why?) and more orcs and elves in Lake-town (why, why, why?) it resulted in an extremely unsatisfying conclusion. And that end-song was very jarring.

Bah humbug, indeed.

[Inziladun]

Speaking of "desolation", that's a good way to describe my feeling on seeing this in a store today. Somehow I doubt that when the Professor was writing these wonderful stories, he ever imagined one day people would eat candy from Gandalf's head.

I doubt the reviews or merits of these movies will have any negative effort on the merchandising, though.