The Hobbit (Spoilers)

[Townhallsavoy]

Just got out of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

I thought it was great, which isn't surprising considering how awesome all of the other Jackson Middle Earth movies are. 

The Good:

- Smaug was perfect.  It's rare for a movie to exceed a great scene from a great book, but I definitely would pick the movie version over the literary version.

- Evangeline Lily would be hot as a dirty car mechanic and dressing her up as woodland elf was just over the top sexy. 

- Going ahead and revealing that the Necromancer is Sauron was a good move.  I thought they were going to make it the big reveal of the third movie.  Getting it out of the way helps with Jackson's connection to the LOTR.

- Good mix of intense scenes and comic relief.  I've read some critiques of the river barrel scene being too cheesy.  The Hobbit should always have some cheese to it.  It involves 13 dwarfs and a hobbit.  There should be comedy.

- The ending was perfect.  Some may think three movies is too much, but I'm one of those that could watch 27 hours of LOTR plus however long The Hobbit Extended Edition ends up being.  Sure, it was abrupt, but it sets up an intense, action packed third installment including a big connection to LOTR. 

The Bad:

- Legolas wasn't needed and it tarnished his character.  He wasn't a hardass in the LOTR, and there was no reason to make him such a cold, hard character in this one.  Not sure why they even included him as Orlando Bloom wasn't going to be the reason people came out to see the movie. 

- Intermixing the Lakeland scenes with the Smaug scenes.  Bilbo and the Dwarves vs. Smaug in the mountain deserved to be the center of attention for a very long period of time.  There was no need to chop it up.

- Beorn was nothing like I expected.  I expected a bigger house.  I expected a bigger person.  I didn't expect a Fu Manchu and lion's mane.  I expected him to have a bigger role than "here are some horses." 

- The CGI of the orcs.  Orcs don't have to be animated.  They're grotesque mutant elves and the make up they used in LOTR was just fine. 

- The ending song.  Whatever emo shit that started with the credits was completely out of place.  Give me something more medieval or dramatic.  Don't give me coffee shop douche strumming an Indie song on the guitar. 

[wesfau2]

Disagree about the ending.  Each movie can stand on its own...except this one.  Shitty, shitty place to end the movie.

[CCTAU]

Disagree about the ending.  Each movie can stand on its own...except this one.  Shitty, shitty place to end the movie.

So did the last black arrow kill Smaug?

[Saniflush]

Why don't you all just whip out your preciouses?

[Townhallsavoy]

So did the last black arrow kill Smaug?

Nope.  Smaug's not dead yet. 

[CCTAU]

Nope.  Smaug's not dead yet.

And with that ending, can anyone wait to see what happens next!

Great marketing!

[AU_Tiger_2000]

Caught it this week on IMAX in 3D.  This is me watching it...

[oldautiger]

Nope.  Smaug's not dead yet.

And he is really pissed off

[Townhallsavoy]

And with that ending, can anyone wait to see what happens next!

Great marketing!

I guess now that I think about it, the ending disappoints me only because I was hoping for more than the Hobbit in The Hobbit part 3. 

I was expecting Smaug to die in part 2 and then part 3 would focus solely on the five armies and end with a big section on Sauron's rise. 

I guess they could still accomplish that, but I imagine Smaug will get about thirty-forty five minutes of screen time.  He'll destroy the city while the dwarves and Bilbo make their way back.  Then once they get back and fail once again to bring down Smaug, the black arrow will be used to bring him down.

Then we'll see Gandalf get rescued.

Then we'll see a big section of politicking as the five armies assemble.

Then a battle that rivals Return of the King's finale. 

Then a homage to Bilbo and a last shot of the ring with spooky music. 

[AU_Tiger_2000]

I guess now that I think about it, the ending disappoints me only because I was hoping for more than the Hobbit in The Hobbit part 3. 

I was expecting Smaug to die in part 2 and then part 3 would focus solely on the five armies and end with a big section on Sauron's rise. 

I guess they could still accomplish that, but I imagine Smaug will get about thirty-forty five minutes of screen time.  He'll destroy the city while the dwarves and Bilbo make their way back.  Then once they get back and fail once again to bring down Smaug, the black arrow will be used to bring him down.

Then we'll see Gandalf get rescued.

Then we'll see a big section of politicking as the five armies assemble.

Then a battle that rivals Return of the King's finale. 

Then a homage to Bilbo and a last shot of the ring with spooky music.

Didn't you read the book?

[spoiler]

while Smaug is destroying the town Thorin becomes overcome with greed and the dwarves barricade themselves in the mountain and Bard kills the dragon with the arrow.  When the people of Lake Town (what an unimaginative name for a Tolkien book) and the wood elves come to lay siege to the dwarves then the orcs attack, pretty much everybody who was not in the LOTR dies.

[/spoiler]

[Townhallsavoy]

I forgot about Thorin's greed.