luciusfunk Posted December 16, 2013 Share Posted December 16, 2013 I finally watched An Unexpected Journey at work last night. I definitely think it stands up among the LOTR films. I enjoyed it more than FOTR, at least. They probably could/should have left out the Frodo/Bilbo stuff that takes place hours before the beginning of FOTR, but other than that I look forward to The Desolation of Smaug. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Powerage5 Posted December 16, 2013 Share Posted December 16, 2013 Spoiler alert: Smaug kills Bilbo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZoSoRose Posted December 16, 2013 Share Posted December 16, 2013 Spoiler alert: Smaug kills Bilbo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Georgy Zhukov Posted December 16, 2013 Share Posted December 16, 2013 I finally watched An Unexpected Journey at work last night. I definitely think it stands up among the LOTR films. I enjoyed it more than FOTR, at least. They probably could/should have left out the Frodo/Bilbo stuff that takes place hours before the beginning of FOTR, but other than that I look forward to The Desolation of Smaug.What I don't understand is that Bilbo was going to write his adventures in AUJ but in Fellowship he starts writing the prologue to The Lord of the Rings "Concerning Hobbits" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iron MikeyJ Posted December 16, 2013 Share Posted December 16, 2013 (edited) Went to see this yesterday and thought it was really, really bad. The film has zero conclusion. That's pretty unforgivable imo because it means that what Jackson has done is made one giant film and split it in to three parts(instead of making a trilogy of watchable films). There's way too much going on and in the end it's just a complete fucking mess. This is Jackson's Attack of the Clones.The HFR 3D didn't help either. Made it painfully obvious that I was watching people in costumes on a movie set.Did you not see any of the LOTR films, none of them ended with "resolution" until Return of the King. It's part of the fun, we have to wait until next year to see the conclusion. This argument has always amazed me, it's like the whole world forgot what it was like seeing LOTR for the first time. I thought it was the perfect place to end. The next film is going to open with Smaug attacking Lake town, thats brilliant imo. Edited December 16, 2013 by Mike420 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Powerage5 Posted December 16, 2013 Share Posted December 16, 2013 Went to see this yesterday and thought it was really, really bad. The film has zero conclusion. That's pretty unforgivable imo because it means that what Jackson has done is made one giant film and split it in to three parts(instead of making a trilogy of watchable films). There's way too much going on and in the end it's just a complete fucking mess. This is Jackson's Attack of the Clones.The HFR 3D didn't help either. Made it painfully obvious that I was watching people in costumes on a movie set.Did you not see any of the LOTR films, none of them ended with "resolution" until Return of the King. It's part of the fun, we have to wait until next year to see the conclusion. This argument has always amazed me, it's like the whole world forgot what it was like seeing LOTR for the first time. I thought it was the perfect place to end. The next film is going to open with Smaug attacking Lake town, thats brilliant imo.Not to mention this film shouldn't have had any conclusion since it ended in the middle of the book. The first film sort of had a built-in ending, since there was a lull in the action in the book. However, from Mirkwood on in the book, it's quite fast paced (For Tolkien that is) - the ending would've come abruptly no matter where they ended it.Did anyone else spend the last 20 minutes of the film thinking they were gonna have the dwarves kill Smaug instead of have him attack Laketown? Also, one thing that really bothered me was the title card for The Desolation Of Smaug didn't match the other 4 films so far, which have all been the same font and format (Caps only on the first letters of words, one line across the screen). How do you make a mistake like that on the fifth film of a series? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classicrawker Posted December 16, 2013 Share Posted December 16, 2013 (edited) These are excellent points and I cannot disagree. It's strange because I normally hate movies and you are right in every way but I still enjoyed it.My concern is that when I watch these movies in sequential order, if will be unbearably long. The Hobbit may be my favorite fantasy book ever and although these movies are fairly good (I didn't care for the first though), I won't be able to watch them in one sitting. That is my problem with Peter Jackson. The only reason why he splits these movies up is because he's a whore and it's too bad because I just want to watch The Hobbit, not some pretentious, over the top cinematic bullshit. With that said I did like this movie. I just wish he made one movie and not three. But I can't blame the guy. He obviously loves to eat and these movies help pay for the lobster or whatever rich people eat a lot of.Most Tolkien fans want as much theatrical content as possible. If you are interested in a single film Hobbit, I can direct you to these two productions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hobbit_(1977_film), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hobbit_(1985_film)I don't think he splits these movies up "because he's a whore." I think he does it because there is a lot of content in the books, and he probably enjoys making the films too. And there's no doubt that the LOTR/Hobbit films have made Jackson some seriously decent money, but he's directed other films too and would still be pretty well off had he never adapted LOTR/Hobbit.Great post OB......I have never read the book but I figured there was just too much content to cover adequately in a single 2-3 hour movie.I don't know how many times I have watched based a favorite book of mine be butchered because they tried to make a 2 hour movie out of it and left out so much important content................ Edited December 16, 2013 by classicrawker Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobodys_Fault Posted December 16, 2013 Share Posted December 16, 2013 Went to see this yesterday and thought it was really, really bad. The film has zero conclusion. That's pretty unforgivable imo because it means that what Jackson has done is made one giant film and split it in to three parts(instead of making a trilogy of watchable films). There's way too much going on and in the end it's just a complete fucking mess. This is Jackson's Attack of the Clones.The HFR 3D didn't help either. Made it painfully obvious that I was watching people in costumes on a movie set.Did you not see any of the LOTR films, none of them ended with "resolution" until Return of the King. It's part of the fun, we have to wait until next year to see the conclusion. This argument has always amazed me, it's like the whole world forgot what it was like seeing LOTR for the first time. I thought it was the perfect place to end. The next film is going to open with Smaug attacking Lake town, thats brilliant imo.Each of the Lord of the Rings films concludes an arc of the story. FOTR ends with the breaking of the fellowship. Two Towers ends when the battle of Helms deep is won. One crisis is solved, and another is teased to be looming on the horizon. Desolation of Smaug just ends right in the middle of something. This is because the LOTR trilogy is based on three seperate books which follow the basic tenets of storytelling - beginning, middle and end. DOS is just one third of a story - a story that Jackson has transformed into a particularly shitty one with a boring love triangle shoehorned in for no discernible reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iron MikeyJ Posted December 16, 2013 Share Posted December 16, 2013 I couldn't disagree more. Wasn't the it the mission of the Dwarves to enter and claim their "homeland" again. Did they or did they not accomplish this goal in Desolation? I would say they without a doubt accomplished everything they set out to do, because they never really claimed to want to kill Smaug. Nor did they ever address what they were going to do with him once he left the mountain. I thought it was the perfect place to end. But I say this as a fan who has never really read the books. I saw the cartoons when I was young, but the films are really my introduction to Tolkien, and I love them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chewbacca Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 Just watched it, not bad, but I wanted something that looked like a conclusion and no legolas\kili\tauriel shit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Sandman Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 Seeing it Wednesday! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Georgy Zhukov Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shooting Star Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 DOS was not a bad movie, but I wish they had followed the story more closely, without so many parallel plots, and that it wasn't so polished visually. The way they airbrushed the characters and special effects, the next movie should focus on their escape from the uncanny valley. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tater Totts Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 Still wish Del Toro got his chance to make it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Georgy Zhukov Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 Still wish Del Toro got his chance to make it.Not really a Del Toro fan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OmarBradley Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 Still wish Del Toro got his chance to make it.Not really a Del Toro fan.Agreed, was incredibly relieved when Jackson took over the project back in '08? I think it was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Georgy Zhukov Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 Still wish Del Toro got his chance to make it.Not really a Del Toro fan.Agreed, was incredibly relieved when Jackson took over the project back in '08? I think it was.Jackson returning is what brought back my interest. Jackson took over as producer but he was never announced as director until 2010 or 2011.I am seeing the film on Thursday with my wife. Would have gone tonight but we got hit by a snowstorm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobodys_Fault Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 I thought it was the perfect place to end. But I say this as a fan who has never really read the books. I saw the cartoons when I was young, but the films are really my introduction to Tolkien, and I love them.Fair enough, I don't mean to shit all over something you enjoyed. Maybe I'm being too negative. I did think the set piece in the middle with the barrels was pretty great. One of the main problems I had with the whole film though was that emphasis is put on absolutely everything thanks to the framing and the grand sweeping score. There's no balance. Maybe the HFR highlighted this more than the standard frame rate would have. (or it might have been because I was absurdly high when I went to see it )Not to mention this film shouldn't have had any conclusion since it ended in the middle of the book.This is nonsense. Tolkien didn't charge me for half a book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OmarBradley Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 Jackson returning is what brought back my interest. Jackson took over as producer but he was never announced as director until 2010 or 2011.I am seeing the film on Thursday with my wife. Would have gone tonight but we got hit by a snowstorm.Yeah that's what I meant, when he went from producer to director, guess it was later than I thought. I thought it was the perfect place to end. But I say this as a fan who has never really read the books. I saw the cartoons when I was young, but the films are really my introduction to Tolkien, and I love them.Fair enough, I don't mean to shit all over something you enjoyed. Maybe I'm being too negative. I did think the set piece in the middle with the barrels was pretty great. One of the main problems I had with the whole film though was that emphasis is put on absolutely everything thanks to the framing and the grand sweeping score. There's no balance. Maybe the HFR highlighted this more than the standard frame rate would have. (or it might have been because I was absurdly high when I went to see it )I didn't see it in HFR, and it looked mostly fine. Still think some of the makeup/post production on the actors was over the top, but all in all the film looked pretty well balanced. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Powerage5 Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 I thought it was the perfect place to end. But I say this as a fan who has never really read the books. I saw the cartoons when I was young, but the films are really my introduction to Tolkien, and I love them.Fair enough, I don't mean to shit all over something you enjoyed. Maybe I'm being too negative. I did think the set piece in the middle with the barrels was pretty great. One of the main problems I had with the whole film though was that emphasis is put on absolutely everything thanks to the framing and the grand sweeping score. There's no balance. Maybe the HFR highlighted this more than the standard frame rate would have. (or it might have been because I was absurdly high when I went to see it )Not to mention this film shouldn't have had any conclusion since it ended in the middle of the book.This is nonsense. Tolkien didn't charge me for half a book.Huh? The second film ends in the middle of the story following the book. I don't think I get what you're saying... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest NGOG Posted December 18, 2013 Share Posted December 18, 2013 P5, I was too angry to articulate this when it happened a few days ago. Here goes... I innocently came into this thread looking for reactions to the film before I go see it. But a certain hooray for tolerance! included a spoiler without using a tag!! Been suffering violent nerd spasms since. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Powerage5 Posted December 18, 2013 Share Posted December 18, 2013 P5, I was too angry to articulate this when it happened a few days ago. Here goes...I innocently came into this thread looking for reactions to the film before I go see it. But a certain hooray for tolerance! included a spoiler without using a tag!! Been suffering violent nerd spasms since. Sorry, did I give away that Smaug barbecues Bilbo? In all seriousness though - what exactly did I say that gave anything away (Assuming you've read the book, that is)? I looked back on my post and didn't think there was anything really spoileri-ish in there so long as you know how the story goes. That's a legit question, not like a dig at you or anything Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Bonham Posted December 18, 2013 Share Posted December 18, 2013 P5, I was too angry to articulate this when it happened a few days ago. Here goes... I innocently came into this thread looking for reactions to the film before I go see it. But a certain hooray for tolerance! included a spoiler without using a tag!! Been suffering violent nerd spasms since. Sorry, did I give away that Smaug barbecues Bilbo? In all seriousness though - what exactly did I say that gave anything away (Assuming you've read the book, that is)? I looked back on my post and didn't think there was anything really spoileri-ish in there so long as you know how the story goes. That's a legit question, not like a dig at you or anything Jesus Christ, the book is 75 years old Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chewbacca Posted December 18, 2013 Share Posted December 18, 2013 Fili and Kili totally lost their roles on the story thanks to Tauriel, which only exists because they wanted a female character... just follow the goddam plot! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Georgy Zhukov Posted December 18, 2013 Share Posted December 18, 2013 Fili and Kili totally lost their roles on the story thanks to Tauriel, which only exists because they wanted a female character... just follow the goddam plot!Tolkien wrote sausage fests. Only in back stories he gave the females bigger parts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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