Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit Discussion Thread

[Powerage5]

Got Desolation of Smaug Extended.

Better than the extended edition of An Unexpected Journey?

[Georgy Zhukov]

Got Desolation of Smaug Extended.

Better than the extended edition of An Unexpected Journey?

Stopped about two thirds of the way through. Had to run out and get stuff. So far I liked a lot of the scenes added. Such as the Beorn scenes who in the theatrical, he just shows up and that's it. They give him more time for us to get to know him before he disappears until the next film. The Mirkwood scene was a huge improvement. I've heard the Dul Guldor scenes are vastly different from the theatrical so looking forward to that.

I think so far it benefits from the extended scenes just like The Two Towers did. After seeing The Hobbit, I wonder if it would have been better if we got two films from each book. At least with The Hobbit, Peter Jackson could say he went all out adapting a book to its fullest. I just wish they wrote better dialog for some scenes. Leftover Del Toro lines no doubt.

One scene in particular grossed me out. It was just so random and unnecessary and disgusting.

[Georgy Zhukov]

Checking out the Appendices on The Hobbit: DOS. The ones for the last film and the LOTR trilogy were excellent. Always a treat to watch. The actors are hilarious

[OmarBradley]

Why can't I pre-order tickets yet?

Fandango is only listing tickets for select locations.

[Georgy Zhukov]

Just another year until I finally get to have a Hobbit/Lord of the Rings marathon.

[Powerage5]

Just another year until I finally get to have a Hobbit/Lord of the Rings marathon.

Literally a full day to watch all 6 films if you do extended editions.

[Iron MikeyJ]

Just another year until I finally get to have a Hobbit/Lord of the Rings marathon.

Literally a full day to watch all 6 films if you do extended editions.

No way, I couldn't make it, not in one day at least. Two days maybe, but not one. I always get bogged down during the Two Towers, it's my least favorite of the 5 films so far. I still like it, it just drags on the most, especially the extended edition.

Speaking of marathons, I recently did a Star Wars one that I enjoyed, and HIGHLY recommend. I started with Episode 3, then did 4, 5, and 6. Just plain skip 1 and 2, makes it FAR more enjoyable.

[Georgy Zhukov]

I would skip the Anakin and Padme scenes in Episode 3 just to make it even more enjoyable. I hope to get them all on Blu Ray.

I prefer to take 6 days to watch them all. If I had the time of course. I kind of wish they would give each book of The Lord of the Rings the same treatment The Hobbit got.

[Powerage5]

Just another year until I finally get to have a Hobbit/Lord of the Rings marathon.

Literally a full day to watch all 6 films if you do extended editions.

No way, I couldn't make it, not in one day at least. Two days maybe, but not one. I always get bogged down during the Two Towers, it's my least favorite of the 5 films so far. I still like it, it just drags on the most, especially the extended edition.

Speaking of marathons, I recently did a Star Wars one that I enjoyed, and HIGHLY recommend. I started with Episode 3, then did 4, 5, and 6. Just plain skip 1 and 2, makes it FAR more enjoyable.

Agreed - Two Towers didn't translate well to a film at all. In all fairness it's my least favorite of the books too. And it's not like the film is bad, but anytime I do a LOTR watchthrough, I don't look forward to Two Towers the way I do Fellowship or Return Of The King.

[Georgy Zhukov]

A third of the film was focused on the battle. They had to cut a lot of material from the last two books just to fit the big battles. The Two Towers suffered for being in between, The Fellowship of the Ring and The Return of the King.

Anyone watch the scene where the Master of Laketown was eating goat and ram's testicles? Nasty.

[Powerage5]

A third of the film was focused on the battle. They had to cut a lot of material from the last two books just to fit the big battles. The Two Towers suffered for being in between, The Fellowship of the Ring and The Return of the King.

Anyone watch the scene where the Master of Laketown was eating goat and ram's testicles? Nasty.

Besides the fact that it suffers the usual problem of the middle of a trilogy not having a middle or end, it's amplified by the fact that they really displaced a lot of stuff between installments when comparing the books to the films. At least in the book, Shelob's lair offers a halfway decent stopping point between Two Towers and ROTK. In the films, it's halfway through ROTK and there's not even the slightest resolution in Frodo and Sam's journey at the end of Two Towers.

You're right about Helm's Deep too - it seemed like they were trying to make that battle a much bigger deal than it really was in the book. In the films it was like "okay, this battle will decide the fate of Middle Earth. Wait...j/k, that's coming in the next film". I'm not trying to undermine the importance of Helm's Deep, but the film spent far more time on it than was really necessary.

[Georgy Zhukov]

The battle itself was bigger in scale in the book. The Rohan had more in numbers, about 2,000 instead of the 300 and the 100 to 200 Elves. I guess they were going for a Thermopylae like battle.

But the best parts in the book was Aragorn's attempted parlay and Gimli's speech. What the battle really did was not only help knock Saruman out of the game, but it forced Sauron to go into "Oh shit" mode because the heir of Elendil has come forward and he needed to strike and overrun Gondor before it is too late.

But The Battle of Pelennor Fields...that was totally necessary.

[OmarBradley]

Attending an early screening of BOFA tonight at 10:20 EST.

EDIT: Yes, IMAX 3D.

Edited December 16, 2014 by OmarBradley

[Dan H.]

I saw a picture the other day of Ian McKellan crying on set because of how much green screen was used in these films as opposed to LotR. I suppose it's frusterating to have the to act when you can't really see anything that's going on.

These Hobbit films are absymal. I really want to like them, and there are some great moments, usually dialogue scenes. But I hate that everyone has super powers and can do absolutely crazy shit in battle scenes. Legolas was always kinda super powered, but they basically made him Spider Man in these films. The fight scenes just seem to boring and inauthentic compared to LotR.

What happened to throwing knives at actors faces

Edited December 16, 2014 by LiveFromNormal

[Iron MikeyJ]

Saw it tonight and I loved it. I personally really enjoyed The Hobbit series, just about as much a LOTR tbh.

[AxlisOld]

I saw a picture the other day of Ian McKellan crying on set because of how much green screen was used in these films as opposed to LotR. I suppose it's frusterating to have the to act when you can't really see anything that's going on.

These Hobbit films are absymal. I really want to like them, and there are some great moments, usually dialogue scenes. But I hate that everyone has super powers and can do absolutely crazy shit in battle scenes. Legolas was always kinda super powered, but they basically made him Spider Man in these films. The fight scenes just seem to boring and inauthentic compared to LotR.

What happened to throwing knives at actors faces

Like the shock of Yoda bouncing off walls like Vega from Street Fighter. I haven't seen any LOTR movies or Hobbit movies...never will.

[OmarBradley]

Eh, I wasn't too impressed. The story telling was haphazard, the writing was cornier than ever, some of the acting was questionable. Lots of major deviations from the actual story. And ffs, I know I ask every time, but why is Evangeline Lilly in these movies? (I guess it's not her fault, but that whole story line is unnecessary, it seems forced, because it is).

That battle was OK, not great, did not capture LOTR epicness for me at all. The fighting just didn't look as interesting for some reason, and the severe lack of gore made it almost comically bad sometimes.

Some of the special effects looked like Tim & Eric did them...... these are all just random thoughts, don't feel like doing a comprehensive review

Overall, I'm disappointed.

[Powerage5]

I really enjoyed this one - after one viewing, I'd say it's my second favorite Tolkien film after ROTK. The battle was great, even if there were some changes made to the book, the Battle Of Dol Guldur was awesome, and the buildup was a lot more...thorough than I expected. When they announced they were changing the title to The Battle Of The Five Armies, I expected it to be like 15 mins of buildup, and 2 and a half hours of the battle. In reality, the buildup was close half the film.

[Iron MikeyJ]

@Powerage,

I agree, I thought it was a very good movie. I do prefer Desolation of Smaug in this trilogy though. I also prefer Fellowship and Return over it as well. But that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it. The Two Towers is the worst of the 6 films IMO, as I said before, that one just DRAGS on.

Now lets get The Simillarion!!!! Add some zero's to the check, and it'll happen Jackson. The Tolken estates biggest gripe is not the changes that were made, its the fact that they got little to no money for these 6 films, because J.R.R. himself sold off the film rights to Hobbit and LOTR for not nearly enough, way back in the 60's. So the Movie Studios (New Line and WB) didn't have to pay very much to get the rights. They will have to pay MILLIONS to get the rights to The Simillarion, so make it so and everybody wins. But don't be fooled, it doesn't have anything to do with "protecting out fathers creation," just like everything else, its about money....

[AtariLegend]

I thought this was facial. I loved the original LOTR trilogy, there was magic about when I went to see ROTK.

This film had more CGI than probably the entire Stars Wars prequel trilogy combined. It was just cliche after cliche and worst of all I think it might harm my future viewing experiences of the original trilogy.

Legolas is in the film more than Bilbo (Martin Freeman) which is a shame since Freeman's performance from the previous 2 films doesn't really deserve to get sidetracked for LOTR fan service. At times when Legolas is on the screen, it's like watching someone play Assassin's Creed, it's that unrealistic especially when you see him jump/climb bricks that are falling off the bridge. In another scene you see Rams running up Walls/mountain sides in the background, no not paths.

I could go on and on, but one last thing. Why were the opening 2 minutes with Smaug kept for this film and not put on the end of the last film? I know you need a cliffhanger, but it feels even more like a cash grab at that point.

Edited January 11, 2015 by AtariLegend

[Iron MikeyJ]

@AtariLegend,

You do realize that rams live on the side of mountains and don't need paths to move around right? I understand your complaints about CGI, but thats just how films are made these days, its not going anywhere. But the knock about rams is a little petty if you ask me. You can either look for things to like or dislike about everything, its all a matter of perspective.

[AtariLegend]

They ran up slants on wall and flat walls as well. I'm not talking about running up a hill side.

As far as petty? You kidding me, the original trilogy used CGI too especially when it had Legolas running Elephant trunks and jumping around in the Pelennor Fields battle. That was still more realistic looking than most of this. This film was 90% CGI.

Edited January 13, 2015 by AtariLegend

[Dan H.]

Yeah, there are tasteful ways to use CGI. But the Hobbit is a visual train wreck.

[Iron MikeyJ]

They ran up slants on wall and flat walls as well. I'm not talking about running up a hill side.

As far as petty? You kidding me, the original trilogy used CGI too especially when it had Legolas running Elephant trunks and jumping around in the Pelennor Fields battle. That was still more realistic looking than most of this this. This film was 90% CGI.

Clearly you have never seen any nature documentaries on rams then, because they are masters of mountain terrian. Which is all beside the point, I just thought this was a poor choice for a criticism is all. I agreed with you about the video game comparision. But the rams? Thats pushing it...

Edited January 11, 2015 by Iron MikeyJ

[bran]

i watched the first one and i hated it so i havent bothered with the other two. im just glad at this point christopher tolkien is holding onto the rights of the silmarillion.