Official 'The Hobbit' Thread - - - - - Part 14

[Snow Queen]

When they release the inevitable blu-ray set that has both trilogies, they should have a feature that lets you edit The Hobbit movies.

 

[AnneFan]

So I finally got around to seeing this. Just more of the same, really. But I still liked the movie and it has some good stuff going on in there. Though I'm not sure if it (and the first Hobbit) are the kind of things I'd re-watch. A condensed version would make for a very nice piece of viewing.

 

[Persona]

i really liked AUJ but the pacing does suffer so much in that first half or so, it isn't the easiest rewatch, for sure.

though i like the Laketown stuff in and of itself, the pacing of DoS definitely takes a hit there and Smaug is amazing but they could have cut five minutes from his stuff at the end. other than that, though, i think it has much better pacing and action than the first one (seriously, the barrel scene, i will watch that thing twenty times in a row when the Blu-Ray comes out, so inventive and fun) that i think will make it more conducive to rewatches.

 

[Mrs Vimes]

Finally saw this. After the massive disappointment of the first Hobbit movie, it was a pleasant surprise to discover that DoS is a big improvement and is actually a film I'd want to re-watch. For the first 20 minutes or so it felt like more of the same, but once the gang hits Mirkwood the movie really picks up with the fun/creepy spiders sequence.

- I really enjoyed the new characters like Bard, Tauriel and the marvellously hammy Elvish king Evangeline Lilly makes for one lovely she-elf. Other than Thorin and Balin the rest of the dwarves are still mostly a blur, but I quite liked Kili's unlikely romance.

- Hate to say this as I'm a huge fan of Gandalf in the original trilogy, but his character feels rather stale in the prequels. I know that Ian McKellen wasn't keen on reprising the role, so whether it's a lack of enthusiasm or just simply age, to me his performance just doesn't seem to have the same vigour and oomph. It also doesn't help that I didn't care for the whole Necromancer subplot in the DoS and just would rather not be distracted from the main action. On the other hand, I rather enjoyed the return of Orlando Bloom as a somewhat colder Legolas, even if he was little more than an Orc-killing machine here. It's probably a bit sad that Legolas is still Orlando Bloom's best role.

- Smaug was awesome and wonderful and everything I wished for back from when they first announced the movies. Loved the design, voice, everything. They've done a great job with slowly revealing the dragon, too.

- The action scenes were good, though I rather agree with the comments I've seen that at times the physics get too cartoonish and the scenes go for too long. The last sequence with Smaug is probably the worst offender.

Didn't think I'd say this after AUJ, but now I really look forward to the next Hobbit movie.

 

[Octoberist]

I rewatched the film again.

It's not bad, but like what my friend said, some of the CG and green screen (and there are many) feel unpolished that Middle Earth didn't feel as real as the one in the original trilogy. And it's weird that some ORCs are completely CG, and some are not. The ones who are CG are just cartoony if you had to compare them to men in make-up.

The most baffling CG was the liquid gold. Wow, that was embarrassing.

I do think the biggest crime of the film was that Bilbo was left in the side. Even his encounter with Smaug felt undermined once the dwarves entered the cave.

I did like the river scene, however. And Smaug was a great creation. Bard and even Taruiel was great.

 

[matrix_ghost]

I rewatched the film again.

It's not bad, but like what my friend said, some of the CG and green screen (and there are many) feel unpolished that Middle Earth didn't feel as real as the one in the original trilogy. And it's weird that some ORCs are completely CG, and some are not. The ones who are CG are just cartoony if you had to compare them to men in make-up.

The most baffling CG was the liquid gold. Wow, that was embarrassing.

I do think the biggest crime of the film was that Bilbo was left in the side. Even his encounter with Smaug felt undermined once the dwarves entered the cave.

I did like the river scene, however. And Smaug was a great creation. Bard and even Taruiel was great.

Did
You watch it in hfr ? Honestly i found the vfx far better and very realistic in HFR. No more of that bbc tv sitcom
Quality. The images looked very real and the cgi was excellent

 

[Octoberist]

I did not. To me, it's just because in how they filmed the movies this time around, the sets look more like sets.

In the original, they used plenty of sets but it was shot in a way where they felt like on-set locations.

 

[matrix_ghost]

I did not. To me, it's just because in how they filmed the movies this time around, the sets look more like sets.

In the original, they used plenty of sets but it was shot in a way where they felt like on-set locations.

I guess its due to the fact that the majority if the scenes in this
Movie basically take place on sets whereas in lotr many or dare the majority of the scenes where out door scenes . I mean you had aragorn and co looking for merry and pippin. Frodo and co were just walking thru various areas . Still going back to the HFR. It was a massive improvement over the first movie. Shots flowed even better in 3d . CGI looked excellent and there was a good consistency overall.

 

[regwec]

CGI looked excellent

Wha...?

 

[Octoberist]

Did the fake river of liquid gold look good in HDR? I can't image how it could look any better?

 

[Marvolo]

I rewatched the film again.

It's not bad, but like what my friend said, some of the CG and green screen (and there are many) feel unpolished that Middle Earth didn't feel as real as the one in the original trilogy. And it's weird that some ORCs are completely CG, and some are not. The ones who are CG are just cartoony if you had to compare them to men in make-up.

The most baffling CG was the liquid gold. Wow, that was embarrassing.

I do think the biggest crime of the film was that Bilbo was left in the side. Even his encounter with Smaug felt undermined once the dwarves entered the cave.

I did like the river scene, however. And Smaug was a great creation. Bard and even Taruiel was great.

That liquid gold and the scene where Smaug is flailing around in the furnace room is a ****ing travesty of cgi. Looks like bad video game graphics. Jackson really needs to touch that stuff up for the Extended Edition.

 

[Octoberist]

It was done with NGI: Nasty-Generated Imagery.

 

[Marvolo]

It was done with NGI: Nasty-Generated Imagery.

Im using this from now on for bad cgi.

 

[AnneFan]

It's not bad, but like what my friend said, some of the CG and green screen (and there are many) feel unpolished that Middle Earth didn't feel as real as the one in the original trilogy.

Yes, agreed. I didn't really 'feel' the action, either. Just swing, stab, rinse repeat for a bit and the crew gets away. The Hobbit movies are good enough but I don't connect to them as much.

I liked Gandalf's confrontation with Sauron, but is makes Gandalf the White's defeat at the hands of the Witch King in ROTK make even less sense.

 

[Marvolo]

Yes, agreed. I didn't really 'feel' the action, either. Just swing, stab, rinse repeat for a bit and the crew gets away. The Hobbit movies are good enough but I don't connect to them as much.

I liked Gandalf's confrontation with Sauron, but is makes Gandalf the White's defeat at the hands of the Witch King in ROTK make even less sense.

That witch king scene is just an odd one, and always has been. I try to forget it.

I brought this up the night I saw the film for the first time, but never got any others opinions on it. Did the score seem "off" to y'all? There were scenes that had no score at all. Action set piece that were just a vacuum of foley and sound effects. It just seemed like Howard Shore didn't get around to scoring them. Did y'all notice that? I know sometimes that's a deliberate sound design choice, but I don't recall it in the other films. There's always been at least some music in action scenes. Here it was either a sound bite of a cue or absolutely nothing at all.

 

[Octoberist]

I thought it was intentional.

 

[Marvolo]

I thought it was intentional.

It probably was. It just seemed odd. Shore if anything usually over scores these film imo, but with this film it felt like he either wasn't there or it was a case of what happened on Attack of the Clones. Great score that gets lost in the editing bay. It might also have something to do with the Misty Mountains hero theme being abandoned. There was a handful of places where that fit, but there was no music at all. I assume that could have been an issue of not being able to obtain the rights to use that piece or WB simply didn't want to pay to use it in this film. Shame as that's my favorite theme from all the films and ironically it wasn't even written by Shore.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

It probably was. It just seemed odd. Shore if anything usually over scores these film imo, but with this film it felt like he either wasn't there or it was a case of what happened on Attack of the Clones. Great score that gets lost in the editing bay. It might also have something to do with the Misty Mountains hero theme being abandoned. There was a handful of places where that fit, but there was no music at all. I assume that could have been an issue of not being able to obtain the rights to use that piece or WB simply didn't want to pay to use it in this film. Shame as that's my favorite theme from all the films and ironically it wasn't even written by Shore.

My only real complaint with the movie was the fact that that theme wasnt used, I was expecting it in many scenes and it would have fit perfectly, especially in the Dwarves vs Smaug scene. The Dwarf music from the 1st movie was used so there is at least a bit of music continuity but I really missed the Misty Mountains hero theme in this movie.

 

[green]

Did the fake river of liquid gold look good in HDR? I can't image how it could look any better?

You know the first time I saw it was in HFR and 3-D and it looked fine. I then saw all the complaints here and didn't quite get em.
My second viewing was not HFR and not 3-D and yeah I agree, not so good looking. Actually the HFR was super forgiving for all the CG to me.

 

[CGHulk]

Comes out in China on February 21st.

 

[jacobed]

Did the fake river of liquid gold look good in HDR? I can't image how it could look any better?

No. I didn't think anything looked better. Bad cg is still bad cg

 

[ravn0s]

amazing poster.

 

[Pink Ranger]

Both the dragon and gold are important symbols in Chinese culture, so I'm not surprised they went with that image.

 

[AnneFan]

amazing poster.

Agreed, very good. Plus I enjoyed that moment.

 

[Drizzle]

That is the best poster yet for this film series. I hope that ends up being the cover for at least one of the Blu-ray releases.