Issues with your account? Bug us in the Discord!

The Hobbit part 3!!! Oh boy!!! (Spoilers for part 2)

DarthCaligulaDarthCaligula Elite Ranger
edited September 2014 in Zocalo v2.0
Gee golly I'm sure looking forward to the next Hobbit movie. I can't wait to see how they stretch this thing out even more. Oh boy, that part with Legolas killing a bunch of Orcs was so necessary, but I think we can all agree that the long ass fight with Smaug was the best part of the whole movie. That's right, Bilbo talking to Smaug while wearing the One Ring and using his wits to survive is too boring, we need to add a 30 minute fight that makes Smaug look like a chump. "DUR HUR HUR! We just jumped out of the way of the fire AGAIN!" Yessiree, that's some quality adaptation work right there.
That's right, The Hobbit: The Search for More Money will go down in history as the greatest adaptation ever made.
«1

Comments

  • StingrayStingray Elite Ranger
    edited September 2014
    I think there comes a time in one person's life when you stop asking yourself questions why things happen. Why does Michael Bay keep making Transformer sequels? Why did they make a trilogy out of the Hobbit booklet? Why do they keep mentionning Justin Cyrus Kardashian in the news? Somebody must be making a lot of money, period! This Hobbit thing is also approaching over-exposure, I can't even remember if I saw the second one!! lol If I did it probably did not leave a mark in my neofrontal cortex. Anyway, they call it movie business for a reason. I'm just shocked how they get away with making all the bad ones.
  • ShadowDancerShadowDancer When I say, "Why aye, gadgie," in my heart I say, "Och aye, laddie." London, UK
    Taken purely on face value, I have to admit I've enjoyed the movies so far. But only if I don't think too much about it.

    I too have a lot of problems with it being a trilogy, the main ones being:

    - the action sequences are far too long all
    - every line of dialogue seems to be designed/intended to be of "epic" importance
    - far too much reliance on CGI
    - too much comic relief

    That said, I do like seeing more of Middle Earth. In fact, I'd say seeing the world has been the highlight for me; all across LotR and The Hobbit the art/concept has been pretty close to what I imagined Middle Earth to be like. It's just a shame that what's gone in it hasn't matched expectations!

    Naturally I'll see Part 3, but I'm not expecting it to be anything that good
  • In all truth I don't mind the Orcs. They add more tension to what's going on and I assume that the whole thing with them is from the additional stuff Tolkien wrote. But seriously, I was practically hearing "Yakkity Sax" during that stupid Smaug fight. Like I said, they just want to stretch it out to a trilogy.
  • We'll have another Helms Deep where a 1 chapter battle takes up 1/3 of the movie.
  • I read the books about 13 or so years ago, and don't have any interest in reading them again, but wasn't the Battle of the Five Armies or whatever it's called in The Hobbit barely mentioned by Bilbo? And they're going to probably have it take up most of the movie.
    And since I just love to complain about Smaug, really, if they wanted to show him in action, all they had to do was show a flashback of him destroying Dwarven civilization. Instead, somehow this nightmare creature that's pretty much an ender of worlds can't kill a few dwarves and a hobbit.
  • BigglesBiggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
    The Battle of the Five Armies is a fairly important part of the Hobbit, but it's not described in any great detail (literally about 3 pages in the edition I have). That doesn't mean that a film adaption should gloss over it, though. In terms of time, it's a very long battle. Of course, Bilbo is unconscious for a good part of it.

    I don't mind the orcs, they give a bit of tension and consistency to what is otherwise an unconnected set of "we're attacking you cause we're orcs/goblins!" enemies.

    I also don't mind the extra stuff added from The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, The History of Middle-earth, etc. I think it adds a lot of depth to a simple tale. It wasn't needed but it does make the movies more interesting.

    What I really don't like is major changes to the story, such as leaving dwarves in Laketown who shouldn't be there or adding an ambiguous love story between an elf and a dwarf. I also don't like the unnecessary action sequences, like the barrel chase and that bloody awful fight with the dragon (which is completely contrary to how any of the characters involved would behave according to the book), added probably to "increase excitement" but also likely to stretch it out to three movies. If they had cut them out, left the bit with the elves as short as it is in the book, and not insisted on showing the entire Battle of the Five Armies (which I'm sure they will), then it could fit into two three-hour movies. The extra stuff from the Appendices, etc. could have gone in the extended editions.
  • What really sucks about these bad adaptations is that now everyone is going to think of the movies instead if you ever mention the story. Like that horrid abomination, I, Robot. Why can't they make more movies like the adaptation of A Princess of Mars?
  • JackNJackN <font color=#99FF99>Lightwave Alien</font>
    The LOTR trilogy was awesome to me, I especially appreciated the extended versions.

    The Hobbit Trilogy is fun, and that's all I expect from it. I do appreciate the added story of Gandolf and other Wizards and the fights between great Evil sorcery and all that.

    None of these are ever going to be as good as the books and what your mind creates for the story when reading them.

    I honestly don't understand why everyone hates JCOM either?
  • WORFWORF The Burninator
    edited December 2014
    I saw Battle of Five Armies today.

    Spoiler:
    It pretty much lives up to the title, everything else is glossed over in comparison (although only the Dol Guldur scenes felt rushed)
  • Someone had the same idea as me and actually made a video!
    Yakety Sax Smaug!
  • SpiritOneSpiritOne Magneto ABQ NM
    I saw it yesterday. It's been a very long time since I read the hobbit. Close to 20 years. I don't remember the details. I even had forgotten which characters die. I enjoyed it. It closed the hobbit series up well. Yes, the battle is long, but you knew it would be going in.

    I think calling it the battle of 5 armies though is a bit injustice. More like 4 1/2 armies. Seriously I don't know how the men of laketown had so many people left to fight. By right, they should have been slaughtered by the orcs invading the castle.

    Smaug is short lived of course, which is a shame, I think they did an amazing job creating him.

    Lee Pace is making a name for himself in action movies. He's come a long way from the pie maker. I have no idea how he has the time to shoot all the things he is in.

    It's strange to say that a single book turned into three movies feels rushed, but this one actually does.

    Some things do bother me. Shadow Dancer is correct that every piece of dialog is played up to be of epic proportions, especially from Thorin. The fight sequences get to be monotonous and hard to follow. The dwarven armor the iron dwarves wear looks a lot like the orc armor. So for a while, I couldn't tell who was killing whom. The elves simply aren't very smart in battle. Since I don't remember the book, I don't know if that part of the battle followed it. But the iron dwarves set up a phalanx style system against the oncoming orcs. What do the elves (known for having the best archers in the land) do? Do they shoot over the dwarves? No of course not, they charge over the dwarves for hand to hand combat. Tactical suicide.

  • The Hobbit wasn't very detailed to begin with, and it was Bilbo's POV. He was knocked out for most the battle (which they got right in the movie) so he learned about most of it from afterwards. So they could embellish a lot, which I think they did well.

    The fallen dwarves were correct, it was Thorin, Fili, and Kili, but the way they died was a bit different. Azog of course was not in the book, but Thorin went against Bolg, got mortally wounded, and Fili and Kili died protecting his fallen body. It was Beorn who killed Bolg, although you only saw Beorn for literally 5 seconds in the movie.

    I was expecting the showdown at Dol Gulder to be awesome, and it was. We finally got to see Galadriel for the badass she truly is, and Elrond and Saruman rocked the house too. Though since they made a big deal about Galadriel's ring, why wasn't anything said about the fact that Gandalf had an Elf ring too? Of course, then if they did that they couldn't justify having him be a prisoner.

    Overall pretty good, and finally shorter than 3 hours! The only part that felt like it dragged on was Thorin being all "GOLD GOLD GOLD GOLD ARKENSTONE I'M EBENEEZER AND NO ONE WILL LIKE ME" that could have been cut in half.
  • ShadowDancerShadowDancer When I say, "Why aye, gadgie," in my heart I say, "Och aye, laddie." London, UK
    I'm waiting for a fan cut that edits it down to what is actually in the book. I suspect it will be a lot more enjoyable!
  • Yeah once the Extended editions are released, then cut it down. I haven't seen the second one since I saw it in the theater, but I'm pretty sure it would be easy to cut out the Smaug bits from Bilbo's verbal sparring to him leaving for Lake town and it wouldn't seem that jarring.
  • Random ChaosRandom Chaos Actually Carefully-selected Order in disguise
    While I enjoyed the battle, the fight sequences looked too false, as if the weapons were pulled in many cases way before they actually impacted their enemy, yet the enemy was slain (with no evidence of blood, mortal wounds, etc.). I wonder if they did that just to get the PG-13 rating...
  • ShadowDancerShadowDancer When I say, "Why aye, gadgie," in my heart I say, "Och aye, laddie." London, UK
    The fight on the collapsing tower also felt very false. Far too easy to see it was cgi and not actors
  • I did think the whole collapsing tower was ridiculous to no degree. Having Legolas featured like that. In Helms Deep and the Pelannor Fields, in the movies, he was actually part of the main battle force, being a badass. Here he was just solo.
  • ShadowDancerShadowDancer When I say, "Why aye, gadgie," in my heart I say, "Och aye, laddie." London, UK
    Yeah, it was a case of "We've no idea why he's here or why we need him, so lets just make him kick ass by himself". You could cut most of his screen time and you wouldn't even notice, which is a shame because in LOTR he's so much better than that
  • I seriously want to edit the films down. Not necessarily remove the parts that weren't in the book (some of the stuff added was nice) but just the unnecessary bullshit. I'll just have to wait for all 3 extended editions to come out.
  • ShadowDancerShadowDancer When I say, "Why aye, gadgie," in my heart I say, "Och aye, laddie." London, UK
    My girlfriend wants to watch them with me in order to spend time with me, and watching something that I'm in to. After watching the last one tho, I actually said to her I'd rather watch Frozen with her than watch The Hobbit movies. :O

    I'll definitely watch them again, but after watching 'Five Armies' in the cinema I'm definitely not in a hurry to watch them all again any time soon....which is a shame really!
  • Random ChaosRandom Chaos Actually Carefully-selected Order in disguise
    Couldn't help but laugh at this, Seafroggys :D

    "I seriously want to edit the films down" ... "I'll just have to wait for all 3 extended editions to come out. "
  • StingrayStingray Elite Ranger
    I actually enjoyed watching the LotR trilogy with the comments track on. ;-) I'll wait for the director's cut.
  • The extended editions actually add useful stuff from the books from what I've read ;)
  • Well, a guy already made a 4 hour cut of all 3 movies. I haven't seen it yet, but he cuts out the love triangle, and entire Dol Gulder subplot, and a few other things.

    https://tolkieneditor.wordpress.com/2015/01/13/i-have-recut-peter-jacksons-hobbit-trilogy-into-a-single-4-hour-film/
  • I'll finally get to enjoy the hobbit now. That's nice.
  • ShadowDancerShadowDancer When I say, "Why aye, gadgie," in my heart I say, "Och aye, laddie." London, UK
    I understand and agree with the reasons for cutting the Dol Guldur subplot in that context. That said, it was something that I did actually quite enjoy, probably more so than much of Battle of Five Armies
  • croxiscroxis I am the walrus
    Dol Guldur seems like its along the same lines as "Do I watch star wars 4,5,6 or 1,2,3 first?" If one were to watch the Hobbit first I don't think it does a good enough job setting up for TLOTR, although it does mean the introflashback could be removed.
  • sataicallistasataicallista High Priestess of Squeee!
    Best part of this movie: Billy Connelly as Bain....good god his accent is perfect <3
  • I definitely think the Star Wars prequel comparison is accurate here; even if the hobbit wasn't as completely god-awful as the Star Wars prequels.
  • Is was better than what I was expecting. I hate that they didn't even have humans, elves and dwarves killing eachother though, that instead it was just the good guys vs. the bad guys. Overall, I'd say the Hobbit adaptation was badly done. Why couldn't they just follow the book?
Sign In or Register to comment.