What a load of anti-critical fanboyism.
The gushing was a little much.
Desolation of Smaug Extended edition is now available on Itunes, with a Blu-ray soon.
It is improved, as all Extended versions are in my opinion. It benefits greatly in three ways:
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Beorn has more scenes that flesh him out more.
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The magic evil forest before the elves section is massively improved by showing more of the dwarves becoming confused. Hard to explain, but it is less rushed and is now a full sequence.
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Thorin’s missing father, Thrain, is a new storyline deleted from the theatrical and added back in. Thorin mentions him in the beginning and Gandalf finds him in Dol Goldor. They actually had edited him out of scenes with Gandalf, and it is nice to see him back in and the storyline edited back in.
Don’t worry, Smaug is not extended at all. I guess we got the full extended version of inside the mountain in the theatrical version.
It’s 25 minutes longer and all the extra scenes are worth it.
Pick it up.
So, at least it has one thing going for it.
Ah, PJ strikes again. Thrain did indeed end up in Dol Guldur and Gandalf did find him there, but that was long before the Party - that’s how Gandalf got hold of the map and the key. But hey.
Some of Jackson’s decisions are completely incomprehensibobble to me. That whole long dragon-fight cartoon sequence was in, but Thrain was out? <Sigh> I would love to be able to edit OUT lots of scenes in both movies so far. And I’m sort of dreading the third movie, I suspect it’s going to be one huge battle (Smaug vs town, which might be interesting) then some of Bilbo and then another huge battle (of Five Armies.) My main problem is that these movies are NOT about the hobbit.
45 minutes for the battle of five armies. :smack: Throw in whatever amount of time you need to burn Laketown to the waterline and assault Dol Goldur/Rescue Gandalf and you may have 15 or 20 minutes of actual story in there somewhere.
I forget how he gets the map and key in the movie. Thrain does ask him about the key and map in the extended movie and he tells him he gave it to Thorin.
I’m with you. I’m not opposed to changing things in a movie based on a book, but in name of Eru Ilúvatar please change them to something good. I.e. not bunny sled driving by a joke of a character with bird poop caked in his hair. Not overly long sequences of video game-like mook slaughter. Not an awkward and implausible “romance.” Not scenes that inconsistently wobble between your main characters being utterly incompetent buffoons and being members of a supreme über-effective fighting squad. Not undermining the strength of your best characters (via the “Worf effect”) in a cheap but ultimately ineffective effort to create suspense.
If you keep piling peril upon more peril, what you get in the end is a badly told parody with no punch line.
Agreed. The editing in the first two movies is lamentable at best.
But here’s the thing. It won’t be a well-done battle, with believable pacing and sequences of real drama. It will be another overly long sequence of video game-like mook slaughter, but with less suspense.
Indeed. This is the only part of the trailer that caught my attention.
However, I dread the inevitable use of the “Dwarvish Windlance.” :smack:
Yep. Bilbo’s actual experiences and growth are very much tertiary in PJ’s “vision” for these movies. Even the scene in the treetops with the butterflies was botched, not to mention his heroism against the spiders, which was utterly ruined.
Honestly, I think I’m done. I watched all of the LOTR movies, even purchased the extended videos, and like them, for the most part. I watched the first two Hobbit movies with increasing agitation and discomfort. Not because stuff was changed. Because much of it was so poor.
Let me go back and face the peril!
No, it’s too perilous!
Precisely.
Example: the first hobbit movie. In the books, the company escapes from the goblin caves to find themselves outrun by wargs (“Out of the Frying-Pan into the Fire”). They climb into trees, but the goblins catch up and set fire to all the trees (“Fifteen birds in five fir trees”). For most ordinary people, this is plenty perilous. But for Peter Jackson, no, there needs to be more peril. Soooo… an ancient nemesis shows up, whom Thorin fights hand-to-hand before conveniently hopping back into the trees. Still not enough peril. The trees, although they are ancient, huge, and have very deep roots, are somehow more easily uprooted than corn stalks and topple into each other, one by one, like dominoes, until the entire company is stuck in a single tree. PJ decided that still more peril was needed. The last tree, in addition to being on fire and overburdened with thirteen dwarves, a hobbit, and a wizard, is perched over a sheer cliff, with a vertiginous drop of what looks to be several miles. Yeah. Need moar peril!!!1 :smack:
Well said. I’m sure I’ll see the third film for the sake of completeness and closure, but this is pretty much my reaction so far.
I hope I don’t. I fear I might. Aargh! 
I dunno; I love Tolkien, but I laughed myself halfway out of my chair in my viewing of movie 2, so clearly I’ve found some way to derive amusement from these movies.
New trailer:
Brian
bats?
Well, that trailer does make me choke back vomit a bit less.
The bats don’t bother me; maybe they give a better excuse for the arrival of the eagles.
Aside from trolls carrying on in what appears to be broad daylight (wtf?!), the battle scenes look like they might be pretty good. The acting from the dwarves looks solid, always a strong point in the first two movies as well. But there’s more silly dwarf-elf romance. Blech! The mountain scenes are striking, very beautiful. The awful tension in the days before the big battle looks to be well done. It’s nice to see that it was the whole White Council in force to deal with Sauron, and it’s plausible to me that Saruman’s treachery was already underway.
Aarrgh! Will to resist! Crumbling!
Middle Earth really needs a good dental plan.
They’re actually in the book. Clouds of bats darkening the sky followed the orc army coming from Gundabad.
well of course they’re from Gundabad - the Eagles are from Kindagud.
Was Smaug even in that last trailer? Is he gonna be killed so early in the last one that he’s barely in it?