By the time they’ve done the third movie, it will probably be faster to read the book than watch the adaptation.
I liked it, but it was shamelessly padded. I can see LotR as a trilogy, because there were three books. But The Hobbit as three films, the second of which is nearly three hours long? Come on. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear an announcement that the last one is going to be split in two like The Deathly Hallows was.
I liked the barrel scene - it was fun. I wouldn’t have minded the love triangle if it didn’t seem so derivative of Strider and the elf woman in LotR. All the part with Beorn was completely unnecessary.
And the giant statue of the elf king filled with molten gold was laughable, and right at the climax too. Shades of Wil E. Coyote - I was looking for the Acme logo. And I echo the sentiment that it was ridiculous that Smaug had to chase them around for half an hour while they put together this most idiotic of traps.
And everyone and his brother knows that Smaug is going to escape and devastate Laketown. So what’s the point?
And I am surprised that I am not the only one who was jarred by the sudden appearance of black people in Laketown. There should have been a little sign on the city limits reading “Laketown - Bringing Diversity to Middleearth Since 1358”.
It could have been so much better if they didn’t concentrate on giving us too much of the wrong things. But the choice is what it often is with a successful franchise - make a truly great film, or make a zillion dollars with three of them. Or four. Or five.
Regards,
Shodan
It was an okay silly movie if you didn’t expect it was going to be like the book at all. Which I didn’t. So I wasn’t disappointed. It was kinda fun to see the many sly references to LOTR. My daughter and I cackled throughout the barrel fight section, it was so ridiculous.
The book is a rather small, wry, whimsical story about the adventures of a hobbit, very much the kind of story a creative parent would tell to his young children.
The movies are like a video game interspersed with grandiose highly staged tableaus. Incredibly forgettable.
Sigh. Maybe if they had omitted every single scene with an Orc…
I’m disappointed that the movie does not incorporate one of the most amusing aspects of The Hobbit: Bilbo’s constant internal griping and wishing he’d never left home, and, as he gains confidence, his increasing irritability and impatience with the dwarves, who are not always appropriately grateful for his efforts, e.g. escape plans which involve them being very nearly drowned in smelly barrels.
No, but I’ve been watching Pushing Daisies on Netflix lately. Seeing Lee Pace as Thranduil, I found myself composing a little fantasy during the interminable barrel chase scene to explain why he’s so cold and distant even for an elven king. He must have at some point or other brought every elf in his kingdom back to life and therefore can’t ever touch any one of them again, or else they’ll drop dead on the spot. Deprived of all human - er- elven contact over the centuries has turned him into the emotionally detached creature he’s become. 
I also started laughing at the scene where Gandalf was trapped in a little cage at Dol Goldur, watching the armies of evil massing below him. Do you suppose that some 60 years later, when he was trapped atop the tower at Isengard in remarkably similar circumstances, he had a weird feeling of deja vu?
Saw it today with the wife.
I liked it quite a bit, but unlike some, I think it needs to be longer. It will benefit from an extended cut on DVD, much as the first one did. It isn’t that it is overlong, it is that it stays a bit long on some things and rushes others.
I eagerly await the extended DVD and the bonus features in November or December of this year.
I can’t wait for the finale. I think it should be a lot of fun.
However, I might add, I do think the love story between the dwarf and Kate from Lost seemed forced and unnecessary.
I agree on the orcs, and I don’t disagree on Bilbo’s role, but it’s very difficult to express that in a movie. Internal dialog? Brrrrr. Having him complain to the dwarves directly? Then he’s a whiney snot. Muttering under his breath? Maybe. But again, way to easy for him to come across negatively as sassy.
About the high frame rate. Me and the people I saw it with thought it looked like shit in many places. I can’t exactly put my finger on it, but it just didn’t look good at all in a lot of places.
I thought the movie started getting quite silly with the barrel scene, and eventually became profoundly silly by the time they were in the Lonely Mountain.
The visuals of barrels bobbing along in the river mildly snapped my disbelief suspenders; they were riding so high in the water that they should have immediately tipped over. Contrariwise, the empty barrel that Bombur jumped back into was riding too low in the water. But, eh, whatever.
Then after they navigate the spatial warp that exists around Mirkwood and the Lonely Mountain (seriously, Bilbo looks up from the trees to see the Misty Mountains on one side and the Lonely Mountain on the other; no surprise it took a day’s brisk walk to get through the forest), they arrive at Laketown… Which for some inexplicable reason has antiaircraft artillery from Dale mounted on one roof. Now, I’m not sure what they thought that one arbalest (missing its ammo) would do against Smaug, unless they’re trying to make a target for him to take out first. But, hey, souvenier they hauled out of Dale, right?
Except… why did Dale have antiaircraft artillery? Girion was obviously firing the arbalest from a raised platform in the flashback. But Dale wasn’t threatened by any airbourne enemies. Their closest potential enemies were dwarves – decidedly not elevated opponents – and elves; both of whom were allies. So why the hell did Dale built antiaircraft platforms??
Which sufficiently distracted me from the action until Bilbo found out that the dwarves had mined and minted more gold coins than the amount of gold that has probably ever existed on Earth. And how the hell did Smaug gather all that up? We saw he couldn’t get to some of the dwarf mummies to loot their bodies. Okay, maybe it’s a visual spectacle… holy crap that hoard goes on and on and on.
And, now, the forges are apparently chock full of even more pure gold. And there’s about a dozen forges… which, sure, ignite instantly by dragonfire, whatever. And two seconds later the entirety of the gold within is molten and pourable.
So, Thorin has a plan based on whatever all those forges were originally intended to do. And heatproof dwarf rides a wheelbarrow without being baked or burned to the bone from being splashed by molten gold as he careens through sluices filled with molten gold…
Why are there sluices for molten gold? Wouldn’t the dwarves have put the molten gold close to where it was going to be used? Since there’s no way to keep it heated in the open and suspended in midair (for improved cooling) sluices going every which way throughout the entire damn mountain? Oh, hai, giant solid gold dwarf statue mold. Sure, the dwarves have more gold available than exists in the entirety of the universe; yah, may as well plan for a solid gold statue, instead of, I dunno, gilding it or something logical. And, hey, magic gold statue cools quickly enough to hold its form for a moment or two, even though the gold sluicing around with Thorin did no such thing.
So the plan turns out to pour molten gold on top of the thing that generated the fire that instantly melted the gold in the first place??? At this point, the motorcade of dumb just became too much for me; Thorin had been turned into a very stupid D&D character who somehow never thought that [Fire] creatures usually have Fire Resistance.
At least they’ve given the inevitable LEGO video game tie-in some whacky action scenes that’ll keep my nephews briefly amused.
When they showed the first scene of the treasure hoard, all I could think was “that treasure is worthless!” It only got worse with the giant golden statue. I’m pretty sure they showed more gold in that one place than has ever been mined. The economic effect of reopening the mountain would be catastrophic deflation. Best to leave it buried.
And so, the dwarves, Bilbo, and even Gandalf have been co-opted by the Enemy in his insidious plan to undermine the economy of Middle Earth… 
Alternatively, maybe Smaug’s like one of those people who wrap a $20 round that fat roll of singles to make it look like they’re loaded, and he’s just got a thin layer of bling with, I dunno, pennies under it. 
Better than the first one, I’ll give it that.
But why, oh why, does PJ hate that characters are smart? I can think of three places where characters use their wits to deal with obstacles. All of them were omitted, sometimes terribly.
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Dwarves and Beorn. Gandalf essentially razzle-dazzles Beorn into doing way more than he would have otherwise. OK, I can see cutting it for time, but if that was the case why include Beorn at all?
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The spiders. Gandalf nowhere nearby. Dwarves captured. Bilbo hidden by the ring. He essentially riddles the spiders into losing their cool and manages to rescue the dwarves after that.
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Bilbo v. Smaug. This is the most unforgiveable. Smaug knows he’s there. But Bilbo engages Smaug’s curiousity with riddles and fast talk - and Tolkein explicitly says in the text that this is a perfect means to distract a dragon - sufficiently to allow him to escape when, even with the ring he would have been an easy kill. It’s not until he steals a cup that Smaug loses his cool and goes thundering out to lay some smackdown.
And I won’t even get into the unbelieveably dumb bit about Bilbo yelling ‘Hello! Anyone home?’ when he first enters the main chamber. Good Lord, it’s like everyone in Middle Earth was raised on lead paint or something.
Smaug = central banker. It’s obvious, people! 
[Ponder Stibbons]As I’m sure you remember[/PS], Bilbo actually gloms the cup on his first foray, when Smaug is soundo. It’s on his second trip (after the dragon has already vented his rage on the mountainside having been unable to find the dwarves) that they have this excellent conversation, which prompts Smaug into connecting the dwarves’ mission with the Lake-Men and deciding to go and remind them who’s King Under The Mountain these days.
And yes, this was one of PJ’s most egregious bits of butchery, despite the stiff competition.
Beg to differ: in the book, Smaug does not exit the mountain and smash the secret door entrance (and then directly on to Laketown) until after Bilbo’s second visit. PJ inexplicably merged both of Bilbo’s visits into one for the movie.
In the books, the dwarves were portrayed as alternately greedy and cowardly… wouldn’t have made good movie heroes. That said, I too lament the decision to change key parts of a classic tale.
Whoops, my mistake. It was nagging at me so I went to the book and checked. Smaug does in fact leave the mountain twice, once right after Bilbo stole the cup (he searches for the dwarves unsuccessfully, but does drive off/eat their ponies). It is after Bilbo’s second visit (and their only conversation) that he exits again, smashes the exterior door, and flys on to Laketown.
Apologies to Malacandra
But my point about the dwarves stands… they only entered Smaug’s lair because their exit had been cut off and they had no choice.
One thing that occurred to me is while the first Hobbit movie felt more like a movie that took place in the same world as the LotRs movies, this felt more like an actual prequel with more specific connections to the plot and characters of the first trilogy.
I didn’t realize I missed that until I read this, and you’re right. I wouldn’t have minded a voice-over as Bilbo, I dunno, writes in his traveling journal. Some of that internal dialogue would’ve been nice.
“Oh, man. Trapped by my ruthless enemy in a small space at a dizzying height… again?!?”
Pity that Tolkien (whose birthday it is today) never got around to writing about a Middle-earth Alan Greenspan.
“This is making me miss the part where everbody scurries over a narrow bridge in a dwarven mine, and then falls into a bottomless pit with a fiery monster!”