What Movie Did You Just Watch

[Dr. Insomniac]

Harmony Korine is why people hate hipsters.

[Avaitor]

So we tested out the new Blu-Ray today, and since the new Mary Poppins release came out today, that was the first Blu we watched on there.

Looks as good as ever.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I just re-watched The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Overall, I still hold my opinion that it was a good movie. That said, there were certainly a few scenes that could have been cut from the movie entirely. Anyways, I'm really excited for The Desolation of Smaug, which I plan to see sometime this weekend.

[talonmalon333]

I liked The Hobbit, too. I just didn't like it on the same level as the LotR trilogy, and I agree there are scenes that could've been cut.

That said, I feel like one of the only people who liked the "Lord of the Rings fanservice". You know, the scenes with Frodo, Saruman, etc. Maybe they weren't entirely necessary. But for me, it was just nice seeing those things again.

I'd like to rewatch it before seeing the next movie.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

From what I can tell, critics are still going kind of hard on TDOS, but most also seem to like it better than AUJ, and seeing as how I really liked AUJ, it looks like I'll enjoy this one at least as much. Still, I have no idea what Jackson will do to flesh out a third film. The Battle of Five Armies would be the only major event left from the book after this movie is done, and that alone certainly doesn't contain enough plot to sustain an entire movie.

[talonmalon333]

From what I can tell, critics are still going kind of hard on TDOS, but most also seem to like it better than AUJ, and seeing as how I really liked AUJ, it looks like I'll enjoy this one at least as much. Still, I have no idea what Jackson will do to flesh out a third film. The Battle of Five Armies would be the only major event left from the book after this movie is done, and that alone certainly doesn't contain enough plot to sustain an entire movie.

My prediction is that he will come up with some sort of way to really bridge the gap between the Hobbit trilogy and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I personally can't imagine how that will be done. He might have to really flesh out some of Tolkien's material.

[Spark Of Spirit]

From what I can tell, critics are still going kind of hard on TDOS, but most also seem to like it better than AUJ, and seeing as how I really liked AUJ, it looks like I'll enjoy this one at least as much. Still, I have no idea what Jackson will do to flesh out a third film. The Battle of Five Armies would be the only major event left from the book after this movie is done, and that alone certainly doesn't contain enough plot to sustain an entire movie.

My prediction is that he will come up with some sort of way to really bridge the gap between the Hobbit trilogy and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I personally can't imagine how that will be done. He might have to really flesh out some of Tolkien's material.

I guess making the final battle have more parts and strategy and adding many more events and scenes, though that's still not going to fill out three hours.

I still stick by my opinion that two 2 hour movies would have been fine.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I saw TDOS today. Overall, I really enjoyed it. My problems with this one were the same as with the first movie, in that I found the scenes foreshadowing Sauron's return to be unecessary, and they felt like padding to me. Everything that was actually adapted from the book itself was great though, IMO. While its been a long while since I last read the book, I definitely noticed that Jackson made some changes, most notably by giving Bard a lot more character moments than I remember him getting in the book, and adding Legolas into the story (who I don't even remember being in the book; though if he was then his role must have been expanded for the film), but I'm personally OK with stiff like that. My only major gripe with the film is where it chose to leave off.

Spoiler

It's where Smaug leaves the mountain and is just about to attack the Lake Town

[close]

I hate it when movies leave off in what's clearly the middle of an ordeal that should have either been concluded in this film or completely saved for the next one. That said, I will say that Smaug in this movie was AWESOME! They really nailed him down, from his deep and intimidating voice to how well they animated his incredibly forceful and vicious style of motion. Smaug by far had the best visual effects that I've seen in any film in this series. It even manages to put the animation and effects of the Fellbeast from the Rings trilogy to shame. I won't spoil anything, but there is a chase scene with Smaug that some could argue is too drawn out, but I honestly loved every minute of seeing him animated on screen, so I personally can't complain about it.

Overall, I'd say that this movie was a little better than the first one, which I already rather enjoyed. It's still far off from being on par with the Rings trilogy, but it's also one of the better movies that I've seen this year, personally.

[talonmalon333]

How would you rank all the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films, E-K?

[Spark Of Spirit]

Legolas wasn't in the Hobbit, I assume they added him to try to hook the LOTR crowd even though it is a very different story from that.

Nice impressions. I hope to see it soon.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Legolas wasn't in the Hobbit, I assume they added him to try to hook the LOTR crowd even though it is a very different story from that.

Yeah, I read the book about a decade or so ago and I certainly don't remember him being in it. He really didn't have much purpose in this movie anyways, which is how you could tell, but he did admittedly have some really cool action scenes that were pretty impressively choreographed. I didn't mind him being in the sequence involving the Wood Elves, but having that whole scene where orcs attack the Lake Town and he helps fight them off was a bit much. I think Jackson could've done without that whole sequence entirely, especially since I don't remember that being in the book, either.

Nice impressions. I hope to see it soon.

I think that you'll enjoy this one if you liked the last one, but conversely anyone who didn't care for the last one won't feel any different about this one either. A lot of it depends on how well you can accept the liberties that Jackson has taken with the source material, which personally I'm mostly fine with (and it's not as though we didn't already see him take a TON of liberties with the Rings trilogy as well).

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

How would you rank all the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films, E-K?

I like both Hobbit films about close to as much as Fellowship of the Ring (which is great, but also my least favorite film in the Rings trilogy), and I like both The Two Towers and The Return of the King the best, with the latter being my favorite film in the series.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I don't believe the orcs directly attack Lake Town in the book. Lake Town is mostly a Smaug thing.

Then again, I'm not looking for 100% faithfulness when I could just read the book. I'm sure there's much more with Gandalf and the Necromancer in these movies, for instance, when it is only casually referred to in the boo kbut if it serves the film medium then I'm okay with it as long as it's well done. The only thing that gets to be a bit much is trying to recapture the LOTR-lightning-in-a-bottle when the Hobbit has always been a more whimsical and light story compared to LOTR when everything is far more dire and serious.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Thanks to other spirited opinions, I'll probably see the movie next week instead of wait for all the movies to come out as planned. If it managed to piss off that guy by that much, then I'll be bound to have an interesting watch.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Is he a hardcore Tolkien fan by any chance? Those types can't seem to stand any of these movies.