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News from Bree
spymaster@theonering.net
Dec 12 2013, 11:11pm
Post #1 of 8
(909 views)
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Sound Off! Official Desolation of Smaug Fan Reaction Thread
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Can't Post
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 While we put our finishing touches on the official Ringer Reviews section, we thought it would be fun to collect your immediate reaction to The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug right here on this post. (That is of course IF the film has released in your country)
If you are new to commenting on TheOneRing.net, we use a rather popular system called Disqus, located at the bottom of every article page. You can decide to login with Facebook, Twitter or Google, or you can simply comment as a guest.
Comments are moderated, so please play nice :) The basic rules? Don't swear and treat others with respect. If you are posting spoilers, please be nice and post a SPOILER WARNING before your comments. Our staff will be working around the clock to get your comments approved. And as you can see by the diversity of our own staff reactions to the film, you can be as positive or negative about the film as you'd like. We will not be moderating based on your review.
Then, stay tuned in the next few days when we raise the curtain on the new Ringer Reviews for The Desolation of Smaug. Along with the ability to post your comprehensive review of the film, you will have the chance to rate 20+ specific aspects of the film. Details coming soon.
So what are you waiting for? Sound off!
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hutch
Nargothrond
Dec 13 2013, 9:12am
Post #2 of 8
(606 views)
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Oh man.  I'm the first to post but I just can't even begin to explain.... Tauriel won't die in Bo5A: she'll watch Kili die and give the stone back to his mom. Screenwriting 101.
Save the Texas Prairie Chicken.
(This post was edited by hutch on Dec 13 2013, 9:14am)
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cartermoulton
Nevrast
Dec 13 2013, 9:37am
Post #3 of 8
(601 views)
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(SPOILERS)
my thoughts (spoilers)
-beorn's design sucks.
-laketown's design was perfect (strength of the film)
-seems rushed even at its length (except for one scene, which i'll get to); think EE will kick in and add a lot (more Master of Laketown/Thranduil/Beorn).
-necromancer was just a puff of black smoke; disappointing, because i liked the idea of him being a semi-human form.
-fighting at laketown unnecessary.
-not sure the dialogue between gandalf and radagast makes much sense.
-evangeline lilly deserves praise for pulling off some otherwise cringe-worthy lines
-lee pace is a hero; thranduil is awesome. was hoping to see more of wood-elf culture.
-love triangle is sometimes handled well (as Tauriel talks about the "feast of starlight"), sometimes handled poorly...for instance...
-tauriel healing kili is cringe-worthy. she looks at him, all is well, it's a tender moment; cut to him; cut back to her and she's making a stupid face with awkward lighting on her. whole theater was laughing (unintentional).
-smaug vs. dwarves at the end was poorly executed...lasted way too long and transitioned to "Laketown is behind this" very quickly/non-sensically. people were laughing as Thorin zigged-zagged with a wheelbarrow.
-balin is an anchor in these films; ken stott is wonderful here, again.
-don't understand the two bullies in bree at the beginning?
-way...way too much CGI. Why shoot in NZ if you're going to use so much green screen (even in Laketown and on the edges of Mirkwood)? Somehow, paradoxically, it feels like a low-budget movie in many areas.
-violence/action is overly stylized to the point of lunacy.
-mirkwood scene was very well-done (love what they did with the spiders...i was creeped out!)
-feels less like a continuous quest (fotr) and more like set-pieces hot-glued together. (again, think slower moments in EE will flesh this out...almost the opposite problem of AUJ.
-gandalf vs. necromancer was pretty impressive; still can't believe Azog is alive though...Bolg could've done all of this.
-the film's depth lies in the political tension and the implications for laketown. Bard is well done all around.
-"Desolation of Smaug" on-screen title is different than all of the others we've seen before, isn't it?
- howard shore's score is 100 percent on point. love lake town's theme; can see Azog's theme evolving into Mordor's theme. the kili/tauriel love theme is beautiful, which actually makes me wish it would've been used somewhere else (for bilbo/galadriel/gandalf? heck, something from the book!)
-final note: this doesn't feel like tolkien; i feel, for the first time, almost certain that tolkien would not have enjoyed PJ's interpretation.
-beginning to think that LOTR was a perfect matching of Jackson's vision and a specific technological moment in cinema history. the readily-available CGI being used in these Hobbit films is not only ripping the films from the "stuff"—materiality, nature, physicality, humanity (if you can call it that)—of middle earth (New Zealand, on-location sets, prosthetics) but is also de-sensitizing viewers to the peril of these characters; because each possible threat has been expanded into a 10+ minute CGI fest (stone giants, goblin town, barrels, laketown, dol guldor, mirkwood, chases (into rivendell, bunny sled, into beorns, into laketown, out of the frying pan)). if budget/CGI constraints existed, a few of these may have become much more subtlety-woven into the fabric of the story (maybe just mentioned, as would be the case with the stone giants).
hopefully these thoughts bring forth some conversation.
"the road goes ever on and on..."
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Elessar
Doriath
Dec 13 2013, 10:21am
Post #4 of 8
(586 views)
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I really did love it. I gotta see it again to write my review for the FP but I did enjoy it quite a bit. Need to wrap my mind around some of what I saw. I will say its about 15 mins too long. I'd still give this a 9.15/10
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cats16
Gondolin
Dec 13 2013, 10:45am
Post #5 of 8
(562 views)
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Excluding your second sentence (not applicable to me  ), I think that's where I sit as well. Although I do need to see it again ASAP. I think, if given the choice, I would've sat there and watched it a second time while in my seat.
Important thing for me is to draw my own thoughts on the film, without another person's conclusions making me feel a certain way. Sometimes, right after seeing the film for the first time, it's easier to be swayed in an unfair way (positively or negatively). That's why I let the movie settle in my head, without going into depth about it in my posts.
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Elessar
Doriath
Dec 13 2013, 2:12pm
Post #6 of 8
(536 views)
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110%. I gotta marinate on it some more.
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Rickster
Nargothrond
Dec 13 2013, 7:43pm
Post #7 of 8
(520 views)
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Tolkien wrote it for kids in 1937
It is almost 100 years later and the movie is for adults and older kids.
Stop comparing. Start enjoying
Many movies of today are not like the comics or books they are slightly linked too
Man of Steel, Spiderman, KingKong.. Be happy
Even Neo Classicism is not the same as Classicism in buildingstyle
Dance music of today is different than Disco in the 80's
You may look like your parents, but you are different.
So it should be.. I loved the 3 Lord of Rings movies and I love the 2 hobbit movies.
It is hard to choose which I liked best, but i must say Desolation is close to a number one possition
Followed in that case by Two Towers, Unexpected Jny and Return of King .. I found Fellowship the weakest, but still so close to number one possition that it is a photo finish for all.
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Elessar
Doriath
Dec 13 2013, 10:17pm
Post #8 of 8
(508 views)
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I had some separation on issues but I've found my way past them. :)
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