will the climax of "Desolation" be an invented action sequence with Smaug and the dwarves?

LordElrond

LordElrond

Rivendell
In an interview with Peter Jackson he says there's a battle between Smaug and the dwarves and there will be bombs and artillery etc. This is obviously not in the book at all but it does sound interesting. Does this mean Smaug's attack on Laketown will be left for the third film?
 
I have my fingers crossed that that was PJ's idea of a joke. It's probably wishing for too much, I know.....

Another example of something that doesn't need to be done but is being done anyway. Nevertheless, it could work, depending on how it's handled. If it's a straight fight then it would be stupid as the Dwarves and Bilbo would all be incinerated-as least one of them would die in reality. If it's the Dwarves hiding under ledges, trying to avoid the fire and retaliating with whatever means they have available to them, then it could make a fairly good climax, provided that they eventually retreat into the secret door as in the book.

I can vaguely understand why PJ wants a confrontation between the main protagonists and the primary antagonist-particularly for the sake of Thorin confronting the embodiment of everything standing between him and glory. It's an interesting parallel in a way, since Thorin is of course susceptible to his own greed just as the dragon is.

This would be the solution to the problem that I have often wondered about: how would you keep non-book readers interested if Smaug, the big baddie, is killed off in the second film? Some of the "Normal" viewers as such may think "Hmmph, what's the point of watching the third film if the big baddies just died? We know the goodies are going to win now!" Obviously if he dies in the third film that problem is solved, though I do hope that he dies in his proper place, because his presence at the Battle of Five Armies as some have speculated would be plain disrespectful.

Again, not necessary really. Did the Fellowship ever have to have a full-on battle with Sauron? Nope, they didn't, even if Aragorn came close to having a slug fest with Old Nine Fingers during the Black Gate sequence.
 
It makes sense from a cinematic POV.

But I wouldn't put anything past PJ at this point. We were mostly lucky with the deviations in LOTR, but we also saw a glimpse of liberties taken too far (Arwen at Helms Deep, Aragorn Vs. Sauron).

I feel a lot of the problems with The Hobbit at this point are with liberties taken way too far.

At least now I'm expecting things to be so ridiculous that they're laughable.
 
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I agree with others that some confrontation between Smaug and the Dwarves would be much more cinematic. If they just went by the book, the Dwarves would look weak and cowardly if they ran into the passageway, shut the door, and allowed the dragon to "let off his rage", as the book says, on the mountain. Some sort of Thorin-Smaug confrontation, if done right, could be awesome. We'll have to figure out how they could do this without the Dwarves getting toasted.
 
or a battle of some sort between the Dwarves and Smaug could be awful.

I agree that the Dwarves escaping into the Mountain and closing the door makes offers only a little tension and excitement. They can't stand up against Smaug in battle but a more elaborate sequence in which their escape is complicated or some are trying to cover the retreat of others could be interesting.

After all, the Dwarves of AUJ are more like those of the LotR book rather the helpless idiots of the Hobbit novel.

As for the artillery and bombs, I have to think that PJ is joking unless the Dwarves are going to improvise such things, maybe from the remains of equipment laying around. Wasn't there a bit in the videolog with Dwalin messing with some piece of equipment?
 
Here and here.

'Jackson has always felt the book lacked a definite confrontation between the Dwarves and Smaug. He's rectified that. There will be bombs, infernal artillery, and one mightily p***** off dragon. 'It gets pretty crazy'.
Click to expand...

[:)]
 
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I think it will end with the destruction of Laketown and Smaug's death, but that the dwarves will be part of that setpiece somehow. Maybe everyone will get a few licks in so each group has some right to claim responsibility for the act in order to set up the events of film 3 (et tu, Thorin?).
 
.. but I'm still betting that the real climax will be Smaug at Laketown, and his downfall.

I just can't imagine a scene that big being used as the opening to a film, and the cliff-hanger ending doesn't seem to be in Peter Jackson's style. So far all his Middle Earth films have ended in the pattern 'action climax... resolution... hint of what's to come' - except Return of the King, which needed no hints, being the end.
 
In an interview with Peter Jackson he says there's a battle between Smaug and the dwarves and there will be bombs and artillery etc. This is obviously not in the book at all but it does sound interesting. Does this mean Smaug's attack on Laketown will be left for the third film?
Click to expand...


It is possible that Smaug's attack on Lake-town will be left to There and Back Again, but it's hard to say at this point.

I don't like the idea of the Dwarves having bombs, but it could be justified if Gandalf provided them to Thorin. At least we know that he is knowledgable about pyrotechnics (as is Saruman).
 
I actually think a confrontation between Smaug and the company is a good idea... It makes sense from a cinematic POV.

But I wouldn't put anything past PJ at this point. We were mostly lucky with the deviations in LOTR, but we also saw a glimpse of liberties taken too far (Arwen at Helms Deep, Aragorn Vs. Sauron).

I feel a lot of the problems with The Hobbit at this point are with liberties taken way too far.

At least now I'm expecting things to be so ridiculous that they're laughable.
Click to expand...
A confrontation the dwarves and Smaug could work really well, as long as it's not an out-and-out battle. Let's just hope Jackson/Boyens/Walsh (let's not forget Walsh-- Boyens tends to take a lot of the blame around here) can show a little restraint with their deviations from now on...
 
personally I think they have deviated enough from the text. The film is after all called the Hobbit. If they feel they need to change everything about the book maybe they should simply change the title of the film to reflect that it is more about middle earth, Thorin, The White Council.

How about "the Dragon, the Wizard, and the Wardrobe"?

Why Not? Since these films resemble Narnia more than LOTR middle earth IMO anyways[tongue]
 
Just to keep people off-balance as to what they think they know about the story and its narrative. However, we know they aren't going to die in such a confrontation, so its kind of like when they killed off Kirk in the recent Star trek film, you know they have to bring him back to life somehow three minutes later.
 
In the book, what did the Dwarves hope to accomplish anyways? I remember they sent Bilbo into Erebor, but I do not remember what they wanted him to do.. Bilbo stole a cup and got caught, then Smaug got angry and flew to Laketown to destroy it. It doesn't really make much sense.

Maybe the movie will have more of a plan. Perhaps the Dwarves will battle Smaug to get him kicked out (get their artillery from Laketown) OR maybe Thorin only wants the Arkenstone and sends Biblo to retrieve it, but then Bilbo gets caught and the Dwarves have to run in and save him (hence the bombs).
 
The short answer is that they had no idea what they were going to do once they got there. Smaug guesses the plan must be a weak one (though he suspects the Lakemen), and plants doubts in Bilbo's mind:

"'I don't know if it has occurred to you that, even if you could steal the gold bit by bit-a matter of a hundred years or so, you could not get it very far?'
...
You will hardly believe it, but poor Bilbo was really very taken aback. So far all his thoughts and energies had been concentrated on getting to the Mountain and finding the entrance. He had never bothered to wonder how the treasure was to be removed, certainly never how any part of it that might fall to his share was to be brought back all the way to Bag-End Under-Hill. Now a nasty suspicion began to grow in his mind-had the dwarves forgotten this important point too, or were they laughing in their sleeves at him all the time? That is the effect that dragon-talk has on the inexperienced."

But no one ever does provide an answer to Smaug's questions.
 
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Would you care to identify the wardrobe, for the terminally confused? I'm OK on the dragon and the wizard....

I'd say The Hobbit's a better name for it personally, but there you go!
 
Judging by the Shire sequence where the dwarves claim Gandalf must have killed hundreds of dragons, and by the DoS trailer where Thranduil mentions "The quest to reclaim a homeland and slay a dragon"
 
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