The Hobbit - The Desolation of Smaug WARNING! Full Spoiler discussion!

[MattheHat]

WARNING! This discussion contains full spoilers from The Hobbit 2, The Desolation of Smaug.

 

 

 

[MattheHat]

So, what did everyone think of it?

 

Personally I think An Unexpected Journey was better. A lot better!

 

My reasons: TDOS had far too much action and too little pauses. They should have made their stay with Beorn and their encounter with the Elves longer. To make up for the time they should have cut out the love story and the battle between Smaug and the Dwarves as both of these seem extremely stretched and... well... dry. Too mainstream if ya like, no? Also, I've been against the orcs-chasing-the-party thing from the beginning.

 

On the other hand, the barrel ride was hilarious... go Bofur, and Martin Freeman's expressions and actions are teriffic!

 

Overall I can only hope that There and Back Again will be more like the book, and that the extended version of TDOS contains more of the sweeping landscapes and scenery that we saw in LOTR.

I guess its just the producers interveining so that it has turned into yet another money-making film. They shouldn't have. It had enough publicity as it is...

[Nikonis]

Really tired and probably going to sleep soon, running on two hours of rest since I had to be up for work early this morning, but I agree that wit your statement that I think An Unexpected Journey was much better than this one.

 

Call me a purist but the writers seem to have added too much extra information to the story and it just didn't feel right. The whole orc side-story was okay to have, assuming they lead into the big battle with it, but having Sauron show up AND having Gandalf try to face him just seemed unnecessary as did their being chased by the Orcs the entire film. The river escape scene seemed to be one of the bigger issues to this point when an orc poisoned one of the Dwarves which made the newly created female elf run off after them to help the dwarves. The river town seemed a little different than I imagined it as well and the whole confronting the dragon face to face just didn't happen that way and seemed to brash.

 

Overall I'd rate the movie 3/5.

[MattheHat]

Yes, well put. I second that with the extra information. IMO they created far too many different threads and they'll have to tie them all together again in the 3rd movie...

That makes me think... in the book, the main quest was to chase away/slay Smaug, the movie makes that seem like only a side quest that leads up to the battle of the five armies! I hate doing this to one of my favopurite stories but I'll have to give the movie a rating of 2/5

[ruairidh7]

Saw it the other night, was disappointed by it, though I didn't rate the first one either. Trying to stretch it out over three films is creating problems, the pacing is all over the place. 5/10 at best