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Kiralynn
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re: The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug -- Review (NO spoilers)

<Review>

*Kiralynn arrives back from the Midnight showing. She leaps up on a large rock, flailing her arms in desperation. It looks like she has been weeping.*

Kiralynn shouts, "Fly you fools! Run away from the theaters! Don't go! By all that's Tolkien and good in this world, DON'T GO!"

</Review>


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Eilye
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re: The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug -- Review (NO spoilers)

sad

The one review I'd read essentially said this was better than Hobbit pt 1.

Are you able to articulate your dislike in a way that won't disclose spoilers? Tough line to walk, but I'm curious to hear more.
Kiralynn
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re: The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug -- Review (NO spoilers)

Okay... let me see if I can do this without spoilers.

It's about 25% "The Hobbit" and 75% from some story that was obviously not written by Tolkien.
The 25% from "The Hobbit" has had major changes.
It takes place in another dimension where the laws of physics and biology are totally different.
It ends abruptly in a strange place.

Basically, I am really angry that PJ extended "The Hobbit" to three movies, only to cut much of "The Hobbit" and replace it with other stories. I mean, with three whole movies, you'd think he'd have room to at least fit the entire short book of "The Hobbit".


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re: The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug -- Review (NO spoilers)

I found in the first film it was about 10% Hobbit (maybe less) and 90% something totally conflicting with anything even remotely related to Tolkiens work. So I decided some time ago to take a pass on this one. Based on what Kiralynnn says, I made the right choice.

Bottom line, this film series is a blatant money grab, aimed at people who know little or nothing about the great literary works it is supposedly based on.


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re: The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug -- Review (NO spoilers)

My quick-capsule review of OTHER online reviews (since I haven't seen it and WILL NOT be seeing it):

1. Obvious cash grab
2. HOPE YOU LIKE ORLANDO BLOOM AND KATE FROM LOST
3. OH, did you want to see Bilbo? Ahahahahahah!
4. I don't remember this part of the story...or this part...or this or thisorthisorthisor--
5. WTF was that ending???
6. That was the best take we got from Benedict Cumberbatch??

Ugh.


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re: The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug -- Review (NO spoilers)

having watched it just last night, I felt fortunate not to have re-read the book in any detail the last 10 years. or else...ARGH! even for someone who doesn't have a firm grasp of the storyline, many spots make you go "Huh?" - much major deviation.
Apart from that, I'd say there wasn't much character development, and there was a number of stunts which were amusing in themselves but I'd rather they spend the time on actual characters.
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re: The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug -- Review (NO spoilers)

Hmm....Gosh. Are we all talking about the same movies here?
I saw Unexpected Journey 5 times at the theater in all formats and loved it every time. Bought the DVD and plan to buy the extended version as well.


*This spot reserved for my review tomorrow*
(I'm expecting it to be awesometastic!)


Just returned from seeing it in HFR 3D. LOVED. IT.

"Oh Smaug the Stupendous!"

Best. Movie. Dragon. EVER.


Last edited by Nevanna on 2013/12/14 7:33 pm; edited 1 time in total


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re: The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug -- Review (NO spoilers)

I'd read The Hobbit over 100 times before I was 30. And my son hated the first movie and said "don't go". Of course we still went, and I found to my surprise that I enjoyed the movie, even though it had things it like radagast and his rabbit sleigh.

Now the second movie is here, and I expect "more of the same". Hopefully it has Beorn and spiders and Thranduil's caverns. We'll be going to see it in the next week or so. Even if it is not a strict interpretation of The Hobbit, I expect that it will be LOTR enough to satisfy my urges.
Kiralynn
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re: The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug -- Review (NO spoilers)

I liked the first movie of The Hobbit trilogy. I didn't *love* it, but I had a fun time.
I really disliked Desolation. The action was so unrealistic as to be completely cartoonish.
The rewritten story had plot holes you could drive a truck through.
I wish it had been more of the same. Instead, it was more CGI.


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re: The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug -- Review (NO spoilers)

I know I'm very much in the minority here, but honestly, I liked what Jackson did with "The Hobbit: Unexpected Journey", and I loved "The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug". Really loved it. Yes, it's altered a lot from The Hobbit, but The Hobbit was written as a children's book, unlike the later and far more adult Rings Trilogy.

I enjoy how Jackson has brought the events of the Hobbit into the greater and more adult world we know from the Ring Trilogy and the Silmarillion, and I loved what he did with Smaug. Me, I found the "Desolation of Smaug" engrossing, enthralling, and visually stunning.
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re: The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug -- Review (NO spoilers)

My son Bryan and I are seriously Tolkien geeks. We went to see FotR hoping to see Tolkien's work brought to the movies, and got something that vaguely resembled what Tolkien wrote. In the first 3 films there were a *lot* of changes made by Peter Jackson that were really irritating. And I mean *really* irritating. He ruined Faramir, Aragorn was a different character, etc. I could give a nice long list.

And yet, I found that I really enjoyed those movies, once I realized we were not going to get Tolkien in a way that a purist could accept.

The same has happened now, except that both Bryan and I understood going in, based on past experience, that we were not going to get Tolkien so much as PJ's interpretation of Tolkien. Based on that, Bryan and I really had a *WOW* experience watching *The Desolation of Smaug*. We watched it in 3D and it was really an awesome visual experience for us.

Were there things to criticize? Of course. Plot lines that left Bryan and I going "What in the world...." Yep. But, for us, it was a fun, fun movie.

And while we speculated, before the movie started, on how it would end, as it turned out I was exactly right on where it would.
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re: The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug -- Review (NO spoilers)

I loved Peter Jackson's interpretation of the trilogy. They were not perfect by any means (and there are one or two moments that make me cringe), but for the most part I found them fantastic.

I haven't felt the same magic from the Hobbit movies. Part of that could be some of Peter Jackson's doing. Some of it could also be because I never felt the same magic from the Hobbit book as I did The Lord of the Rings books. I'm having difficulty parsing the causes for my reactions.

Anyway, I went to the Desolation of Smaug last night with the mindset that I was watching one fan's slightly AU adaptation. And I found it enjoyable, but not engrossing.


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re: The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug -- Review (NO spoilers)

Where to start here...? Oh man. There was so much wrong to this movie that it was really disappointing. This was nothing but a generic action desaster movie. Die Hard, Hobbit or some such.

I mean, really? All these changes? For what purpose again? To create unnecessary artificial drama? All the main plot points were ripped apart, remixed to something completely different, mostly to make it the opposite thing it was supposed to be.

Everything was just bloated up completely out of proportions into something ugly until it was able to fulfill some expectations the producers thought the audience would have. It was not only a money-grab. The producers just were cowards, risking absolutely nothing and by that perverting the original into something unbearable.

I really really hope the last film will flop. Falling from the high-skies like a U-boat launched in the stratosphere with too little wings to fly. Just because the movie industry should learn that respect for the original art and vision which they live off from is worth more than the cheap approach they always go. The whole Tolkien community should slap the makers of these movies in the face by ignoring them.


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Kiralynn
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re: The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug -- Review (NO spoilers)

I husband is applauding your post. He actually said something that wasn't family friendly but was in total agreement. He says, "Welcome to the club!"


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re: The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug -- Review (NO spoilers)

Well, I don't want to rehearse Floradine's words which I'm totally agree with.
Last year we only have Imax 3D option, this year we also have HFR 3D version. I didn't took risk and stick with Imax, I really wonder HFR 3D... I'm not sure that I have enough patience to re-experience all Peter Jackson's uber-creative non-hobbit movie... I also lost my hope about the last part of the hobbit trilogy.
Anyway, our local theater was selling 'the hobbit' menu of popcorn, including this cute Bilbo toy, I couldn't resist.
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