Desolation of Smaug

[Blaze]

A few weeks late, but I just say Desolation of Smaug for the second time today, I'm curious as to what everyone thought of it.

I know there's a bit of an uproar about these movies being too long (well having too many movies), including new characters and story, and most importantly because of all the CGI, but personally I just loved the movie! The Hobbit/LOTR series is one of the few for which I love the movies just as much as the books, if not more. And unlike most, I'm loving what they are doing with The Hobbit, of course it isn't at all like the book (which was my favorite out of all the four LOTR/Hobbit books), but I'm loving the world they are bringing to life with these movies.

As for this movie in particular, I fell in love with the character of Bard.

 

[Robb Stark]

I liked it. I thought it was a bit improvement over the first one, but it had some flaws to it which prevented me from really digging the movie.

The length wasn't a problem for me. If a movie is done well then I don't mind if it's long. The main issue for me was, as you said, the absolute over-the-top nature of the CGI. I'm not a CGI hater or anything like that, but this movie bordered on the ridiculous. EVERYTHING was CGI'ed. I mean, Legolas' eyes were digitally rendered. The freaking water was made by a computer. In the LOTR trilogy, there was CGI, sure, but it was not in any way over the top. All of the orcs and goblins were stuntmen and actors in really well-designed costumes and makeup. In The Hobbit it's just blatant CGI, and it's so overboard that it's totally obvious now. It creates an entirely new look for the series which I really feel deviates from the LOTR franchise.

On the plus side however, it was still a good movie. The action was pretty decent, I really liked Evangeline Lily and Smaug was very well-done. I'm a sucker for dragons and I was really looking forward to seeing Smaug. He totally lived up to my expectations, and I liked the look he was given. Much more of a lizard look than I had thought he would have, and I really liked it.

It was a good film, and one I'll probably get on DVD when it's released (as opposed to the first one). It made me excited to see the final installment next year.

 

[Black Eye Guy]

I loved it, I loved LOTR and read all the books.

When it was first announced it was going to be 3 movies, I wasn't happy. Then after I saw the first one, I really wasn't happy, it felt so unnecessarily drawn out. So I didn't have high hopes for the series.
I also hated all the CGI, love CGI in general, but part of the amazingness of LOTR was the incredible make up and costumes, you could see individuality for each orc, here they looked more like copy-paste jobs, when each given different scars to separate them.

And that scene were Radagast is chased on the mountain tops was horrendous, it wasn't just too much CGI it was bad CGI.

So yeah had very low expectations for the second one, so was pleasantly surprised when I loved it.

It was 100 time better then the first, they fixed a lot of their pacing/storyline issues, so it never felt drawn out like the first one did which made it a lot better.
I think the main issue I had with the CGI was the orcs, cuz in the second one, where they features less, I didn't have such an issue, yet the movie still had a lot of CGI in the Dragon/Necromancer but they felt more realistic in CGI, the orcs/elfs in action just felt unnecessary, since we know what a fantastic job they did in the LOTR not doing all that in CGI.

I also went from feeling all the extra/made up (to tie it into LOTR) bits were unnecessary, to loving it, as it made a lot of it fresh for a story I knew from reading a few times and they didn't feel just shoved in there to make up 3 movies.

I still think it could have been 2 movies, but if the third is as good as the second, they will get away with it.

 

[November]

I got so bored in it I went to bed because my dreams are more entertaining.

 

[sk]

I didn't mind the CGI orcs. It's the over the top action sequences that bother me the most.
Especially with the elves jumping around. It still doesn't look particular natural and just screams CGI which is too bad.

Overall I enjoyed the movie though. Just as I did with the first one.

Still not sure why the need to fill it with new characters though.
Did Tauriel and Legolas really do anything essential? Why was they added?

But then, seeing Evangeline Lily made it worth it mostly... 🙂

/SK

 

[Blaze]

Still not sure why the need to fill it with new characters though.
Did Tauriel and Legolas really do anything essential? Why was they added?


/SK

Prior to seeing the movie, I thought this was going to be one of my complaint also, then I realized how much I liked the added characters.