The Glade 4.0

Sure, so a non-speaking cameo would be fine.

Lines, plots, story dedicated to him? Nope.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

Which is actually problematic. Legolas is over a thousand years old in Lord of the Rings, and yet has no part in the Hobbit 60 years earlier, despite his people, his homeland, and his father being heavily involved. Why? Because Tolkien hadn't thought of him yet.

I don't know how they intend to use him, but as they're going to do the whole Necromancer of Dol Goldur sequence, I hope he goes with Aragorn, Rhadagast and Gandalf to kick Sauron out of the Mirkwood.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Peter Jackson played a Ranger in EQ.

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Sadly, I fear that Jackson is walking the path of Lucas.

Started out with great ideas and an amazing vision. Became deluded with his own success and let his ego run wild. Surrounded by sycophants that believe all of his ideas are divine and without reproach.

Honestly, I'm less fixated about Legolas than I am with to seemingly rapid decline of the laws of physics when it comes to fight scenes. Hell there are some Kung Fu Theatre movies that are more realistic.

Once I realized, back in the LotR trilogy, that PJ was not recreating the books (sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse), I became open to and even a bit enthusiastic, in theory, to his changes and additions. In practice, I fear, he, especially in "The Hobbit" trilogy, is getting dangerously close to creating "Armageddon" with pointy ears.

The Hobbit was a horrible book. The first movie did nothing but improve things in my mind. I will not ***** about changes or additions he has made until I see the movie.

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Raell Kromwell

As someone who gets to live free of the constraints of bookery, the only problem I have with Legolas is he had plenty of screen time in the last trilogy. I have no problem with his presence, however this is supposed to be Bilbo's story as I understand it.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

I **** hate Legolas, from the skateboard slide down the Oliphant's nose to the super-Elvish multi-arrow bowing.

Thankfully, in my mind I just turn off the notion that this is the Hobbit as I remember (or wish) it to be, and I can tolerate it. But, yeah, this preview doesn't turn my crank at all.

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This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

I enjoyed the hell out of the new movie. I was very glad to see Smaug was not relegated to just one or two money shots and then put into the background. I am also fully on board with the liberties taken when it comes to deviation or additions from the book.

And, just like all movie technology that isn't the greatest when pioneered, the artists have gotten a lot better at blending the CGI with the movie when it comes to the high frame rate. Even the sets looked even better this time around.

I was saddened to learn that my imax tickets I purchased 4 weeks ago wasn't an HFR showing. So, after I gave them away, I went and saw the movie as the director intended. And I loved it.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

I just went to see The Hobbit, part 2 last night. I enjoyed it immensely. It has been many years since I read The Hobbit, so I cannot say how closely the movies have followed the book, but I truly enjoyed the experience. One of my son's friends made it even more enjoyable by dressing as a hobbit!

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"Said I never had much use for one, never said I didn't know how to use one!"~ Matthew Quigley

"nothing like a little meow in bed at night" ~ Bruskey

"I gotta float my stick same as you" Hondo Lane

"Fill your hand you son of a *****!"

Yea, I enjoyed the hell out of it.

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Raell Kromwell

Not sure whether I should see this movie in 3D IMAX or 3D HFR. Those are my choices. I've never seen a movie in "HFR" so I have no idea what it's like, but I love me that big IMAX screen.

I prepaid for imax tickets, figuring it would be in HFR. I was wrong. I gave them away to some friends so I could watch it in HFR. There are some imax theaters that show it in HFR though (and they explicitly state it, generally).

It's something your brain has to adjust to, because we have conditioned our brains to see movies a certain way for a century. And, just like when television began broadcasting in HD, the production team has to re-learn how to make things look great (set design, make-up, special effects, etc.). Either I've gotten more used to it, or the team on the second Hobbit movie has greatly improved their game (possibly both).

One huge benefit of HFR is that it's far easier on the eyes in 3D. At least, that's been my personal experience. But the other thing I like about it is that it's far more an immersive experience. I saw the first Hobbit in HFR more than once in the theater because no movie had "sucked me in" like that one had. I plan on doing the same with this one.

Not everyone is used to it, and not everyone wants to get used to it. But if you want to see the movie the way the Director intended, it's the way to go. And personally, I was saddened to learn Bluray can't do HFR when the Hobbit movies came out.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

I (and everyone else in my viewing party) absolutely hated the HFR, but I would advocate that everyone see it at least once, if for no other reason than to experience it and draw your own conclusion.

Looks like Jackson actually did do some things to change how HFR was presented with this movie as opposed to the last.

http://variety.com/2013/film/news/peter ... 200941962/

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

I went to see this for a friend's birthday.

It's a great fantasy movie that appeared to have stolen a couple scenes from the Hobbit.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

...This is a mild exaggeration.

Quite mild, though. I'd need to go through it scene by scene, but it wouldn't surprise me if half of this movie did not appear in the book at all.

It was a good movie, and most of the new material is faithful to the spirit of the story, even if it's new.

But it is definitely not the book.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

If they went by the book, they would have had to stretch the **** out of it to get two movies.

Did anyone find Bloom odd looking? I can see he has put on weight but his eyes were really odd looking. He was hard to look at.

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Raell Kromwell

And? That's part of the point; there was absolutely no reason for The Hobbit, the shortest of Tolkien's 4 novels in Middle Earth, to be its own trilogy.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

There's not enough material in the book for two two-hour movies, let alone three three-hour ones.

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

The Hobbit would have made a fantastic 3-hour movie. Done, end of story.

Of course, that only sells one ticket per fan and one DVD.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

We've had this conversation offline, and disagree on one point, though it's minor.

I actually like them adding in canon history from Middle Earth that was occuring during the events of the books, even if they weren't told as part of the narrative of the story. As such, i don't mind them showing Gandalf's trip in to Dol Goldur. I don't mind them giving name and personality and a little face time to some of the Elves of Mirkwood.

However, there are elements in this movie that were so completely different from the events in the hobbit -- not additions, but major changes. These changes are not bad for the narrative they are making; unlike bringing an army of the dead to Gondor (which was horribly anticlimactic), these changes tell a pretty good story. But DFK! is 100% right, in that these changes are NOT The Hobbit. They are not minor details either, but major plot points. I'm not sure if they make the movie better as a movie (and I freely admit, this is a damn fun movie and worth watching), but they definitely make it a poorer representation of the source material.

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

The problem with adding in other canon history (and it's a problem that I have with Peter Jackson in general) is that just because something is an exciting/impressive scene, or an interesting event, or even concurrent in the fictional timeline -- doesn't mean it has a place in a story. The events surrounding Dol Goldur and those depicted in The Hobbit as written are just so grossly different in tone, scale, and theme that they have no business being smashed together.

Jackson can craft a shot beautifully. He's got a vivid imagination for production when it comes to set, prop, and costume design. But the guy doesn't understand why we tell a story.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

He understands it far better than Tolkien.

Yes, the Hobbit films are a bit shaggy, particularly compared to the LotR films (which were already shaggy themselves, but that's a characteristic endemic to the source material and its scope). But I can hardly blame Jackson for taking something of a victory lap on what is sure to be his final trip to Middle-Earth, given the spectacular *** that Christopher Tolkien has revealed himself to be time and again throughout this debacle. I understand the desire to get everything on the screen while the opportunity's there, because it won't be again, at least in his lifetime. It doesn't make for the most focused viewing experience, but both of the Hobbit films have been so damned amiable that it seems churlish to complain about the surfeit of gifts Jackson is providing.

I can't disagree, here.

Tolkien's world is amazing. His plots are fantastic. His characters, however, are empty two-dimensional shells, and his narrative is lifeless. In fact, it becomes plainly evident reading them that Tolkien was a linguist, not a storyteller. He uses words for their own sake, not for anything they add to the story.

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █