The Glade 4.0

I don't think he's a nameless peon, but I also don't really him being more than a normal man. Normal in the sense of not having any special elf blood or other super-natural gifts. He's just a very talented man.

Wife and I saw it last weekend. We both enjoyed it, but it seemed like it dragged on longer than needed to. Smaug, however, was amazingly well done.

It's heavily used in many of Tolkien's writings, if I recall correctly. The line of numenorean kings, the children of the original elf lords, children of hurin, he's heavy on nobility and inherited traits.

Recently re-watched Desolation of Smaug.



is it just me or are Fantasy dragons in general, and movie dragons especially, particularly fixated on the fact that they ARE dragons, and all the physical characteristics that go with it. I mean, yes, dragons are supposed to feel superior to mortals, but I feel superior to a lizard and you don't see me standing over it monologing about my various superior attributes or body parts.

"TREMBLE BEFORE MY OPPOSABLE THUMBS! MY BINOCULAR VISION ALLOWS ME TO ACCURATELY JUDGE DISTANCE! FLEE IN THE FACE OF ABILITY TO USE TOOLS!!!"

Dragons are assholes.

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Holy shitsnacks!

You don't typically have conversations with lizards, particularly not ones where they fail to be properly intimidated by your superiority, though.

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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

Besides, the act of having a conversation with a lizard, IMO, diminishes your worth somewhat.

I dunno. I think of it more like a hyper snobbish university professor that insists EVERYONE call him "doctor" giving a talk to a kindergarten class.

Call me doctor, *****. Or perhaps Dr. *****.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

I personally feel like that it's supposed to feel foreign. They aren't human and aren't relatable to us at all. Arrogance and flaunting is part and parcel of who they are.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

Dear Lord that was terrible. My friends have some serious **** to answer for, after dragging me to that to be social.

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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

You saw the movie tonight? Was it that bad?

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Raell Kromwell

I thought it was actually excellent. The most focused Jackson has been in years, and the CGI excesses didn't rankle the way they've grated in the past two outings. It successfully recaptured the old LotR magic.

Whoa, kind of polar opposites there.

One of the kids I have in my carpool saw it last night at the Arclight theater (the old Cinerama Dome in Hollywood) last night as a sneak preview. Very curious to hear what she has to say tomorrow morning.

I'm highly ambivalent going in. There better be a "To me, my kinsman, to me!" line, or I'm gonna give it an automatic 'F'.

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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

It just fell flat, to me. When your gorgeous, terrifying dragon dies 10 minutes into the movie, before the opening title rolls, and your climax instead goes to an orc whose name comes up in one line in The Hobbit (you know, the one in which it's established that a goblin killed Thorin's grandfather), and whose death a hundred years prior to the events of the Hobbit was only a footnote in a Return of the King appendix, maybe you could've covered this whole Hobbit book in 2 movies instead, Jackson.

I found myself rolling my eyes at the parts that were supposed to be funny (like the troll siege weapons, I suppose?), and snickering at and ridiculing the parts that were supposed to be impressive. Like all the supposedly dramatic and brilliant battle tactics and individual acts of badassery.

If 4th Edition D&D is widely held to be the video gamification of D&D, then this was its lazy cash-in movie adaptation.

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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

My only real qualm with this one was that Jackson was far more taken with Alfrid Lickspittle than I.

Thanks for saving me the money I might have wasted.

I'm curious how this could have been the slightest surprise to anyone familiar with the books. Knowing where the 2nd movie left off, anyone who's read the books knows that he's about to die and that the last 3rd of the book (therefore the entire last movie) is about the resulting turf war.

I haven't read the book, so, cool story bro.

Smaug was the only reason I watched the first movie. You can imagine my disappointment with that one. Second one was great, but I wont be watching the third. The only character worth a damn was that dragon.

Huh. Honestly a bit surprised there. I highly recommend you read it.

I don't. Everyone bangs on about the Battle of Five Armies and Smaug and all this other cool **** that supposedly happens, but it's really just a little tale about Bilbo finding the One Ring.

Incidentally, LotR has the same problem with being a story about two hobbits on a forced starvation march through a wasteland. Tolkien was a troll who tried to trick people into reading his boring **** about midgets. You know why you have Aragorn, Gandalf, and Thorin? Because nobody gives two shits about hobbits.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

Yeah, reading the fellowship trilogy was punishment enough. I don't particularly enjoy Tolkien.

To be fair, The Hobbit doesn't read in the slightest bit like LotR...it feels more like reading Hans Christian Andersen or The Brothers Grimm. It's told very much like a children's folk tale.

it's also barely a night's reading ... while a person can take weeks going through LotR, The Hobbit is very very short.

With that said, it is hardly the pinnacle of writing. Oh, it started the genre, sure. It was certainly my introduction to fantasy; I read it in grade 4. It isn't at all dry like it's larger sequels, but that doesn't mean that it's all that good. These movies so far have been much better. (They also take longer to watch than the book takes to read.)

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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
█ ♣ █

The Hobbit reads like a novice DM's first adventure. In which he runs his girlfriend through it because noone else will play with him.

She's Bilbo. And he's a bit Monty Haul.

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Holy shitsnacks!

Dang, I forgot to post this: When asked, my carpooler sighed and said it was "the best and the worst at the same time." Much like the reviews we're seeing here. She said the best part was Legolas (which makes sense, coming from a 9th-grade girl, I suppose), but even she acknowledged that he had no business being there. She said people were laughing at points that probably weren't meant to be laughed at.

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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

This. My family and I loved it. Can't wait to see it again.

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"I Live, I Love, I Slay, and I Am Content."
- Conan the Barbarian