The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)

[mr.negativity]

SPOILERS

Nearly everything about "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" represents an improvement over the first installment of Peter Jackson's three-part adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's beloved creation, writes Todd McCarthy.

[MekaGojira3k]

I heard some rumor of CRAZY changes...and not just in the rearranging of things and the addition of supplemental material, but like...OH HEY THIS IS NOT AT ALL WHAT WENT ON IN THE BOOK...AND IS JUST CHANGED TO BE CHANGED.

Ugh. Makes meh sad, this adapts my favorite part of the book.

[klen7]

[Dr Kain]

And Power Rangers.

[angilas]

[klen7]

[MekaGojira3k]

I'm genuinely concerned about some things I've been hearing, but lack of Bilbo (which happens in the book) and lack of character...well
The dwarves have far more character in the film than they ever did in the book. So it doesn't surprise me if they come off with very little in
the way of development.

And the "IT'S CALLED THE HOBBIT" argument isn't quite as valid, Lord of the Rings didn't spend the entirety of its screentime showing Sauron. I'm not saying these movies are amazing or anything, but it feels like some of these criticisms could easily be aimed at the LOTR but aren't because those came first and these are the new things and god knows we can't like anything new unless the last entry in some franchise was driven to rock bottom.

[jellydonut25]

[Rodanex]

[Henry88]

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=hobbit2.htm
$209,045,197

[Hybrid Gojira]

I liked the movie. It was long and a few points certainly seemed to drag...but overall I enjoyed it.

[Jinzo Ningen]

I prefer the Ralph Bakshi version of The Hobbit myself. He managed to tell the story quite nicely in less than 90 mins. (BTW... it's too bad he never got the chance to finish the 2nd half of his adaption of Lord of The Rings.)

[Shonokin]

[Jinzo Ningen]

Yeah, my bad. I tend to lump those early films together and credit the whole thing to Bakshi.

Speaking of which, have you had a chance to see Fire & Ice yet? Blue Underground released it on BluRay several years ago. Pretty nifty. Basically a full-length animated Frank Frazetta painting.

[lhb412]

The crazy thing about Rankin Bass doing The Hobbit was that all that high fantasy stuff rubbed off on them, and they began putting it into their Christmas specials.

[Jorzilla]

I understood the tone of the first movie, so while I found it more childish, I could at least appreciate what they were trying to do.

This version was a hybrid of the first film and Trilogy and the tone suffers as a result. I watched the HFR as well so some scenes looked really odd to me. I really didn't like this film all that much. I've not been recommending it to people but I think the masses have spoken on it being a good film.

The entire time I was basically thinking: "But this was so good in the Trilogy, what the hell happened?"

[O.Supreme]

[Cookie]

I'm somewhere in the middle with all the extra material being added to these movies. It's fun being in the world this long, but a lot of it is quite dragged out. Good movie. Godzilla trailer was NOT shown before the movie.

[angilas]

[ebirahsmeg1]

Half in the Bag reviews The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

http://redlettermedia.com/half-in-the-b ... -of-smaug/

[Henry88]

$403,800,000
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=hobbit2.htm

[jellydonut25]

[Shonokin]

Saw it tonight in HFR 3D. The bees were very 3D. No Godzilla trailer.
This was much better than the first. The over the top action scenes felt less stupid and more cool, at least until the dwarves and Smaug three stooges bit. When this comes out on DVD I highly expect the whole Smaug chasing dwarves around part to show up on youtube played sped up with Benny Hill music.

[MekaGojira3k]

I get why they did the Smaug/Dwarves bit, but I think I like it a little less and less.
Still, at the same time I'm very thankful for all of the Smaug-ness we get.
I AM CONFLICT.

[heroforhirerob]

I liked it overall(but then I liked the first one as well). I must say though....goblins and orcs must be the worst warriors in history. They die by the dozens to only one or two opponents. They must have an accelerated growth/breeding process or basically be magical clones....otherwise there wouldn't be any left by now. LOL