The Hobbit films, previously to be directed by Guillermo del Toro and now to be directed by Peter Jackson again.

Finally saw this -- I agree with Tuomas upthread about the greys and browns, Laketown was dreary as all getout, got kinda bored with that whole thing tbh.

Smaug was beautiful. Loved the way his belly would glow like a furnace right before he'd breath fire, he moved so gracefully it was a real thrill to watch him.

The thing the Hobbit movies really miss though is the inner monologue of Bilbo...that's what makes the story on paper, it's as much about what happens externally as it is the constant doubt and shifting within Bilbo, even as he's discovering his courage. But I know there's not really a good way to capture that on film, unless you have like constant narration or something bollocks like that. But it does turn the movies into a bit of a different kettle of fish all the same

Or barrel of fish, hee hee :)

oh and I was weirded out by Legolas' eyes too and I did some googling

apparently the contacts that Ornaldo Bloomps had to wear in the 3 movies irritated the hell out of his eyes and he hated wearing them, so for the Hobbit they digitally colored them in post-production. And I guess there's something about how they had to make the blue more vivid so that it would read, and that is what made it look so wacky

they kinda looked like weird dead Polar Express eyes to me, v creepy.

The thing the Hobbit movies really miss though is the inner monologue of Bilbo...that's what makes the story on paper, it's as much about what happens externally as it is the constant doubt and shifting within Bilbo, even as he's discovering his courage. But I know there's not really a good way to capture that on film...

of course there is but it involves not making dwarves in barrels and rube goldberg dragon traps the center of the NONSTOP THRILL RIDE

lol otm

I felt well disposed towards the first one, but the second, while technically a better film probably, made me realise how bollocks the whole endeavor is.

maybe bilbo will be in the next one

i don't remember anything that happened in the first one

they did the dishes

FUCKING POD RACING aka jackson goes full-on lucas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgNNb8bm_b8

Methinks Game of Thrones increasingly makes this look like child's play, because, well ...

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, June 11, 2013 2:36 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That title is gonna be a let-down for anyone expecting an actual five-army free-for-all.

this whole trilogy is still the worst, most ridiculous thing in cinema and jackson should've just left it to ratner so no one would've ever gotten any ideas about its usefulness as anything other than a clear cash grab

Still planning on angrily watching the third one at Cinerama, just like the first two, can't really account for it.

it's amazing at how peter jackson is dutifully attempting to recreate the LOTR formula and hitting a lot of the same notes (cheerful hobbit at the center, gandalf, portentous hints of future doom, etc) but it feels stretched so thin and false and there's no richness to the story or the setting, it feels strictly video game. i mean the LOTR films had the feel of a lived-in decaying world, this has zero of that sense despite attempts at recreating it. also i'm getting tired of those shots he uses every five minutes now (only every forty minutes in the LOTR films): a group of bros scampering across a plains or a bridge or a marsh or a rocky outcropping or a mountain while a camera swoops above and past them or in the opposite direction.

anyway the main point is they're just wrong in so many ways but i can't exactly hate them, PJ clearly loves the material. too much, which is why he's making three films instead of one super-long one.

Funny how the progression of the entire LOTR related movies and culture parallel so well with Star Wars.

xpost -- yeah coming in with these Hobbit films with the view that it's only a ridiculous indulgence is the way to go. It didn't fully hit me until I saw the first one, even if I already had bad vibes when they went from two to three films, but after that first viewing, it was clear that's how to treat them.

martin freeman is very good i think. and i think the gollum stuff in the first film was solid.

i forgot the worst thing in the trilogy, though, which is basically creating an even worse character than that orc from the final battle in ROTK and making him the central (non-ethereal smoke) villain of the whole story.

pretty sure he's making three films full of tiresome rube goldberg set pieces and oh boy big battle scenes because $$$

martin freeman is very good i think...

not enough information. was he even in the second one?

The fact that Evangeline Lily is in this is something I find especially irksome, I don't know why.

PJ clearly loves the material. too much, which is why he's making three films instead of one super-long one.

i wish i still had your childlike naivete

I think he clearly loves absurd runtimes as well as $$$$

spoiler alert

http://i.onionstatic.com/avclub/5253/18/original/640.jpg

Fuckin' eagles, man.

i had more fun itt than i have done on the rest of ilx put together in the interim i think

http://blog.gambrinous.com/wp-content/uploads/coyote_foolproof_plan.jpg

ONE LAST...

...trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVAgTiBrrDA

WAR BATS

Hobbit 3: Prince of Thieves at 1:16

#onelasttime

Odds on PJ trilogising the Simlmarillion in ten years time, after directing a couple of underperforming films in the interim?

Cut Scene: The Movie.

That looks absolutely unwatchable. For comparison's sake, I rewatched the "Return of the King" trailer, and check out how much more chill it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIrRJ8bCZYQ

Well that wasn't about the defining moment of Middle Earth, was it?

Very little actual hobbit in that trailer.

That looks absolutely crappy.

"Errday Frrruduh moves clusserr to Murrrdrrr" haha

Man if you guys can't get behind Elf King Lee Pace riding a giant moose into battle, Flava Flav can't do nothin' for ya.

That looks absolutely crappy.

This is key, emphasis on looks. I still can't figure out why, with 10 years of new technology, more experience and an even greater familiarity with the subject matter/cast, these movies look so much more terrible. The sets, the make-up, the FX, everything. Just shitty.

Yeah there's some Xena level shit there, but without the self-parody.

Very little actual hobbit in that trailer.

― the joke should be over once the kid is eaten. (chap), Friday, November 7, 2014

in fairness there's very little actual hobbit in this EPICAL THREE-PART MOTION PICTURE EVENT so

Maybe he will put out a director's cut of just Hobbit stuff.

There's just something really unappealing about a film called 'The Battle of Five Armies' especially when it seems one of the armies is a pack of bats? How are they going to spend three hours on elves and dwarves fighting bats?

It'll be like the bit in The Fellowship with the Crebain but 50 minutes long

How are they going to spend three hours on elves and dwarves fighting bats?

Probably the same way people spend hundreds of hours playing "Call of Duty" or whatever.

It'd be cool if the movie started with a tutorial level... ease you into things, learn how to fight lesser bats before you have to send the whole Hobbit army against the whole bat army.

If I remember correctly from the book Gandalf casts a spell that causes the bats and hobbits to combine as hobbats that fuck everybody up.

Watched the trailer & was all, "Is this a trailer for the second movie? Because I think I've seen every moment of this before, portentously uttered dialogue and all."

Still planning on angrily watching the third one at Cinerama, just like the first two, can't really account for it.

― heck (silby)

(THIS POST HAS SOME SPOILERS FOR THE NEW MOVIE, THOUGH IF YOU'VE READ THE BOOK, MOST OF IT ISN'T REALLY SPOILING ANYTHING.)

So I just saw the new movie, and thought it was okay. Not as good as the first Hobbit, which I thought was a totally fun romp, but roughly on the same level as the second one. The problems were pretty much the same as with the second movie too: everything was a bit too serious and grey, not much fun and adventure anymore, though I guess it was more acceptable for the grand finale than the middle episode. There were also some overtly extended fight scenes: in particular, Legolas gets a final battle that goes on waayyy too long, it feels more like a special effects showcase than something organic to the movie. On the other hand, Thorin's last stand was done nicely, it had an well-staged, effective setting (an icy lake that slowly keeps crumbling around Thorin and his opponent), and it doesn't overstay its welcome.

As with the previous movie, the 48FPS/3D combination is disracting at first, but it makes the more complex action scenes look really good. The actual Battle of the Five Armies is probably the best part of the movie, the way the technlology allows Jackson to create this layered canvas where you can follow every moving piece in this whole grandiose choreography is still breathtaking. And, while the story of the trilogy as a whole is kinda directionless and incoherent, there are some individual scenes where Jackson manages to show he's still a very competent visual storyteller. In particular I liked the scene where Thorin growing greed/madness is illustrated via a clever scenic metaphor; I don't want spoil it any more, but you know what I'm talking about if you've seen the movie.

On the minus side, I thought the cliffhanger with Smaug from the previous movie was resolved a bit too easily and quickly in this one. I guess it's cool they stayed truthful to the book and got rid of Smaug before the actual climax of the story, but all in all we got more of talking Smaug in the previous flick than Smaug in action in this one, which is a bit sad, because he was so well realized as a CGI character. Like in the previous movie, the 48FPS/3D thing really makes him come alive here too; with Smaug it doesn't matter if the technology makes everything look a bit fake, because a dragon isn't supposed to feel realistic anyway.

After having finished this movie, I can also say that the whole Dol Guldur/Sauron subplot was completely pointless. It doesn't really have anything to do with the main Erebor plot, it's there just to tie these movies to LotR. (IIRC none of that stuff was in the book?) However, it does provide two of the most impressive visuals in the movie. First, we get a new design for the Ringwraiths, which is really creepy and impressive, in that it actually uses the "unrealness" of CGI and 3D effects to its advantage. (Sadly there's also an overtly long fight scene involving the Wraiths, I think Jackson should've realized that they'd be more effective if he didn't show them so much.) And then there's a confrontation (not an actual fight, thank god) between Galadriel and Sauron, which is just awesome! In The Fellowship of the Ring, I hated the scene where Galadriel is tempted by the Ring and her voice gets weird and screechy and her face is altered with special effects, because I thought Blanchett could've conveyed her temptation with, you know, just acting. Well, here we have variation of the same thing, but in this case I think it works, because we are actually witnessing a magical battle of wills between two superbeings. It's totally over-the-top and really cool, and Sauron's new visual is also much better than the spotlight-vagina-eye from LotR.

So yeah, if you didn't like the previous movies and/or felt that they pissed on Tolkien's work, you're not gonna feel differen about this one either. But if you thought (like me) that they were uneven and incoherently plotted but also thrilling and cool-looking roller-coaster rides with some decent actors and occasional touching character moments, well this is more of the same stuff. It's not as good as the LotR movies (or even the first movie in this trilogy), but worth the admission? Hell yeah.

I hated the scene where Galadriel is tempted by the Ring and her voice gets weird and screechy and her face is altered with special effects,

lol u nuts this is one of the best scenes/most effective uses of effects in the original trilogy

I gotta add that besides the Dol Guldur stuff, Legolas was also completely extraneous to the whole trilogy, they could've left him out without the story suffering a bit... Looks like they wanted to have some familiar faces besides Gandalf in these movies, but they just didn't manage to find a way to properly integrate the elements that weren't in the book. To make things worse, Legolas's radical elvish parkour stunts are just as prominent and irritating as they were in the LotR movies... Like, in this one there's a scene where a bridge is collapsing under Legolas and he's jumping on bricks that are literally hanging in the air, like fucking Super Mario or something.