Desolation of Smaug

[Roo Stercogburn]

My comment about the CGI generally refers to the gold FX near the end. Some of them are outright dreadful and more like a low budget TV series than a high budget film trilogy. I don't have many FX quibbles other than that. Its not nit picking either, its really badly done and detracts from what's going on around it.

 

[TdC]

yeah that did kind of suck, but what grabbed my nads about that part was

Spoiler

Thorin in his wheelbarrow "boat" on the molten metal. For some reason I am totally fine with a DRAGON, but I can't handle Thorin not being cooked to a frazzel in his little pan.

 

[Roo Stercogburn]

yeah that did kind of suck, but what grabbed my nads about that part was

Spoiler

Thorin in his wheelbarrow "boat" on the molten metal. For some reason I am totally fine with a DRAGON, but I can't handle Thorin not being cooked to a frazzel in his little pan.

Haha yeh I did cringe a bit at that but the whole fight is generally so much fun I didn't mind it too much.

 

[Tom]

I'm not sure what's wrong about the gold. It's just a hot, gloopy liquid. What should it look like?

 

[Job]

It was piss poor, lacking all the subtle imperfections and reflections to make the effect match the quality of the rest of the CGI.
I could understand if it was a rush job, but at one film a year it was unforgivable.

 

[TdC]

what I also found kind of irksome was

Spoiler

how the dwarves knew that mold was set up for the golden statue. I mean...many of the company were actually driven out of Erebor by Smaug when the dragon took it, but none of that is explained to the viewer. imo poor editing.

 

[Cadelin]

I didn't like it. I'll watch the next film, but I don't see any reason to re-watch this ever again.

No attempt has been made to make this a standalone film, it is just the middle part of a very long film. However despite this, not much happens that couldn't be summarized by: "Gandalf got stuck on a side quest. Dwarves walked to the mountain and managed to piss off the dragon."

The battle scenes, while entertaining were silly. There is nothing wrong with the odd bit of slapstick but all the fights were ridiculous. The average lifetime of an Orc on screen is probably less than a second they die so fast. Why exactly are people scared of them?

The Dwarves come across as completely incompetent and the number of lucky escapes means I lost any sense of excitement/tension. Also, why is it that the injuries are either so minor that they are completely ignored, or fatal?

While the CGI was good I don't think the bits with Smaug were particularly impressive. I didn't think the dialogue was anything to write home about.

 

[Job]

I must admit..hes nowhere as good as the Balrog...that creature wss created 10 years ago and blew my mind...just found him like a 3d version of the snake from jungle book.

 

[Tom]

It was piss poor, lacking all the subtle imperfections and reflections to make the effect match the quality of the rest of the CGI.
I could understand if it was a rush job, but at one film a year it was unforgivable.

Gold only reflects things when it's polished.

 

[Scouse]

Gold only reflects things when it's polished.

Have to agree with Tom.

Spoiler

The gold coins/mountain of treasure was great. No problem at all with that.

The bit where Smaug got covered in molten gold and flew out of the mountain -no problem with that either. Why? Because that's what molten gold looks like.


The bit that was truly awful was thorin not dying in the wheelbarrow frying pan. The reason that was wholly shit was that tolkein bent the rules in his writing (magic and the like) - he didn't fucking rape them like jackson has.

Oh. And the fight scenes were mostly shit. So ridiculously overdone that they were boring. They were like you were sat on an Alton Towers fucking ride - all fake and no real peril.

 

[rynnor]

Gold only reflects things when it's polished.

Pure gold reflects in liquid form the same way that mercury does. Impure melted gold has a film of impurities.

 

[Yoni]

I loved the film, yes there were a couple of bits where I rolled my eyes, however, I loved the fights and the barrels and time past quickly! Looking forward to the final instalment \o/

 

[Tom]

Pure gold reflects in liquid form the same way that mercury does. Impure melted gold has a film of impurities.

Well it's hardly the film to talk about realism, what with flying talking dragons, magic, elves that live forever and invisibility-conferring rings, but I doubt that the gold seen in the film was pure.

Anyway, who gives a shit. It's a good film, and that's that.

 

[rynnor]

Well it's hardly the film to talk about realism, what with flying talking dragons, magic, elves that live forever and invisibility-conferring rings, but I doubt that the gold seen in the film was pure.

Anyway, who gives a shit. It's a good film, and that's that.

True but you made a statement about gold which was wrong - gold exists in our own world so no need to use the old 'but its all fantasy' excuse.

Gold nuggets as found are often shiny and reflective because as a noble metal gold doesn't oxidise - shininess is the whole reason gold was prized by ancient societies.

 

[Tom]

I'm not prepared to believe even for an instant that the animators who created that scene didn't first look at some gold to see what it looked like. I think the claims that it's poor CGI are bollocks, frankly.

 

[Job]

Actually molten gold is red hot..that gold looked like gold coloured mercury

 

[old.Tohtori]

I think the claims that it's poor CGI are bollocks, frankly.

For this caliber film, pretty poor. It isn't really poor cgi, but it's certainly not consistent with the rest.

Kinda like eating at a gordon ramsay restaurant and the pineapple came from a can

 

[Aoami]

Fuck off Tauriel
Fuck off Bolg
Fuck off Azog
Fuck off Dwarves and Orcs and Elves in Laketown
Fuck off the Barrels not being sealed
Fuck off 3 films
Fuck off being at Beorns (best character in the book) for 2 minutes

Thats what I thought of it

 

[rynnor]

Its the middle film no one wanted - nothing of consequence happens and it's largely a vehicle for the director's amateur screenwriting.

The only thing that could have given it a purpose would have been to show the white council driving Sauron out of Dol Goldur but they didn't.

 

[Scouse]

Pure gold reflects in liquid form the same way that mercury does. Impure melted gold has a film of impurities.

On the top of a vat of still liquid, yep.

Not a molten Dwarvish statue from gold mined by mad artisanal shortarses, splashed all over the wings of a dragon in flight

 

[Tom]

And let's not forget that the statue was made in rock and when exposed, wasn't polished. There was nothing wrong with the effects in that sequence. Of course, that won't stop a whole host of people spending a few hours googling to make themselves experts on metallurgy and mining.

 

[Himse]

Christ some people are petty, it's a good movie for sure.

 

[Job]

Yes, but LOTR blew me away, at no point did I think ' this could be done better.'
I was constantly thinking that in Hobbit.

 

[Aoami]

Also, an Elf girl fancying a dwarf? Fuck that.

 

[TdC]

it happens: just look at Legolas and Gimli


*blinks*

 

[Roo Stercogburn]

Fuck off being at Beorns (best character in the book) for 2 minutes

I was rather gutted the dwarves weren't gradually introduced to Beorn as they were in the book. Handled correctly it would have been a great comedy sequence and is good storytelling. Its the one bit I'd been looking forward to seeing ever since it was first announced the Hobbit was being turned into a film... and it wasn't there.

Liked the film a lot, the stuff I mentioned above is niggles not anything that broke the film for me.

 

[Raven]

I don't remember them being a bunch of hapless morons in the book but meh, the film was enjoyable.

 

[Urgat]

I don't remember them being a bunch of hapless morons in the book but meh, the film was enjoyable.

The book definitely portrays them as quintessential morons for the most part.

The whole premise is that they are a bunch of fools who keep needing to be rescued by Bilbo for various reasons. It is, after all, a children's bed-time story.

And more importantly... Its supposed to be about THE HOBBIT, not the dwarves.

I stand by my original assessment. It was entertaining, and i loved the iconic Smaug / Bilbo scene. (Not perfect, but brilliant none the less)

Though I concur with many that the farcical Benny hill chase ruined the majesty of Smaug and was entirely unneeded.

 

[SilverHood]

I saw it today in 3D, with 10 other people in the cinema. I enjoyed it, the barrel scene was great, and Evangeline Lilly with pointy ears .... phooar!

 

[Scouse]

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcMkf2iq1Ac