Yeah, I just saw the movie.

Mixed feelings to be honest.

On the one hand, its awesome as a movie...
on the other, they could've done without soo many small little things which add up in the end.

Spoiler

Like the Legolas/Tauriel/Gimli's Uncle (Cough*Kili*Cough) love triangle..

In retrospect, I rather wish they'd made 2 movies each for 3 parts of LotR (that way covering things like Tom Bombadil) and finished off just the Hobbit in 2 movies.

Too much baggage in the prequel, I feel.

 

Just saw it at the midnight release and it was amazing. But that ending though, it really left me wanting for more despite knowing what would happen.

Spoiler

They ended it with Smaug shaking off the coating of gold and flying to Lake-town saying "I am fire, I am death."

It was amazing.

 

Just came back from the movie. As with last time, 48fps/ATMOS was awesome.

The movie itself was better than the last one (which I liked too), probably an 8.5/10.

I was/still am a bit unsure about the Smaug's rendering, but...ZOMG Benedict Cumberbatch is amazing. If the riddle scene was the show stealer for the last movie, Cumberbatch's voice is for this one. Oh and btw he's the Necromancer too.

As a movie it sorta works but as Trooper said earlier - deeply mixed feelings about the

Spoiler

Leogolas/Tauriel (who I didn't mind much)/Killi

they have going. Having read Tolkien, feels extremely jarring.


Overall though, as said earlier, 8.5/10, worth a watch/would watch again (extended version).

 

Just from the movie, it was awesome, Smaug is a beast. Unfortunately I watched in Russian language, so no Cumberbatch voice for me .

 

Spoiler

My only real complaint with the movie is how it ended. It was like they stopped in the middle of the big fight with smaug and it just went from all action to over without any sort of conclusion or anything. Other than that and the weird elf/dwarf thing that I'm pretty sure is against nature and shit, I thought it was great. Though maybe Beorn could have had more screentime.

 

I really enjoyed it. Even the overly campy bits had me grinning like a brain-addled twit.

Spoiler

I do understand why they ended without killing Smaug. The laketown scene will be 30 minutes at least. That said, I really think they should have ended the movie 10 seconds earlier, right on the offbeat after Smaug delivers his glorious tagline.

 

I thought the Desolation of Smaug was awesome. I didn't mind the bits that everyone else seems iffy about. Overall, amazing film (better than the last), and I am eagerly awaiting the next installment.

 

Enormous fun, and an improvement over the first part in that, while there was certainly stuff that could have been trimmed to little negative effect, I wasn't thinking that while watching. Highlights were the barrel ride and Smaug. Holy crap, Smaug was fantastic.

Spoiler

With regards to the love triangle...meh. I'm not up in arms about its inclusion, but it's not adding an awful lot to the film either. It's not being done badly, particularly, just kinda pointless. Although I was cringing at the conversation after Kili's healing...

 

Did anyone else walk out and feel like they'd seen a half finished movie?

Maybe it was just me but large parts of the movie that were obviously very heavy in CGI looked incredibly rushed and unpolished, mostly the action around/following Mirkwood and then in later parts of the movie to boot, the last hour or so.

It just came across as cheap and poorly done; maybe it was the whole 48FPS nonsense? Beats me but it felt like the film was rushed out and hastily polished off following the trailer.

Outside that, not too many gripes bar those mentioned, felt like that was the perfect spot to end it though it does leave me asking what's really left to fill in the 3rd and final piece unless we have a lot more of Gandalf etc on the various side-quests exploring what the book didn't.

Cumberbatch was superb as Smaug and it was nice to see the whole Dwarven cast get more than just an odd look in the background every now and then, though it's clear who the core cast are.

 

All these opinions, and nobody's talking about what really matters.

Did they finish the goddamn song, or are we still dealing with the bastardized version?

 

Was a lot better than the first part. I'll echo everyone else that Smaug was the best part of the movie, but I think the Necromancer was also done very well. I'm not incredibly well versed in LotR lore, but I thought they did a great job showing the mental and mystical power he had unlike the LotR trilogy which just had him smashing tens of people with a mace.

 

Saw it today. Fucking awesome movie. Throughout the movie, and after it, my thoughts were thus: "This movie's Legolas levels are satisfactory"

Smaug was awesome, but this movie was worth it for Legolas. Worth all 7 euros.

 

Was this the song of which you are speaking of?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf8Fwiy0Bkc

 

Really? I thought Legolas was the worst part of the flick and I still don't understand why he was shoe-horned in.

 

I just got back.

Good movie. Better than the first one which, upon re-watching it a couple times since I saw it in theaters, did drag on quite a bit in parts. Favorite parts were definitely Smaug and the Gandalf scenes. Did not like the elf woman they put in at all, nor the romance subplot. I liked Legolas well enough though. He actually had a challenge here it felt like, fighting Bolg, when he never seemed to have trouble with anything in The Lord of the Rings. But he still felt flat.

 

I didn't mind the elf woman in particular-I realize that it would have been an entirely male cast otherwise and she was probably thrown in to avoid that. However, the random love triangle with her, Legolas, and Kili was kind of pushing it, and the amount of screentime they gave Legolas was a bit ridiculous considering his total absence from the book. It was also a bit silly how far out of their way they went to make Thranduil into a total douchenozzle, who is not only an isolationist ruler but an overbearing, elitist (possibly racist?) father who would never allow his centuries-old son to marry some mere sylvan elf (and did that line even make sense within Tolkien lore, since I'm pretty sure Thranduil and Legolas would also be sylvan elves?)

 

No.

There's only one song I'd be speaking of.

In all fairness, Thranduil doesn't need anyone's help being a total douchenozzle. Even back when I read the book for the very first time as a wee little sprat, I thought he was a greedy bully. Time and becoming wiser to the ways of the world has not made him more sympathetic to me. Quite the opposite, actually.

 

Did anyone else notice the extremely low quality footage that popped up for like three seconds at a time during the barrel scenes? It looked like he had filmed it on a camera from circa 2000 or something. There was such a sharp contrast in quality it completely ruined my immersion for those scenes.

 

Legolas is Sindarin, and Tauriel is Noldorin (both of which are Silvan Elves).

 

Sorry. Was too busy watching Legolas kill shit to put on my film-snob hat.