It was noticable, but basically what Khan said. It's three seconds out of a nearly three hour movie, and there's far more you could criticise the film for, much as I enjoyed it.

 

Speaking of Thranduil, that scene where he talks to Thorin. He does something with his face and shows off a nasty burn scar. Is he constantly wearing some kind of illusion to hide that? Because I thought elves healed or something. They're "perfect" after all. Unless that's a property of dragon fire, defying healing.

And was that implying that he had fought Smaug at some point? Or did he fight some other dragon?

 

It's not canon that he has the scar, and it's also not canon that he has the ability to manifest that kind of illusion (either to create the scar, or to to cover it up).

 

Not canon to the books maybe. But I'm not asking about the books.

 

He may not have fought Smaug personally, but he was part of the first war against Sauron, where fire drakes in general would have been on the opposing side, so he knows what it would be like. Whether it's an illusion hiding an injury or an illusion projecting an illusion is unknown, and probably largely irrelevant.

Disclaimer: haven't read the Hobbit or LotR in years, never finished the Silmarillion, haven't seen any of the production diaries for the film; information assembled from various wikis and fan speculation.

 

Thranduil and his father both come from Beleriand, in the First Age, iirc. Both, it would be assumed, fought against Morgoth in the War of Wrath and earlier conflicts which included a lot of random dragons and what have you. But that's using book lore...

I just saw the movie and I'm not sure how I feel about it. The CGI was a bit jarring at times, but wasn't really an issue. I liked it as a movie, and Smaug was pretty awesome. Also enjoyed the Gandalf bits. But, I couldn't help but be wondering what the hell was happening half the time.

Spoiler

I'm a bit disappointment on the minimal Beorn stuff, but I suppose it's not really an issue. Legolas and the elf woman were a bit random, but acceptable--until they made it into some random love triangle shit. Didn't contribute anything in my opinion. Also, what's with leaving half the dwarves in Lake Town? No point in that except to make way for the love triangle crap and I have to wonder how they're going to get those dwarves to the mountain without it being rather random or hand waved away.

Then there is that super!ballistae or whatever the fuck. Worst part of the movie for me, even if it may seem minor. What's wrong with killing Smaug with a normal bow? It added to the whole fairy tale vibe The Hobbit had going for it. Human, good archer, really lucky, defence of his people, fights to the last, told about the weak spot by a magical bird, uses his last arrow and kills the evil dragon. Good story. Now it's just annoying.

 

There's no possible way to know then. The movie is basically an AU of the books, so the answer you're looking for is impossible to know and to speculate would be just as wrong or right as to source the book information.

 

Speculating is better than obstinately saying "it's not canon" despite it having happened in the movie. But I'm satisfied with the answer that he might've fought other dragons in the past.

 

Just saw it the other evening. I'm of two minds. As a movie it was quite enjoyable if slightly random at times. As a Hobbit movie it was meh. I wholeheartedly agree with Equinox's spoilered critiques. There is too much added that wasn't in the book at all, excluding the stuff with Gandalf and The War in the North which is pretty much canon just not from the Hobbit. Honestly I think Jackson would have been better off doing two 3-hour movies for the Hobbit, another for the War in the North and then cracking open the Silmarillion for some straight up legendary stuff. Also I think he is taking a big ass risk with that fucking cliffhanger.

P.S. Did anyone else notice that the rain, right before they enter Mirkwood, looked like an overlay to the shot, not actual rain on set?

 

Both movies so far have suffered from unnecessary bloat. At least the bloat in this movie was more entertaining than the first one, I thought, but I could still do without most of it. I'd certainly rather have seen more of Beorn than whatsherface the OC elf. I agree that just two movies to adapt The Hobbit and toss in the stuff like Gandalf and the Necromancer would've been more appropriate.

I really liked the Lord of the Rings movies, and seeing The Hobbit not quite reach that standard has been disappointing. Though on the other hand I've only ever read The Hobbit, not any of the other Tolkien books (well, I started The Fellowship of the Ring back in ninth grade but didn't finish it), so I might be more critical of it.

Oh, and I didn't mind the cliffhanger as much because I thought the third movie would be out this summer -- only six months or so of waiting. Then I see that they pushed it back to December 2014. Now I'm a little ticked.

 

I'm surprised people aren't talking much about the fact that we fucking saw Sauron. That is incredibly controversial, I think. The whole idea behind Sauron is that he's the evil overlord villain you never actually see. And now we saw him and witnessed him take part in a Maia-off against Gandalf (and lol, for a being who hasn't regained his full strength he seems pretty bamf - more so, in fact, than when he was at his full strength in the FOTR prologue.)

And the same time, were I a teenage girl I would have squeed all over that shit. Because seriously, two Maia fighting it out is about as good as it gets. (I did wonder, though, why Gandalf didn't use the power of his ring against Sauron, when he invoked it against the Balrog).

There were a couple of moments in the movie that were painfully obvious LOTR transplants. The whole athelas/Tauriel heals Kili scene was basically Arwen and Frodo's scene from FOTR. Peter Jackson, stop trying to re-live your glory days!

The dwarfs vs. Smaug section near the end dragged on too, probably because anyone who has read the books knew that they weren't actually going to beat Smaug, meaning the scene had no real tension.

In general, though, the film was very enjoyable. I didn't particularly mind the "love triangle", though the amount of screentime given to Legolas dispatching random orcs was annoying. And, finally, people will know how to pronounce "Taure". (Incidentally, it's amusing that they gave a Silvan elf a name from Quenya, which developed in Valinor.)

 

For anyone who didn't notice... Colbert.

 

I'm pretty sure Peter Jackson crossed the screen just before that, too, looking all shifty like.

 

Yeah, he's the guy eating the carrot right? I'm pretty sure he has the same cameo in Fellowship of the Ring.

 

colbert is in laketown. pj is in bree.

 

I kinda liked the movie and a bit more so than the first. The action was better and, while still funny, a bit less childish.

Some scenes dragged on and Smaug has the shittiest aim ever seen in a dragon, but all in all, the movie was pretty good.

I haven't read the book, but I really thought the scene where the elf king of douchebaggery revealed his scars added some weight to his decisions earlier in the movie.

If he's fought dragons and bears the scars, then yeah, you can kind of understand his attitude. And it needs to be said that the elf chick they added to the movie was smoking hot.

 

Ah yeah. I had thought that Colbert was one of the guys following Thorin in the earlier flashback.

 

I believe those shots were done with a GoPro, but I might be wrong.

On another note, I feel it has to be said even if it's probably already been mentioned but Jackson ended on the wrong line and I hate him for it.

Other than that, I found it enjoyable, if a bit annoying in the inclusion of the Dwarf/Elf romance. Stephen Fry as the Master was a brilliant choice and I'm strarting to really like Balin's actor more than any of the other Dwarvish actors. That said, I really don't understant what's going to happen in the third installment so I'm just going to reserve judgement till I at least see a trailer.

 

A great movie, very entertaining, a little bloated. I disliked the Beorn bit, it wasn't how I imagined it by far, with him being the last and all and so little screen time. Smaug was, well, the Magnificient is well used. The barrel fight was the second best part. Watched it in 3d because it was the only option. Hated the 3d.

About the romance, i disliked it in the beginning, but after thinking about it, I thought it was quite interesting, and a nice step into integrating the dwarfs more with the other races. The fire scenes were incredibly done, but as always the inexistence of heat outside the flame made cringe a little. And the molten gold, it seemed so fake. An 8.3.

 

Would there have been something wrong with that?