I know what happened in the book, and it was silly. Since this is the movie thread I was talking about how the movie handled it which for once was less silly than the book. And the movie is made long after we all know it’s the One Ring so taking account of that in the adaptation is reasonable.
I don’t see how giant malicious sentient spiders are silly. Bilbo’s song may be silly, but they’re pretty terrifying. In fact, that section is routinely pointed to as the chapter most unsuitable for young children. If you mean that it’s silly that they talk, why? Large speaking variants of standard animals have been a fantasy trope since the earliest days of mythology.
Saw this movie the other day. Enjoyed it a vast amount more than the first Hobbit movie.
I wouldn’t even bother posting except for the spider-language thing: it is definitely the ring that made them intelligible to Bilbo; it’s very clearly shown that they are chittering before the world goes back-and-white, then speaking “English” afterwards. I thought it was a nice (if unnecessary) touch.
In my memory they will always have a slight French accent, I fear.
What about when the ring came off and Bilbo could still understand the spiders? Was it some residual effect of wearing the ring?
It’s like that scene in the Matrix where Tank uploads knowledge directly into Neo’s brain. Bilbo puts on the ring, his eyelids flicker, and then suddenly he says “Whoa… I know spider!”
Or not, I mean, I’m just guessing here.
It is really racist that you guys think Ungoliants offspring can’t speak the common tongue.
Daagar
1707
I think that would be speciest. Or something.
I’m sure you’re right (I haven’t seen the film yet, and may not), but a change like that wouldn’t bother me much. Jackson’s directing with the benefit of foresight, so why not? Unlike many of his changes, that one at least makes sense from a lore standpoint.
ARISE!
I finally saw this last night streaming, and I had completely the opposite reaction of many here: I found it the least Tolkien of the movies and a large drop-off from the first Hobbit. Although I still liked it, the more I think about it, the more it troubles me. It also was easily my least favorite of the LOTR movies, with the caveat that it may just be middle movie syndrome.
The pacing felt frentic and rushed for the entire movie. Jackson’s theme park ride version of events I found completely off-putting; what an fine embellishment in the first Hobbit movie became an overriding theme in the second. Between the barrel ride and its never-ending stream of orcs, the molten gold-log ride in the wheel-barrel, the “Goblin” Hidden Fortress (when did Dol Guldur become Mini-Mordor? I guess its more Ur-Orthanc), Monty Python’s Master and Laketown (help! I’m being oppressed!), and Gandalf’s capture (how does he get an identical staff for the next 60+ years?), I felt these were all-together an accumulation of too much bad Jacksonism.
I found Tariel-Kili actually the least egregious of his sins, although Tariel’s portrayal is not great. I tend to blame Jackson more than I do Lily for it, though. The fight between the Necromancer and Gandalf was great visually, although not what I expected at all. I would have much preferred the Smaug conclusion to have come in this movie, rather than that to have ended in a “cliff-hanger” and to have the Necromancer reveal and the march to the battle of five armies been the lead into the next.
Perhaps on my next viewing it will get better/trouble me less. It was still good, just a collection of all of the things I have previously disliked about Jackson’s movies and very little of the things I thought he brought to the movies.
Just saw it and it’s actually… not bad! Less terrible than the first Hobbit movie for sure. A lot more plot covered, and dragon mines beat generic goblin caves any day. Jackson still rewrites Tolkien all the time but at least he and his team now have the courage to invent their own plot on top of Tolkien’s basics, rather than just polluting a straight Tolkien plot with nonsense additions. The only truly stupid thing I noticed was the dwarves trying to harm a dragon with molten metal, and compared to Jackson’s routine idiocy in previous movies that’s actually some progress.
It seems old hat to complain about Legolas surfing on things. Instead I entertained myself during this movie by pretending to apply real-life danger to all the whimsical situations that are handwaved away.
For example, despite all the pain-free falling from great heights in the first Hobbit movie, I was still on the edge of my seat when Bilbo cut the dwarves free of the spiderweb. Look out, someone could hit a branch and break their neck! And aren’t they hundreds of feet in the air? Later on, each member of the party stood behind a column while Smaug blew fire through the gaps. I worried about the permanent damage caused by the intense heat only inches away from their bodies.
At least I think that’s how that scene went. By the time the movie got to Smaug, I was already sleepy and distracted. I was also looking forward to hearing the unique boomy voice laden with bass in the trailers. But my barebones sound system made it sound pretty average. So I didn’t get to fully enjoy the best part. Great.
The stand-behind-the-small-obstacle-while-the-dragon-breathes-fire bit has been in many movies and shows. In fact, I think every movie that’s ever had a fire-breathing beast threaten the hero has the scene in it. I’m not forgiving it, but it seems unfair to pick at this movie for something that’s been a Hollywood standard since Dragonslayer.
It’s called “making your saving throw”.
Kelan
1714
We picked it up and watched it finally when you could purchase it last week. Overall I enjoyed it. The only thing I was thinking about with the molten metal (wasn’t it gold?) was that it may slow the dragon down enough to bury it when it hardened, but that didn’t work so well.
I did finally fire up my system in the living room to watch it with my old surround sound stereo system and am glad I did. That system still has some really nice bass to it even though it isn’t upgraded to digital yet. We still had the Blu Ray hi def picture anyway. I am not sure if I will be watching these movies again as much as I did with the original trilogy, but they are still a lot better than a lot of movies out there and I am glad I have them in my library.
Maybe but it felt particularly egregious in that scene, possibly because the same breath was used to melt a metric shit ton of gold.
Well if it makes it easier to deal with, Smaug merely re-lit the forges with his breath which then melted the gold, it wasn’t his breath alone.
Identifying these things was my favorite part of the movie, not a nitpick.
I spent the entire river barrel sequence pondering two things: would the barrels still float with all the water splashing into them, and are they planning to make this a water ride at some sort of theme park?
Third movie gets a title change!
Our journey to make The Hobbit Trilogy has been in some ways like Bilbo’s own, with hidden paths revealing their secrets to us as we’ve gone along. “There and Back Again” felt like the right name for the second of a two film telling of the quest to reclaim Erebor, when Bilbo’s arrival there, and departure, were both contained within the second film. But with three movies, it suddenly felt misplaced—after all, Bilbo has already arrived “there” in the “Desolation of Smaug”.
When we did the premiere trip late last year, I had a quiet conversation with the studio about the idea of revisiting the title. We decided to keep an open mind until a cut of the film was ready to look at. We reached that point last week, and after viewing the movie, we all agreed there is now one title that feels completely appropriate.
And so: “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” it is.
And there’s also The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Extended Cut, which we’re in the process of finishing, with over 25 mins of new scenes, all scored with original music composed by Howard Shore.
Scuzz
1719
So does the new Lego “The Hobbit” video game contain the third movies storyline in it? The Lego games stay to the movies pretty good.
