"i watched "the desolation of smaug" yesterday.." Topic

With my girl friend. We liked it a lot. I have been a roleplayer most of my life, and although not a hardcore fan, i like tolkien,s works.

As always please excuse my english

THE 3D EFFECT: i must say that i used to think that 3d movies were a waste of money, so i always choosed the digital version over the 3d version.

I watched the 3d version, with 48fps, and i enjoyed it . The movie is clearly filmed with the 3d effect in mind. A lot of scenes are enhaced by this effect. The 48 fps at first look a bit strange, like watching hd tv, but soon you became used and we both were marveled by detail level. Now i regret having watched the first movie in 2d.

IMPORTANT ADVICE REGARDING 3D: i suspect that there is an optimum distance to the screen for noticing this effect. You can check it with 3d tvs in a mallshop; too close to the screen and you wont notice it.

We were seated in the 7 file of twenty something, and in a lot of scenes, although we enjoyed the effect, i couldnt help thinking that the effect should look awesome farther from the screen. Next time we'll choose last seats.

What i didnt liked from the movie:
-cgi acrobatics. They would look excesive even in some animation movies. Both inside the montain, once in the river, and of course with our friend legolas "the skater"….( or rollerbladder, or slider, i dont know how to tranlate it, sorry).

I think that its ok like they portray the elven way of fighting, without looking like a martial arts clash. After all they have trained for centuries and they have better senses and agility than a human, but certsin acrobatics just look silly

i readed the book 30 years ago, so i dont recall too many details, but they have changed a lot of what happen inside the mountain.

I liked the.femmale elf, the elves, beorn, the spiders, smaug (althoug his voice, in spanish, didnt make justice to the dragon), the city of the lake, bardo…there are some new characters in the city that i dont recall from the book, one of them is "snake tongue" with another name.

We see like gandalf searchs about the necromancer, i dont recall that from the book, but it was ok for me. It has some wonderfull scenes to watch in 3d.

The movie its 2h 35m long…i drinked too many coke, so i was in a hurry waiting for the end, but even then, it was a cliffhanger so i wish i wont need to wait a full year.

All in all i liked the movie a lot. I loved the NZ landscapes, i would like to travel there someday..

Btw, for me it was like watching on the screen everything i dreamed when i roleplayed d&d, merp and ad&d. I think that the movie makes justice to the world of middle earth.

Saying that, i couldnt help thinking that smaug' gold would disrupt not only middle earth economy, but real world economy too!.

Yes, i know that its a mythical treasure, an arquetypical one, but i am so nerdie at times

The word you're probably looking for is "surfer",but "skater" conveys it quitr clearly….

Sk8r says it better.

You know, I've never thought about it – but yeah, the inflation when that hoard hit the market would have been ghastly. As I recall, something similar happened in real life after Alexander captured the Persian treasury. (Though I suppose it would be an awfully short movie if Thorin were like "well, boys, I'd love to retake the Lonely Mountain and avenge our fallen relatives, but have you considered the inflationary effect of that much specie being released all at once? It could disrupt economies from the Grey Havens to Far Harad! We'd better leave Smaug alone.")

If I recall correctly from the first movie, weren't the dwarves sitting on quite a hoard? Once they reclaimed Erebor, I doubt much of that gold would be released into the general economy.

To be fair, I haven't seen the movies – my recollection from the book is that Thorin was pretty much broke at the start of the story.

Indeed Peachy, as I recall Thorin and the crew had either been reduced to mining coal or were nearly in such sad straits.

As I recall didn't the Dwarfs hang on to as much of the gold that they could. I don't remember it being disperse all over Middle Earth. I'm sure the larger part of it was their's to begin with.

Yeah the Dwarves pretty much manipulated the Gold markets of the day, releasing precious small amounts to the unwashed masses to maintain an artificially high demand… wait a minute!

…don't tell the Chinese

To be fair, I haven't seen the movies – my recollection from the book is that Thorin was pretty much broke at the start of the story.

Indeed Peachy, as I recall Thorin and the crew had either been reduced to mining coal or were nearly in such sad straits.

No, the coal mining days were over; the dwarves had "put a bit by" and some (Thorin) were "quite well off" by the time of story in theThe Hobbit— Thorin is able to afford silver elements in his wardrobe. But the thirteen dwarves represented the nobility of their people, and were nowhere near the wealth and status they had once held, and the story implies that the common dwarf of their "tribe" was much poorer compared to the days in Erebor when "even the poorest" dwarves had money to purchase whatever they desired. Basically, the tale is about a usurped king and his loyal retainers striving to regain their kingdom and thereby restore the fortunes of everyone, noble or common (or, perhaps more fitting for the dwarven nature, the former leading officers of a firm who have been ousted in a hostile takeover and are working to take back ownership of their family business).

Saw it last night and quite liked it.

Doug

I like it as well. It did deviate significantly from the original story and was Hollywoodized with too many fight scenes.

I would have preferred that Peter Jackson cut about 10 minutes of fight scenes and released this version as the extended edition. I actually don't mind the plot deviations.

My only real disappointment was Beorn. He seemed underdeveloped. I would have preferred more mystery in his character and a longer plot line.

One other small annoyance… the journey thru Mirkwood was too quick. I would have preferred a longer weirder and scarier road… with the tension building. Instead we get…this is a weird forest… we are confused… the spiders got us… we are saved… the elves have us… all in one day!

Still, a very fun movie.

Joe Collins

Overall I thought it was OK. I just do not have the energy today to go in to all that made it less than expected for me except to say that the story stands on its own and does not need ninjas.

Needs more ninjas and exploshuns and genital-jokes….

And more running and falling.

Way too subtle and moved too slowly: Why can't these movies be more epic and dahrker? sheesh.