The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - Movie Review by Chris Stuckmann
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ต.ค. 2024
- FACEBOOK: / chrisstuckmann
TWITTER: / chris_stuckmann
Chris Stuckmann reviews The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, starring Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Cate Blanchett, Orlando Bloom, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, Evangeline Lilly, John Bell, and Jed Brophy. Directed by Peter Jackson.
![[UNCUT] “บอสณวัฒน์” ลากไส้!! ใครหนุนหลัง "แม่ตั๊ก ป๋าเบียร์" I คนดังนั่งเคลียร์ I 30 ก.ย. 67](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/QlD7mU2KKRk/mqdefault.jpg)
Smaug is pretty much the BEST Dragon CGI effect i've witnessed ever. The FIRE..the freaking FIRE that he breathes was SO convincing that i always wince and feel the HEAT of the fire. Its so good. :D and the final line he delivers of "I AM FIRE...I AM..DEATH" just gives me CHILLS
Yeah, but they aren't voiced by motherfucking Benedict CumberIamthebest!
Smaug was underwhelming tbh
@@joebuck4957 not really no
@@joebuck4957not at all
Smaug was done perfectly. So cunning, so epic and probably my favourite CGI creation!
Why do people hate this movie? Come on, Smaug? That is the most badass dragon to grace the cinema screens in a LONG time.
Smaug and Thranduil are the only aspects worth watching, the rest is crap, specially Tauriel
I agree, I loved this!
Fuck the haters! They're just allergic to amazing movies.
Yes and Smaug is the only good thing in the whole trilogy. The CGI orcs and goblins look terrible. Original LOTR movie characters looked better by far. The first movie is a disaster, with actual story beginning in the second half of the movie. The second movie is better only because of Smaug. The third movie really shouldn't even have been there.
The whole trilogy is basically about the group travelling to the mountain and dealing with the dragon. The "battle of five armies" wasn't even there in the book, as much as I know, and was only added because creators had literally nothing more to add to the third movie (the book story ended with smaug, and it was just 1 book).
Also, this trilogy is based on a childrens book and yet it tries to be as serious as LOTR, which, of course, fails, and the trilogy just looks like a last attempt to squeeze some more money out of LOTR world.
AmIgOltu You could not be more wrong about the CGI, the first movie being a "disaster, and the trilogy failing. It's such an amazing trilogy that surpasses the novel in so many ways. Smaug was far from the only good thing in that awesome trilogy.
I am so glad somebody else loves this movie
I am the biggest hobbit fan you to
It's my favorite of the trilogy
The dragon was the best part out of the whole movie. Cumberbatch needs an Oscar for his chilling lines.
Maybe had his lines not been so so cheesy. The last two lines "I am fire! I am.... Death!". Couldn't help but laugh at the cheesyness. His speech on the dwarven greed was pretty cool though!
Disagree with you man.
Thats totally cool :) Surprised by your civility. Thought this was youtube where everyone is unpleasant
Thanks man. Hope you enjoyed the movie as much as I did.
I loved it when he called bilbo "Barrel Rider."
Return of the King is a pure masterpiece.
Agreed
Fact
Honestly: I can't decide. For me it's just ONE big movie - I can't split the movie into pieces. I love it so much.
Yeah.....true, sometimes it's better not to dig deeper and just enjoy it for what it is. Cool beans dude
Best middle earth movie = LOTR: The Two Towers
- return of gandalf after his apparent death to the Balrog
- King Theoden - you have no power here!
- Riders of Rohan slaughtering the Uruk-hai
- Helm's Deep battle - boss
- ENTS!
And Sam's speech at the end. That's probably the best part of the movie.
Return of the King is the Best
teemaloon definitely agree I have always loved the two Towers the most.
Wow someone else who thinks the Two Towers is the best. I thought I was alone
The Lord of the Rings trilogy is impossible to rank for me. I give all 3 an A+
Seems like no one has the guts to tell PJ when his ideas are stupid anymore. He tried to have Arwen fight alongside Aragorn in Helm's Deep, but people people were like: "that's just stupid." He also wanted Aragorn to fight Sauron in the end, but again people were like: "dude, that's lame bro.." so they replaced him with a giant troll.. Not all the cheese was prevented in the original trilogy. but now he just does whatever he wants and bunnysleds, moose elf king mounts, single purpose bred warbats, made up elfchicks for forced romance and hawt dwarves are the result. The whole thing feels like a Micheal Bay Cartoon.
I honestly thought the Hobbit trilogy was awful. And an embarrassment to the original
@@WashingtonSkyWatchCMH421 exactly! I agree
It is a poor adaptation but spectacular movie on its own
You know what, I agree. If I look at it from a purists point of view, it does a horrible job of adapting the book. But as an all around Middle Earth fan, (not just Hobbit) and a huge lotr film fan, I really really enjoyed it as a film
Hmm... interesting I thought LotR was a pretty good adaptation and I my mother made me read the books first when I was younger before I could see the movie in theaters.
I mean the book was kinda not very good imo so i see this as an absolute win!
My main gripe is the use and quality of CGI. The dragon looks spectacular but apart from that the effects seem to be lacking all over the place
My thoughts exactly! when I saw the ball of light that surrounded gandalf and the gold in the smelter...ughhhh just talking about it makes me sad.
Agree
Interestingly, I think the pacing of this one was a little lacking, compared to the first one. I like this one more, but just by a narrow margin. There are brilliant scenes but the story-telling is a little sluggish...for me, anyway.
Yeah its just you. Everyone else thinks hobbit 1 was lacking on pacing and hobbit 2 is WAY better at pacing.
spider's, barrels, cheesy scenes!!!... the first hobbit was WAY better and has an original screen play.
flava82
Cheesy scenes? Are you forgetting Goblin town, storm giants and hanging from trees at the end of the first Hobbit?
***** Actually, it's not just me. But that doesn't really matter, does it? :)
LisaFreemontStreet All of you shut up. Its a good movie and it is better than the first Hobbit so all of you need to STFU and get ready for the next movie. The Hobbit There And Back Again.
I saw this in 48fps & 3D a few hours ago and I'm still buzzing. Never before have I seen effects that looked so real. It was like someone cut a whole in the back of the theatre and opened a portal to middle earth. Those spiders had me squirming in my seat cos they were so well done! The Sauron reveal more than lived up to the hype and it's just way more fun than the last one
Lol that was hilarious when legolas called gimli a little troll
I liked his line, "who's this? Your brother?" LOL
I love the Hobbit trilogy, and I love the first one the most. I think people give it too hard of a time. In my opinion, it's very enjoyable and happy. The only improvement I would like to see is more practical effects!!! (:
I hated this movie so much I refused to watch the 3rd Hobbit film. LotR was excellent, but Peter Jackson went completely insane with this one and ruined the series. He was obviously trying WAY too hard to make epic moments, but made them completely stupid. The barrel scene? I don't think everyone was laughing because it was amazing, they were laughing because of how stupid and cartoonish it looked. Mirkwood? The single most disappointing scene in the entire movie. What was probably the darkest part of the book was reduced to an idiotic montage of characters wandering around calling each others' names. The spiders? The moment where Bilbo finally proves his strength as a true hero is ruined by the introduction of useless and inconsequential characters shoehorned in to force a love triangle worse than the Hunger Games. The dragon scene? Looney Tunes had more believable physics! Smaug looked and sounded great, but the "fight/chase" scene with the melting statue was almost worse than the barrel scene. Overall, I think this film was a waste of an excellent cast and great source material, and I found this film series even more disappointing than the Star Wars prequels.
When you watch the movie, be sure to notice the guy eating the carrot in the first scene, similar to Peter Jackson in LOTR
Oh I didn't recognize him. Did he lose some weight or something?
Drakon Lorek
Yeah. a lot.
Was noticing this directly when i was at the cinema. Its also the first sin from Cinema Sins. :D
Haven't seen this one yet, The fellowship of the ring is my favourite movie and I suspect it will stay that way, although I liked the first Hobbit movie alot it was a fair bit below all 3 of the first trilogy in my opinion.
Disagree about Legolas. He's a detriment to this film. He feels nothing like Legolas from LOTR.
+JoelJoel321 Well he's not supposed to be like Legolas from LOTR. this is a couple of decades before.
Boon2Dock Legolas is supposed to be 2931 years old in the Lord of the Rings. I guess that makes him about 2870 at the time of the Hobbit. So to be honest, I wouldn't expect him to be that much different in character. Most people's personalities tend to solidify after a couple of millennia!.
JoelJoel321 Well unfortunately Orlando Bloom and Peter Jackson are human! My point is he warms up between the Hobbit and LOTR because he meets Aragorn and later on Gimli. It makes sense that he is a bit more cynical and colder in the prequels.
Boon2Dock The story arc in the Lord of the Rings is going from being quite cold to being more friendly. But he's always fairly stoic. In the Hobbit he is petulant. I just didn't buy it, myself.
+JoelJoel321 that makes absolutely no sense, how could you possibly assume that?
I'm surprised that my favorite youtube critics love this film. It was so lazy and shitty, and the action was so boring and lacked any tension. It was actually worse than the first, with all it's dullness replaced by a terrible spasticness.
Wow, you speak wonders. You're a very intelligent individual. I'm both amazed by your uncanny ability to see the truth in a film, and your fluency in words. These TH-cam critics that loved the film are all WRONG.
Josef Hautala reasons as to why this is a bad movie/trilogy? To me it was well written, well directed,pacing was perfect, felt exactly like lotr. character development was awesome, The adventure was so fun to watch, it was intence and CGI was almost flawless, some of the effects were amazing, smaug was articulate GOLD like. i don't get you people.
Oh no, a youtuber you like has a different opinion than yours, EVERYBODY, RUN AND HIDE!!!!!!!!!1
Josef Hautala Or, reasonable and awesome!
Josef Hautala lmfao, mhm, i can sense the denial.
Rewatched this film at the weekend and still think it is utter garbage.
Beorn is ruined, the barrel scene is a badly cgi'd video game sequence that is overly long and overly ridiculous. The love story is completely ridiculous and unneccessary.
I also think they should change the title as there is very little hobbit and no Smaug desolation at all in this film Perhaps they could call it The Dwarf: The blowing of Thorins hair.
I get it that people complained there was not enough action in the first film (what a surprise after they took a 300 page book and tried to make 3 long movies out of it) but the action in this film amounts mostly to "look at how pretty these elves are as they jump and flip and spin and are completely untouchable"
Agreed, the movie was very dependent on CGI and special effects.
I felt like this film took the worst of the padding from the first film (ie the over-the-top implausible and drawn out action sequences) and did more of it. Mostly for that reason I preferred the first film. There's nothing worse (and this is a problem for many modern day films) than being bored to tears waiting for a scene to end that looks so utterly stupid, defies logic and has absolutely nothing riding on it. Give me a good story, engrossing visuals, characters, themes, and interesting dialogue and I'll be entertained. Give me Super Mario and I'll fall asleep.
This is the same reason why I fell asleep in Attack of the Clones, woke up 10 mins later and had missed absolutely nothing of any consequence whatsoever.
I saw this last night at the Cinemark NextGen and the 3D was amazing! I loved The Desolation of Smaug! One of the best ways to end a film.
I did not enjoy DOS. The Beorn sequence was too short, the spiders and mirkwood (too short), the overly long barrel sequence with cg orcs(looked fake) chasing them, Gandalf being victimized.....again by foes he could have easily dispatched......uhhhhhhg! It just really irritates me the way PJ and his writing team feel the need to embellish and depart and add to what is already whole and complete. The only reason Bilbo survived his encounter with Smaug is because he was wearing the ring......uh......the whole time! The only believable character was Bard. This movie was a severe let down for me, so much so I dont even want to watch the final one!
I liked the movie, but I agree with many of the points you make. The scenes I really liked, such as the spiders in Mirkwood, were too short. While I enjoyed the action scenes and they were fun, I feel like they took the focus away from the characters and the story, which really annoys me. Also, the whole end of the movie with Bilbo and the dwarves battling Smaug doesn't make logical sense. The only reason Bilbo wasn't killed in the book was he kept the ring on the whole time and was therefore invisible. All in all, I liked the first film more. The second film seemed focused more on action and less on story or characters, and in my opinion, it lacked the charm the first film had.
what happenes with legolas's eyes in this film? xD they look really weird
Legolas infusing testosterone and badassery? And I guess Richard Simmons carries an aura of calm, manly strength wherever he goes.
I agree it is an improvement from the first movie. The dependence on cgi, especially during the goblin fight in the first movie, takes me out of the experience. To this day I find the best fight-sequence in all Lord of the Rings-related movies to be the one in Fellowship of the Ring`s finale. No cgi, just real actors in costumes and make-up fighting it out.
The action-scenes have gradually become more over the top as the movies have progressed and while they were not as jarring in this movie, they still make me cringe inside. The barrel-sequence and the fight with Smaug at the end...just does not work for me. However the fight with Legolas and that other orc chief was pretty good as I recall, but I believe the orc was purely cgi.
Thorin had some good moments in Desolation, and these are the moments that stand out when we actually get to see some of their motives explored. The romance was not interesting as such, it was more like time-filler and made the character of Tauriel redundant. She adds nothing to the movie aside from a stock romance, which is a shame because Evangeline Lilly is not a bad actor.
Absolutely disagree. This film was atrocious. The barrel scene pissed me off so much
mtaylor1933 that go-pro shot.......why
+Devo Fauzan Rahman I was facepalming every time they used that lol
my opinion is there was too little beorn, too much smaug and too much action. Like seriously how many times did i scream at the screen for more explanation. For example i wanted some lore about the high fells where the Nine were buried because this is a PJ invention I think that he has to give more lore for his creations.
Everything with Smaug, etc.... was great, but they did need to spend more time with Beorn.
I agree that Beorn should have had more screentime, and that's exactly why I didn't like this movie so much. PJ had enough room in the movie to add non-canon romance plot, but gave Beorn only like 5 minutes. -.-
And I agree there was too much that adhd sword-swinging action.
As for the tombs of Ringwraiths, those were 100% non-tolkien and they actually even contradict Tolkien's material, because at the time of the book's events, Ringwraiths had been in Mordor for many years to prepare it for Sauron's return. And Witch-King didn't die on Angmar.
The shitty romance between Tauriel and the dwarf was the stuppiest thing about the Desolation of Smaug. And allthough Smaug looked amazing, his character was dumb, so very dumb, pretty embarising! He had more of an hungry dog than an dangerous dragon. So much bullshit is filled in the 2nd hobbit movie, i even liked the 1st one better! The pacing is terrible and the contents stretched so much, making some scenes boring to watch.
The very best scene of both films is still the riddles in the dark...
Peter Jackson knows the Hobbit will be his last experience with middle earth as a director, so he present us this cashcow as an trilogy. In so many scenes he want to show us, who made the original TLOTR trilogy, by showing us numerous locations and characters, every idiot knows about from the past...
Those dragon scenes are so awesome. Some of the coolest scenes of all time.
not many might agree but for me, the best one was the Two Towers, it was so intense and a lot of my favorite parts and places were in there: the focus on Rohan, Isengard, the Nazguls now riding fell beasts instead of horses, the Ents which are my favorite middle earth creatures and of course the Battle of Helm's Deep.
Agreed.
Gotta disagree about the romance being "cheesy". I thought that was handled well.
Can't wait to see this. Comes out on Boxing day in Australia.
I slept 3 times in this movie...
Fellowship: A+++
Two Towers: A+++
Return of The King: A+++
Unexpected Journey: B+
Desolation of The Smaug: B
Battle of The Five Armies: C
Tibori Andrei permission to add 2 more +s to return of the king
My midnight crowd was great. We all talked during the preview and were all quiet together during the movie itself. I LOVED THIS MOVIE IT WAS AMAZING.
I loved this movie so much. But to me nothing beats the return of the king.
I agree with you, The Return of the King is my favourite one, really close to the Two Towers but I think comparing The Hobbit to the LOTR just never will benefit to the Hobbit because, when you think about it, the dwarves' quest is less epic so the trilogy telling it is bound to be less epic as well.
Yah true.
romance didn't bother me, it was cool actually, and the female elf was soo awesome! liked her soo much!
Fellowship: A
Towers: A
King: A+
Hobbit: B
Smaug: A-
Five Armies: B+
I dont get people's problems with 48 fps unless the 48fps has been VASTLY improved from the first Hobbit (because i didnt see Hobbit 1 in 48 fps so idk how it was)
I mean yes, at first it seemed like everything was sped up a little (which makes complete sense btw), but after like 15 minutes once my eyes got used to it, 48 fps was no longer a problem. For the majority of the movie, it didnt even register to me that i was watching the movie in 48 fps. The only times that i did register that is was in 48 fps was when i actively thought about the 48 fps.
Anyways, Hobbit 2 was great. Favorite Middle Earth film? Two Towers. Battle for Helms Deep is too good.
For me the first movie at 48 fps was great. I saw it first in 24 fps and the transition to 48 was great. It was the first 3-d film (that wasn't animated) where I didn't have to wince or strain. I think people simply attacked it because it was new
Two Towers for me too! Although I must say, Desolation of Smaug might actually beat out the Fellowship of the Ring for my 3rd favorite movie… which, considering every LotR movie is precious to me, is quite to achievement!
Is it just me, but a few times during this movie I felt like the camera was panning and moving a bit too much
Yes. The camera never stops swooping around the characters, it wasn't like that in LOTR. I think Peter Jackson has developed ADHD over the years.
Agree with you 100% here Chris, as usual. I did see it in 3D 48fps and was caught a little bit off guard at the beginning but thankfully I was able to adjust to it by the time the real action started. Loved the scenes between Bilbo and Smaug. You can definitely see the chemistry between Cumberbatch and Freeman playing out on the screen and the CGI was very well done.
Also, favorite Middle Earth film is definitely Return of the King.
Fellowship: A+
Two Towers: A+
Return of the King: A+
Unexpected Journey: B
Desolation of Smaug: B
Battle of Five Armies: C-
I completely agree
Andrew Wadsworth i would rank battle of five armies high er, thats just my opinion
Chris, I usually agree with all of your points, but I have to disagree with the barrel scene. It was so unrealistic and stupid that it almost ruined the movie for me. It was even worse than the arcade chase and 1000 ft bridge fall from the first hobbit. At lease they 1 upped it with jumping up falling rocks in the 3rd one... *sigh* So immersion breaking IMHO....
people that go crying like babies because the director just didn't take every fucking detail from a book are the worst fans ever
I agree
In the case of the Hobbit trilogy the most common complaint I've heard was that they added too much unnessecary plotlines. I for once think that PJ tried too hard to turn a short children's book into Lord of the Rings.
And also... Dwarf-Elf-romance? Really?
what people need to realize is these 3 movies aren't just the story of the specific Hobbit novel, but about Bilbo's story/quest overall as a whole. If PJ wanted to just adapt the novel it would probably just be 1 or 2 films, but instead he expanded it with extra Tollkien lore from the appendices etc.
I completely loved the first Hobbit movie, as well as all the LOTR films (my favorite Middle Earth film is Return of the King, closely followed by Fellowship). It could possibly be because I was tired after taking a mind-numbing final, but I didn't love Desolation of Smaug. I can't help but feel that the movie is too stretched out and I felt that Legolas was shoehorned in. However, considering how much I love the other films, I'm willing to give it another shot (earlier in the day when I'm more awake).
The love story and especially the barrel scene is so stupid. My main problem is all the gimmicks and that barrelscene was just straight out of a PS2 game. I can just see how Bombur gets critical hits all the way down bombing into everything...
Although the Laketown scenes are not memorable and drag a lot Peter Jackson did an incredible job on the Hobbit trilogy especially with the extended versions considering the little prep time he had(two years for LOR), and the pressure from WB to finish it with best parts cut out of part 3. At the end he admitted to ending up a nervous wreck after rushing and editing so much material and ad-libing the script, he was just glad it was over
I will never understand why some people say this movie is so much better than the first. If you read the freaking book you will notice that there is basically no action before everything in the forest, which is in this movie. I'm sure they could've added more action to the first movie as they did by adding everything with that main Goblin villain in the first movie, but at a point it would've felt like there was too much action given the relatively benevolent goal of the journey.
I saw it in 48 and I absolutely loved it the Dragon looked so realistic
In my opinion The Unexpected Journey was better, that's maybe because i prefer the LOTR trilogy. I LOVED LOTR for all of the raw scenes, looks real and really great dialogue. the 48FPS in The Desolation Of Smaug makes it look very artificial, people may not be used to the high FPS. Something I dislike about The Hobbit Trilogy so far is the overuse of comical scenes, seriously; i cringed when i saw how ridiculous the barrel scene turned out to be. The Oakenshield company had nothing to Damage smaug in any way, so how did the dragon not kill them ?!?!? but never the less There And Back Again will be amazing; especially with the great battle including the 7 Dwarf Kingdoms.
- That Cliffhanger Though.
I don't think it was better than AUJ, it was the first Peter Jackson film to really go over the top in a bad way, the barrel sequence was ridiculous and the fight with the dwarves and Smaug felt like a combination of an Indiana Jones escapade and a droid battle from the SW prequels.
I love how abruptly it ended. Like seriously. It was Soprano levels of abruptness. I love when a movie cuts you off like that. It's like teasimhb
This is a great thing to do: Start watching a movie for the second time; about ten minutes in, pause it for more popcorn and watch the Stuckmanized review of the movie; enjoy stuckmanns reasonable and logical point of view and criticism; construct your own opinion using that review as a background; eat the second batch of popcorn.
The Hobbit films must be one of the first book to movie adaptations where you can read the book faster than you can watch the films.
I was actually totally okay with the romance, because it did have a purpose... Well, sort of. I think since they needed to add things to it they wanted to give other characters a background as well, which is why Legolas returns, but the romance is there to explain why to begin with in LOTR he's prejudice towards dwarves. It was cheesy, but it had a purpose, so it didn't bother me too much.
He doesn't like Gimli at first because Gimli's father's friend stole his girlfriend! :P
It was a better love story than Anakin and Padmé's
Here's my rankings of the Middle Earth movies:
1. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (5/5)
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (5/5)
3. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (5/5)
4. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (4.5/5)
5. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (4/5)
6. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (3.5/5)
I just watched Rogue one yesterday at the movies and then in the evening I watched The Hobbit2 from the TV... I can't believe you gave better scores to the Hobbit than to Rogue one. I watched your reviews before I saw Rogue one and I expected it to be shit :D But i actually liked it better than the Hobbit. the Hobbit2 is just too stupid for me.. maybe I can't wrap my head arount the fact that the Hobbit is more like a children's story?? I dunno.. just the horrible CGI for example Legolas, his horse, the pale ork (sooo bad) and then the golden??? dwarf statue that melts over Smaug... what even happens in that??? Then the barrel scene so stupid and the escape from the mountain when the float ovet the melted gold with wheelbarrows. That is not even possible! Thorin was constantly overacting with the wind machine blowing air to his hair. And then the worst part. The forced awkward romance between the elf and the dwarf, is that there just for the fans?
I don't agree that Thorin is a recycled Aragorn... He seems more like a recycled/ fleshed-out Boromir. Bard (the bargeman) has more of a direct Aragorn characterisation. But I kind of like that because it all feels like it's foreshadowing what's going to happen "later" in the LotR.
The biggest headscratcher does have to be the seemingly immortal carrot-eating man in Bree...
This movie pissed me off to no end, I imagine that's because I went in not knowing it was the 2nd of 3 movies. So with it ending on a cliffhanger, just made me angry :( If they had the first 10mins of the next movie on the end, I would have been so much happier with it. Seriously, just 10mins!
The first movie annoyed me too cause I thought it was a solo movie, having read the books, and the Hobbit being a fraction of the size of LotR. (I didn't live on the internet back then, so all I had to go off was the movie poster)
I was this a couple days ago and thought it was generally better than the first. The barrel sequence was the best action sequence I've seen in a long time. It was so damn enjoyable. I felt like the dragon chase sequence at the end dragged a little too long but it was great overall.
Ironically, they constantly make mention of the greed of the Dwarves. Their greed is only rivaled by the greed of the production staff stretching a great story just to make as many movies as possible.
Of the 6 movies, The Hobbit, an Unexpected Journey is my favorite. Bilbo and his story, especially the beginning til being rescued by the eagles, is perfection in growing him as a character. Out of all the LOTR/Hobbit characters, Bilbo is my favorite (out of all Middle Earth lore - from Hobbit to LOTR, haven't started the Similrillion yet, young and old, his character is the most complete, outside of Gandalf (although we only know Gandalf later in life, not even his back story/growth when he first comes to Middle Earth). And for the record, Samwise Gamgee is my favorite LOTR character.
Probably why I like Fellowship a lot also, I like getting to know/learning about characters. How they will behave later in the story gives me a feeling of understanding why they did or did not do something, knowing their reasoning.
Don't get me wrong, I love, love, love the battle scenes, the action and events, but I do not see the beginning of any movie, learning a character as slow, or bad pacing, I expect to get to know a character..
My favorite middle earth movie is the old live action russian hobbit movie. You should check it out it's very underrated. Jokes aside, the return of the king then the two towers are my favorites. Liked that movie, didn't liked the romane and the sometimes really awkward cgi.
That Russian version was horrendous only The Rankin and Bass version and Peter Jackson's version are excellent
The Two Towers, first one I saw in theaters, most nostalgia. I felt a lot of those great emotions in the Desolation of Smaug, which I loved. If the next one is nearly as good as this one or even the first Hobbit movie (Which I actually loved) this will be a really solid trilogy.
Legolas "infused testosterone"? Not more or less than Taurel did. :P Legolas could've been a female character, and then you wouldn't talk about testosterone but only about how "beautiful" she is, despite it being the same but of the opposite gender. Also, Tauriel was added for gender diversity.
I'm just saying, you're unintentionally being a sexist here. Legolas is an awesome character and I'm sure you don't mean anything bad with what you say - but drop the "testosterone" bullshit.
Nobody actually cares about your feminist 'politically correct' bullshit...
Paul O'Dwyer ...you lost
...stfu
Oh come on, Legolas isn't even a character at all. And as for Tauriel, her addition IS totally sexist: the only reason ANY woman was added to ANY LotR movies was to be a fuckability. The ORIGINAL women in it (Galadriel and Eowyn) are there to serve a purpose of driving the plot, the additions (Tauriel, Arwen) are there to just suck cock offscreen. Now yes, Arwen was in the books (fior like.. .1 line) so it doesn't bother me much that she sucks it offscreen as much as it bothers me that she ruins the character of Elrond, but Tauriel sucks Dwarf dick and THAT after seeing him for liike... 1 second?! BWAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA
About as immature and ill informed as someone with 666 in their name can be. Round of applause.
Bowser laugh.
I'm sure you have heard this before Chris Stuckmann but if you turn captions on for your videos. I have because I keep forgetting to bring my headphones to school.Your last sentence in the captions says "like this you can click right here" "and it stuck me nice".
Bit late to the party here, but people were laughing during the barrel scene because it's SO shockingly bad that it is indeed, laughable.
I felt like this movie was way too comical and didn't relate back to the book. They added way too much unnecessary material that took away from the authenticity of the book. I could take the Lord of the Rings way more seriously.
Return of the king. The lotr trilogy, along with the man with no name trilogy, are the only trilogies where each film kept getting better imo.
amen brother
***** Let me introduce you to The Dark Knight Rises.
Yeah, I get it and respect it, I'm just sayin' - to me, TDKR was a HUGE let-down.
Milan Moudrý
I don't like tdkr either. Very disappointing.
rybrentmannftw apparently none of you saw MoS...that's a HUGE letdown. TDKR has three or four things i didnt like, but none of them stop me from enjoying the movie.
the hobbits arent bad movies at all. i love them. they just got unlucky because they are in the same universe as the lord of the rings trilogy
My favorite is definitely the two towers. Nothing lacks in that movie. It's my top five of favourite movies.
This movie was finished and edited before the release of the first hobbit so it has nothing to with the critics opinions as to how this movie ended up looking in contrast to the first hobbit.
It's refreshing for me to see a movie-wise critic like Chris totally get absorbed into a film or films like he does in the Hobbit trilogy. I loved these films as well (not as great as the LOTR trilogy) but still great films... and for a while I though I was one of the few people who did love them. Great to know Chris is a fan as well!
Desolation of Smaug, I had my best date with my fiance going to it
It's actually my favorite of the trilogy but to each his own.
JeremyJahns said it's awesometacular, you gave it A-, ShipperWar praised it as well, holy shit, now I know I must see this movie. :-D
The reason why they were respectful is because the audience for a Hobbit movie would be all white
God if this is how everybody feels, I feel like we have watched entirely different movies....lol
The Two Towers Extended Version! Nothing tops the Wolves of Isengard and Helms Deep!
Great Review!
I loved this movie! Huge improvement from the first hobbit film.
There is a reason for the romance. Not gonna spoil it. All will be revealed this December
This movie could be so much better..it haves the same effect on me that Dark Knight Rises. Leaving the theater i was like "oh god, it was awesome, the fuckign dragon, benedict cumberbatch i love you!", but them i start to think in the movie, and oh man..I like it, the dragon was FANTASTIC, but it could be way better.
i'm at odds with everyone apparently. I rate the LOTR trilogy the same as the Hobbit. No, no particular reason, I just happened to like them in the same order: 3rd movie is my favorite, 1st is next, and 2nd is least.
...he liked the barrel fight
I like how they characterised the Dwarves better in this film.
I saw it in the 48 frames, and while I enjoyed the barrel scene, it looked VERY fake. I felt like I was watching a video game. It was very distracting. Every time they replaced Legolas it was very obvious too. But Smaug was amazing! I hope it's better in 2D and/or with the normal frame rate.
I completely agree with this review.Great movie but I really felt that the elf dwarf love triangle was sooo unnecessary and cheesy.
Still annoys me that Legolas was shoehorned into the last two Hobbit films for no other reason besides boosting the box office revenue.
I liked "The Hobbitt 2: The Desolation od Smegma" better.
this was a pretty great movie for me it did have a few moments of slowness like some of the lake town but still over all it was pretty good. The two biggest things i liked about this was seeing all the Elven fighting styles like i did for the dwarves in the first movie and the second is of course Smaug.... my god he was the best movie Dragon ive every seen no exaggeration, he was amazingly CGI'ed and he sounded and looked so bad ass shit any way awesome movie cant wait for the last one
LOOOOOVED this movie. Absolutely awesome. A+.
I thought there was a disturbing lack of music and the kind of idyllic(ness) that it brings to LotR movies (Hobbit was perfect in that sense). Please tell me if you guys agree.
Legolas is like the pro guy in Gall of Duty. 50 kills 0 deaths.
I would be a better score/kd at GOD any day :p
i agree Smaug was in my opinion the best moment. I loved the scene with just Smaug and Bilbo before Thorin and the other dwarves showes up, Bilbo was shitting himself and he was begging and lying not to get burned. And Smaug, my god he looked awesome and he was so damn smart
Well it's nice you enjoyed this one more. Even though I agree the romance wasn't really needed, it was nice to have either way, because romance is nice
I like thorin but I love Bilbo and I like many people I´m really upset that thorin robbed the scene from the protagonist.
I saw the hobbit yesterday in 3D and i have mixed feelings about it...mostly because they put an 10-15min intermission right after the barrel sequence which complety cut off the immersion for me, the second half being a little longer and less crazy and badass to me (just like the book is actually)! I think i'll buy it and watch it again without this cut it should be better
Overall nice movie