I like the story that a fan contacted Peter Jackson and said “I can’t wait to see Smaug all sparkly from the jewels that got stuck to him” and Jackson was like “Oh no we didn’t do that.” So they went back and added a bunch of sparkly bits to Smaug.
The idea of the last hobbit movie just being 3 hours of the dwarves and hobbit and characters just shuffling around the dead dragon trying to figure out what it is is pretty fantastic. Triviatastic I’d say
If you consider the white Orc as the true hero of the film it's much more compelling. He never does anything cruel or evil. When asked whether someone has a grudge against the elves, this one-handed scarred up dude steps up and says "me." The barrel sequence becomes especially harrowing as Legolas essentially becomes Jason Voorhes doing unbelievable things and slaughtering his men. The elves casually murder orcs throughoutvthe film, including helpless prisoners. They're the bad guys, and the rag-tag orc unit are the underdog heroes.
This was the first ever Blue Harvest reference to genuinely get me, I didn't see it coming a mile away for once--you crafty blokes snuck it right up on me and beat me over the head with it like a blackjack. Keep up the great work gents 👏
the best about the dragon was that he had just four limbs of which the front ones were wings but he still walked like a quadruped. This instead of the classic image where the wing sprout out somewhere from the collarbones without any real muscle attachments. When I saw this my thoights were : Woow!! Smaug went pterosaur!
I love how in the book the guy who kills smaug gets like 3 pages. Like the town is being attacked by a dragon and the town is like "get that one guy who's good at archery" and the guy shows up and kills smaug with a single arrow
I'd love to see a Caravan of Garbage for: 1. Indiana Jones franchise 2. Pirates of the Caribbean frinchise 3. Batman Mask of the Phantasm 4. Ghost Rider 1 and 2 5. Hellboy 1, 2 and reboot
For some reason i could have sworn they did cover the hellboy movies, but i looked it up and you're right. Seems like a perfect franchise for this series.
The weird barrel camera moments were actually shot with a go pro, because during the fly-by-night filming process the idea to do POV shots came up, but the equipment needed wasn’t on set, so one of the crew members actually just volunteered his personal camera so they could get the shots.
@@mercer345 Jackson was flying by the seat of his pants. He had three years before the original films even went into production Being rushed can be great for creativity but it can also make for some stupid decisions in the moment
The best things about this movie: The CGI/performance for Smaug and the absolute ball of fun that Lee Pace was clearly having as Thranduil. All of the actors were quite good and honestly deserved better.
Top insight into romantic writing: when you make them all pretty you don't have to put any effort into their character, behaviour and motivations to justify the "unconventional" attraction. Love at first sight saves so much time.
@@LuisSierra42 Made even worse by the fact that Evangeline Lilly _specifically requested_ to NOT be a romantic interest in a stupid love triangle because she _hated_ the love triangle in Lost and also knew that such a trite and melodramatic ploy was "totally not Tolkien." So the studio agreed and said Tauriel would strictly be an elf warrior, no dumb love triangles... _and then they wrote in a love triangle at the last minute because they're a bunch of lying hacks lmao._
@@GoddoDoggo and even worse to come is that it actively undermines the entire character arc for Legolas and Gimli in the actual films that this trilogy went out of its way to connect to. You cant have a big arc over three main movies be two dudes from traditionally hostile races becoming friends when in the previous movie a pair fell in love because of a literal dick joke over the course of a 4 minute conversation. It does lessen the impact somewhat
Legolas' dad is called Tharanduil, as I'm sure you didn't care. But even as a Tolkien fan, this was ridiculously overblown set of movies that didn't need to be 8 hours long. In the books, the dwarfs are distinguished by being "The One in Charge", "The Fat One" and "The Eleven Others", so the portrayal in this film was pretty accurate!
Everything about Smaug was awesome to me. He was terrifying, gigantic, elegant, clever...I think Smaug is why Desolation is my favorite of the three. The scenes between him and Bilbo are the best. I remember hating the first one but then the second one got me excited again. And the third one was like being forced to eat a shit sandwich for 3 hours.
As a person who’s read and audio book listened to hobbit A LOT and had very little interest in LOTR or the extended materials, I love how excited James is about having read the Hobbit 😅😅 Welcome to the Hobbit fan club.
All I can say is I think the Lord of the Rings movies still hold up. The books I can't speak to as I was able to read The Hobbit several times over the years but could never get into the Lord of the Rings books myself. At the least if you haven't seen it you might check out the much older animated Hobbit movie that came out I forget sometime between the '70s and 90s, unlike the many attempts at the animated Lord of the Rings I remember it holding up pretty well if you want to see a movie adaptation of the story anyway.
@@rhettannandale I re-listen for enjoyment…enjoyment I don’t get as much from LoTR tbh. The same reason I re-listen and re-watch and re-read all stories I like.
My favorite green trivia is how Tolkien was, by profession, a linguist & made-up so many languages he didn’t know what to do with so he just figured “I’ll make a story around this” and he did.
Benedict did a fantastic job as Smaug and very interesting that Smaug kidnap a good chunk of Italians and that's why you don't see a lot of Italians in Lord of the Rings🤣
For me, this is where the trilogy officially went off the rails and *hard.* I remember the first movie actually being relatively (certainly not totally) accurate, at least in spirit, and a decent watch. TDOS was way too long, the new content was unwarranted and outright terrible in places, and the stuff pulled from the book was 90% unsatisfying (aside from the spiders kind of, Mirkwood was a huge disappointment). Best parts, easily, were basically anything involving Smaug, and that was way, way at the end of this and far too brief. And the cinematography is awful. Not just the swirling CGI camerawork, but also the weird lighting and overall softness. An incredible far cry from The Fellowship of the Ring.
The cinematography is acceptable. I don't mind the swoopy camerawork. PJ always did that stuff. I agree with the visual style. I like The Hobbit trilogy but I admit that the visual style is complete and copius garbage. CinemaSins summed it up: "every shot looks like it was jizzed on by the sun." It has this horrible overly bright look with bloom that is drawn around every character. It looks like something from the 1980s such as Excalibur. Too much bloom that adds nothing except frustration at how the trilogy looks.
Funnily enough this is the one I like the most. Tbh the issue is the length, I enjoy aspects of all 3 movies and the cast does do an amazing job. Just overall its a mess
The sad thing is the best parts were the best parts of the trilogy, they could have very easily made this two movies and had most of the Smaug stuff in the first film. It really couldn't stretch to a third movie without just adding unnecessary scenes for a story that wasn't that complex.
Just when I was beginning to wonder if they would use the Blue Harvest fact again during Green Trivia they went and did it and confirmed to me that this will be a weekly gag to which I can always look forward!
As you guys said you aren't watching the extended editions, then I hope you address in the third film that the theatrical cut of Battle of Five Armies doesn't actually resolve the narrative. Unless you purchased the extended edition, they completely drop the story of the Arkhen Stone, the fate of Erebor, etc, in one of the hackiest edits I've ever seen. Cheers!
my absolute favorite part about the Hobbit story is that there was absolutely no way Bilbo could have physically carried his treasure back to the Shire. And Gandalf and the Dwarves knew this! They kind of distract him from the logistics of it and get him to just focus on other aspects of the journey. As a reader i'm thinking about how heavy gold is the entire time he is getting farther and farther away from his house. Every step makes the return trip longer with thousands of pounds of gold. And then at the end when Bilbo has to decide what to do, the fact that he couldn't bring it back anyway helps him decide. Tolkein knew it was a hole in Bilbo's logic, and he addresses it right at the end. Perfect adventure book. The first edition is by far the best though. I love the original Gollum scene
I remember watching this movie when the heinous dragon, Smaug, rises from the gold pool and yells the iconic line "It's Smaugin' time!" and proceeded to smaug on everyone.
This is definitely my favorite of the three Hobbit movies (not that that is a high bar). I like all the dragons parts and also I See Fire is just a fantastic song for the credits.
These boys need a siskel and ebert style review show where they just give their entirety arbitrary opinions on new movies and then proceed to call it either best or worst movie ever. Maybe even in audio format. Like a podcast or something. Just a wild idea.
I just watched a supercut of the Hobbit trilogy and let me tell you, didn't miss the excised stuff at all, especially Radagast the I like to have Birds shit on my head and side-quest to Dol Guldur, now with Zombie Galadriel.
I worked in the film industry in Wellington (mainly on LOTR Prime show), worked my ass off for 6 months on it, but when that dried up I was told by my company “Don’t come in next week! Bye!” I then fell into a depression for a long time. The contractor laws are so shit here thanks John Key bending over for an overseas corporation. Great stuff!
And then of course after the first season, their saying "Fuck it, we're going to the UK anyway even though we got you to pass that law that screwed over your film industry."
I think it's important to remember that in your Minisode Weekly Planet when you originally watched the third Hobbit, Mason liked the love story. Just keep that in mind. :) (Great stuff as always!!)
Just finished an overnight and just about to head to bed better refresh the homepage one more time. Feck, looks like im staying up for another half an hour.
That whole New Zealand actors bit reminded me of one of the New Zealand posters in flight of the conchords that says “New Zealand, like Scotland but further”
Fun fact about the white sweat: in Evil Dead 2 the same thing happened to Ted Rami and in certain shots you can see it leaking out of the holes in his prosthetic in places like his ears and nose and eyes
I'm glad you guys mentioned Lindsay Ellis' videos. Those were the most enjoyment I got out of the Hobbit Trilogy and are just really well done in general.
If you're going for the audiobook versions of LOTR might I suggest the Phil dragash version he blends the music from the films into the audiobooks and its a fantastic rendition.
I'll never forget my then-boyfriend having to actively convince me to not walk out of the cinema when the "barrel transformer" sequence happened. Absolutely excruciating, but also the only thing about the movie I remember so...
@GiRayne You know, I 100% agree with this. These films were way too at odds with being epic and being silly. And not Afrid silly. He just go around and becomes way too annoying than amusing.
I think it was the closest thing to a character I actually liked in these films, and that's because it was so unabashedly shameless in its cartoony nature that it was genuinely funny.
The only thing I remember about watching this movie in the theater is how badly I needed to pee like halfway through but I didn't want to leave because I didn't know when Smaug was gonna show up
SMORGYS!!!!! Best memory from 90s - school lunch excursion trip. Not only students shoving tons of extra donuts off the dessert buffet into pockets but I catch my French teacher doing it also, wrapped in napkins and placed in suit jacket pockets. Priceless. Did anyone ever work out WHY the hawaiian/pacific islander/tiki theme?
I really liked the Laketown scenes, they really put a lot of effort there. And Stephen Fry is amazing as the corrupt Master (his sidekick, too is excellent). But what really struck me with the entire Laketown arc was how grounded it was. You had this run-down town, past its prime, with the people living in filth and dreaming of past glories. Then, some savior comes from nowhere (Thorin and the dwarves) and promises the people what they want to hear (riches, wealth), while the only one who speaks any sense (Bard) gets thrown in jail, because he poses a threat to what the Master wants- more riches for himself mainly, and maybe a few scraps for the common folk (and because he was on the Master's shit list for some time). Then, we see in the Battle of the Five Armies how right Bard was, but too late. Laketown is fucked. I really enjoyed that part (as well as the design of Laketown, it felt realistic). Desolation is easily the best of the trilogy.
Same, Laketown was my favorite part of the trilogy. I also enjoyed the siege stuff in the third movie, thought that may just be because I enjoy that kind of thing.
Was packing the bowl when James said "blue hue" and I instantly said "Blue harvest?" out loud and then he did the blue harvest joke. I am now smiling. :)
'Desolation' is the weakest of the six films and has too many scenes that go on for too long, but it also highlights Mr. Jackson's strengths better than any other film, and that's how well he handles spooky stuff: Gandalf's infiltration into the High Fells, while invented for the film, has this wonderful maliciousness to it, and Smaug is one of the best dragons ever put on screen. His design, his animation, his voice, it's all just *chef's kiss*. But in my opinion, Gandalf's search of Dol Guldur and his subsequent confrontation against Sauron is one of THE coolest moments in the Middle-Earth saga. It elevates Sauron into an eldritch abomination that really sells how terrible and powerful he is, as well as ret-conning the Eye of Sauron into being an envelope with Sauron in the center. 'Desolation' isn't that good, but it does have some freaking amazing moments that deserve to be recognized.
I understand all the issues with these movies, but for whatever reason they're just a blind spot for me and i love them. Watch the extended eddtions all the time! Also the behind the scene documentries are amazing like the LOTR ones.
The problem is they're a lavish adaptation of a beloved story wrapped an incoherent mess yet crafted with some excellent production, casting, acting, etc. It's easy to find things to like about them but also easy to find them boring, overwhelming, and/or disappointing. WETA is obviously amazing and it's fun to see all the effort that went into the films.
@@spaceghostcqc2137 I understand how people feel all those negitive things when rhey watch it, but i dunno what to say i just dont at all. I genuienly love the films.
There was an interview where Evangeline Lilly said she'd signed on to The Hobbit on the condition that she didn't have to do another love triangle after Lost. And then they immediately rewrote the script to include an unnecessary love triangle. She was not pleased.
For someone who hadn’t read the hobbit and lotr books, i doesn’t didn’t care about this trilogy’s reception so I really did enjoyed it. In my opinion, the hobbit showed more of the elves and dwarfs than lotr which mainly focused on the human conflict. Plus these movies do connect to lotr (if you watched the extended versions for 6 films) smoothly so the continuity fits and seeing more Gandalf and Legolas is a automatic A plus for me. Is Legolas pretty much pointless in this story? Yes but I honestly didn’t care, fan service for me I guess. My only complaint/nitpick is unlike lotr, these movies tend to go to the CGI path like so many movies do after their predecessors which used practical effects.
Mason sounds so fucking done with the blue harvest trivia joke. I just imagine him looking at James with a straight thinking "I'm done with your shit James"
I implore anyone here to watch the M4 Book Edit of this trilogy. It cuts out all of the gaff that wasn't in the novel and keeps anything that was in the novel and it's a wonderful 3.5ish hour experience.
I genuinely forgot that I had seen the Hobbit movies until I watched the Lindsay Ellis documentary and got to the weird love story and the barrels in the river scenes. What a strange movie series.
Love your videos! I know you guys aren’t doing the extended versions but maybe make an exception for the third one, it’s rated R and has better fighting scenes than the theatrical and the best one of the trilogy. There’s some actual gore and stuff that was kinda cool. It’s a good payoff for sitting through so much meh with the first two.
I really do think Battle of the Five Armies is the only extended edition out of the six that dramatically improves on the theatrical cut. As far as I understand, the theatrical cut of Five Armies was what it was because they couldn't finish all the effects by the deadline and so scenes were cut. I'd massively recommend watching the extended edition over the theatrical cut.
I'm sorry maybe it was a joke in this video, but the Thor entrance is really really good actually. Because while it is the hero from off screen showing up at the last moment, it also coincides with the climax of Thor's character development story in the film. It's the resurrection scene for Thor who has grown from someone who doesn't care about anything or anyone to someone who will literally sacrifice his life if it might help the greater fight (he basically willingly dies to create Stormbreaker).
I rewatched these during the week, because I'd completely forgotten about 90% of what happens and this is a low point for the majority of the trilogy. I hadn't watched them on my new TV and maybe its just because I was thinking about it, but so much of it looked extra fake and very soft. And again, maybe it's just because I was thinking, but I think it's that 48fps that makes it slightly 'off' to me. I played with settings and even my partner, she wears glasses and mentioned about an hour in how this looks 'weird'.
My friend is the biggest Lord of the Rings fan you could ever meet. He adored the Peter Jackson trilogy after loving the books for years. When the Hobbit came out I went with him to the cinema and I've never seen a man so broken with disappointment in my life. On the way out it was like he was in total disbelief at what he had just witnessed. He couldn't fathom why this was allowed to happen. I didn't care really, its all the same to me so I found this all very funny. He was nearly crying in my car.
“As someone who’s read the book” is James’ new “As a father” for 2022
This made me realise that 2022 only has like 3 months left!
@@sippy1sippy No. Shut up. The year can't be over that fast. It's not possible. You're wrong.
Or “as an expert on Anime”
@@sippy1sippy there will be no 2023
I think he read the book for Heath Ledger’s performance alone.
James has gone from “a man of the world” to “father” to “someone who’s read the book”
He let someone else read it to him
I like the story that a fan contacted Peter Jackson and said “I can’t wait to see Smaug all sparkly from the jewels that got stuck to him” and Jackson was like “Oh no we didn’t do that.” So they went back and added a bunch of sparkly bits to Smaug.
Yeah pretty sure the only reason he has a tough underbelly is because he has a fuckload of jewels and shite stuck to his belly like armour
Did they even read the book?
This sounds like one of those urban myths that's actually bullshit
That's triviarific
Except Smaug barely has anything stuck to him in the movie. A few loose coins between his scales, sure, but nothing sparkly.
I cannot express just how much "Every now and then they'll cut to a dwarf, and I'm like, 'who's that?'" sent me to the goddamn moon.
How is life in a perpetual state of hyperbole?
@@rhettannandale goddamn bro I'm seeing you in every reply section just spreading negativity
@@rhettannandale it’s the best thing ever
Three hour movie, 25 minute video… and you two hardly even talked about the actual movie. I love it.
Honestly the best part of Caravan of Garbage is just that it's two guys who have been friends for ages just riffing in a vaguely topical manner.
@@communistwookiee4727 facts
That's an accurate representation of the movie lol
The idea of the last hobbit movie just being 3 hours of the dwarves and hobbit and characters just shuffling around the dead dragon trying to figure out what it is is pretty fantastic. Triviatastic I’d say
Three hours of debating how to move the carcass before it starts rotting and arguing over union rules and workman safety regulations.
watching the film with subtitles doesn’t count as reading the book james
What about watching the film with subtitles which are then read to you by Andy Serkis
@@peanutbutter7721 ah yeah fair play then
LOL
If you consider the white Orc as the true hero of the film it's much more compelling. He never does anything cruel or evil. When asked whether someone has a grudge against the elves, this one-handed scarred up dude steps up and says "me." The barrel sequence becomes especially harrowing as Legolas essentially becomes Jason Voorhes doing unbelievable things and slaughtering his men. The elves casually murder orcs throughoutvthe film, including helpless prisoners. They're the bad guys, and the rag-tag orc unit are the underdog heroes.
nice
Holy shit!
But he must be the bad guy! After all, he and the orcs are ugly while the elves are beautiful. Guilt by appearance.
@@joecope9935 he serves a guy who is so evil that he kills the land around him
@@caesarspeaks you're fun. You're a fun guy, I can tell. I have a nose for fun dudes and you're a fun guy.
The Oakenshield power of "playing music to call in help from off frame" is legendary and needs to be applied to other movies.
This was the first ever Blue Harvest reference to genuinely get me, I didn't see it coming a mile away for once--you crafty blokes snuck it right up on me and beat me over the head with it like a blackjack.
Keep up the great work gents 👏
The best thing to come out of the second Hobbit movie is Benedict Cumberbatch as Smaug. Seeing him acting in the motion capture suit was wonderful.
the best about the dragon was that he had just four limbs of which the front ones were wings but he still walked like a quadruped.
This instead of the classic image where the wing sprout out somewhere from the collarbones without any real muscle attachments.
When I saw this my thoights were : Woow!! Smaug went pterosaur!
@@kamion53 that dragon design is called a wyvern and there are many examples for them (Game of Thrones or Skyrim for example)
And Sauron.
Did you catch the receptionist in the background just doing desk stuff? Amazing
I wish I cared enough or was as committed to my job as Benedict Cumberbatch was to playing Smaug. It’s a delight to see.
I love how in the book the guy who kills smaug gets like 3 pages. Like the town is being attacked by a dragon and the town is like "get that one guy who's good at archery" and the guy shows up and kills smaug with a single arrow
The actor who played Bard looked more like Orlando Bloom than Orlando Bloom did in this movie
I'd love to see a Caravan of Garbage for:
1. Indiana Jones franchise
2. Pirates of the Caribbean frinchise
3. Batman Mask of the Phantasm
4. Ghost Rider 1 and 2
5. Hellboy 1, 2 and reboot
Indiana Jones is a must
They'll definitely do Indiana Jones when the new one comes around
The Captain America trilogy as well.
For some reason i could have sworn they did cover the hellboy movies, but i looked it up and you're right. Seems like a perfect franchise for this series.
or any of the kind of random eras in Spielberg's career
"He's got italians in there" has to be the best line ever.
I'll be tuning in next week purely to see if James keeps up the bit of pronouncing Legolas as Leg-OH-las because that's very funny.
The weird barrel camera moments were actually shot with a go pro, because during the fly-by-night filming process the idea to do POV shots came up, but the equipment needed wasn’t on set, so one of the crew members actually just volunteered his personal camera so they could get the shots.
That's so shit 🤣🤣 what was Jackson thinking
I remember being like 11 years old watching it in theatres and being like “…was that a fucking gopro shot?”
@@mercer345 Jackson was flying by the seat of his pants. He had three years before the original films even went into production
Being rushed can be great for creativity but it can also make for some stupid decisions in the moment
The best things about this movie: The CGI/performance for Smaug and the absolute ball of fun that Lee Pace was clearly having as Thranduil.
All of the actors were quite good and honestly deserved better.
Lee Pace also delivers the most awful line in the whole trilogy "because it was real"
@@LuisSierra42 Lee Pace was so wasted on that garbage.
@@LuisSierra42 Yes, but that wasn't his fault, lol. His performance was very enjoyably unhinged.
Top insight into romantic writing: when you make them all pretty you don't have to put any effort into their character, behaviour and motivations to justify the "unconventional" attraction. Love at first sight saves so much time.
The romantic triangle thing in these movies was the single WORST aspect of them
@@LuisSierra42 Made even worse by the fact that Evangeline Lilly _specifically requested_ to NOT be a romantic interest in a stupid love triangle because she _hated_ the love triangle in Lost and also knew that such a trite and melodramatic ploy was "totally not Tolkien." So the studio agreed and said Tauriel would strictly be an elf warrior, no dumb love triangles... _and then they wrote in a love triangle at the last minute because they're a bunch of lying hacks lmao._
@@GoddoDoggo and even worse to come is that it actively undermines the entire character arc for Legolas and Gimli in the actual films that this trilogy went out of its way to connect to. You cant have a big arc over three main movies be two dudes from traditionally hostile races becoming friends when in the previous movie a pair fell in love because of a literal dick joke over the course of a 4 minute conversation.
It does lessen the impact somewhat
Attractive man and attractive woman stand in room and look at each other while music plays in the score - THEY’RE IN LOVE
Props to James and the editors for putting the main character in the thumbnail. Not every TH-cam channel is this diligent.
Legolas' dad is called Tharanduil, as I'm sure you didn't care. But even as a Tolkien fan, this was ridiculously overblown set of movies that didn't need to be 8 hours long.
In the books, the dwarfs are distinguished by being "The One in Charge", "The Fat One" and "The Eleven Others", so the portrayal in this film was pretty accurate!
To be fair, they were distinguished by being "The One in Charge", "The Fat One", "The One who sometimes speaks with Bilbo" and then "The Ten Others".
he's called Thranduil
FIli and Kili were somewhat distinguished by being notably younger and with better eyesight than the other dwarves.
Just imagine if they'd taken 3 or 4 dwarves, defined them cleanly, and left the rest as background dudes to fill out group shots.
@@choronos And, as I recall, they got most of the grunt work.
One thing I will say for this movie
Smaug looks absolutely incredible.
Giant golden dragon is an absolutely stunning visual.
He really doesn't though, the dragons from reign of fire, a film 10 years older than this, look much better
Everything about Smaug was awesome to me. He was terrifying, gigantic, elegant, clever...I think Smaug is why Desolation is my favorite of the three. The scenes between him and Bilbo are the best. I remember hating the first one but then the second one got me excited again. And the third one was like being forced to eat a shit sandwich for 3 hours.
As a person who’s read and audio book listened to hobbit A LOT and had very little interest in LOTR or the extended materials, I love how excited James is about having read the Hobbit 😅😅 Welcome to the Hobbit fan club.
The Lord of the rings books are brilliant but the Hobbit is insanely good.
Glad you enjoy, but why re-listen? Move on, read more.
@@rhettannandale Why throw away a comfortable sweater, if it's still good after multiple wearings, and brings you happiness?
All I can say is I think the Lord of the Rings movies still hold up. The books I can't speak to as I was able to read The Hobbit several times over the years but could never get into the Lord of the Rings books myself.
At the least if you haven't seen it you might check out the much older animated Hobbit movie that came out I forget sometime between the '70s and 90s, unlike the many attempts at the animated Lord of the Rings I remember it holding up pretty well if you want to see a movie adaptation of the story anyway.
@@rhettannandale I re-listen for enjoyment…enjoyment I don’t get as much from LoTR tbh. The same reason I re-listen and re-watch and re-read all stories I like.
0:40 James pronouncing Legolas is the weirdest thing I’ve heard all day.
Was checking to see if anyone else had noticed that!
He's French - Le Golas
It killed me every time 🤣🤣🤣
Gimli: _"never thought I'd died fighting side by side with an elf"_
Legolas: _"how about side by side with a goblin mutant?"_
My favorite green trivia is how Tolkien was, by profession, a linguist & made-up so many languages he didn’t know what to do with so he just figured “I’ll make a story around this” and he did.
Benedict did a fantastic job as Smaug and very interesting that Smaug kidnap a good chunk of Italians and that's why you don't see a lot of Italians in Lord of the Rings🤣
For me, this is where the trilogy officially went off the rails and *hard.* I remember the first movie actually being relatively (certainly not totally) accurate, at least in spirit, and a decent watch. TDOS was way too long, the new content was unwarranted and outright terrible in places, and the stuff pulled from the book was 90% unsatisfying (aside from the spiders kind of, Mirkwood was a huge disappointment). Best parts, easily, were basically anything involving Smaug, and that was way, way at the end of this and far too brief.
And the cinematography is awful. Not just the swirling CGI camerawork, but also the weird lighting and overall softness. An incredible far cry from The Fellowship of the Ring.
The cinematography is acceptable. I don't mind the swoopy camerawork. PJ always did that stuff. I agree with the visual style. I like The Hobbit trilogy but I admit that the visual style is complete and copius garbage. CinemaSins summed it up: "every shot looks like it was jizzed on by the sun."
It has this horrible overly bright look with bloom that is drawn around every character. It looks like something from the 1980s such as Excalibur. Too much bloom that adds nothing except frustration at how the trilogy looks.
Funnily enough this is the one I like the most. Tbh the issue is the length, I enjoy aspects of all 3 movies and the cast does do an amazing job. Just overall its a mess
Honestly desolation of smaug was my favourite of the three, as flawed as it might be. The other two were just too boring for me.
The sad thing is the best parts were the best parts of the trilogy, they could have very easily made this two movies and had most of the Smaug stuff in the first film. It really couldn't stretch to a third movie without just adding unnecessary scenes for a story that wasn't that complex.
The weird digital glowwy cinematography in this trilogy is dreadful
Everyone one is on fire in this one. James, nick, editors everything is on fire.
Just when I was beginning to wonder if they would use the Blue Harvest fact again during Green Trivia they went and did it and confirmed to me that this will be a weekly gag to which I can always look forward!
“How are we going to light these fires?” really feels like busy work in an RPG.
why do I laugh at every blue harvest reference, it always gets me even though I know it's coming
As you guys said you aren't watching the extended editions, then I hope you address in the third film that the theatrical cut of Battle of Five Armies doesn't actually resolve the narrative. Unless you purchased the extended edition, they completely drop the story of the Arkhen Stone, the fate of Erebor, etc, in one of the hackiest edits I've ever seen. Cheers!
This is the new form of DLC where you have to buy the extended cuts of movies to actually resolve the main storyline
No idea how Mason just casually riffed “It’s got scales”. That’s S tier improv.
Had me in stitches, fantastic
my absolute favorite part about the Hobbit story is that there was absolutely no way Bilbo could have physically carried his treasure back to the Shire. And Gandalf and the Dwarves knew this! They kind of distract him from the logistics of it and get him to just focus on other aspects of the journey. As a reader i'm thinking about how heavy gold is the entire time he is getting farther and farther away from his house. Every step makes the return trip longer with thousands of pounds of gold. And then at the end when Bilbo has to decide what to do, the fact that he couldn't bring it back anyway helps him decide. Tolkein knew it was a hole in Bilbo's logic, and he addresses it right at the end. Perfect adventure book. The first edition is by far the best though. I love the original Gollum scene
7:19 The discussion of weird little creepy guys (heheheh) is my favorite bit from this episode, and one of my favorite bits of theirs ever!
I remember watching this movie when the heinous dragon, Smaug, rises from the gold pool and yells the iconic line "It's Smaugin' time!" and proceeded to smaug on everyone.
The Hobbit is one of those timeless types of books. It is just a fun read no matter what.
The best thing about "As someone who's read the book" is we're weeks away from the scariest time of year!
Kudos for reading a kids' book James
No matter how many times they do the "Blue Harvest" bit, it always makes me laugh out loud
It’s the best piece of Green Trivia out there
Definitely triviatastic
They're getting better at it too, this one was seamless
I am still not sure if they are joking when they say it was the working title of the 1977 Star Wars insted of Return of the Jedi.
James remembers Lord of the Rings much better than I would have expected
20:13 "We're not ding this until we get a bit more coin." - The production couldn't spare any coins, cause they needed to render 18 million of them!
This is definitely my favorite of the three Hobbit movies (not that that is a high bar). I like all the dragons parts and also I See Fire is just a fantastic song for the credits.
The edit at 2:36 is incredible, i love the editing on this series so much
It's the music that really kills me here
@@jasethomas5198 it's perfect
Just feels so damn good having the boys all back together again
These boys need a siskel and ebert style review show where they just give their entirety arbitrary opinions on new movies and then proceed to call it either best or worst movie ever.
Maybe even in audio format.
Like a podcast or something.
Just a wild idea.
And the whole endevor should be named after a burger or something.
@@HappyCynic or some manner of large wrap
I love that you also mention the damage to the Nz film industry and specifically Lindsay’s amazing documentary on it.
“Lots of Vegetation that needed to be cultivated….”
Saw it coming from a mile away.
I'm so happy someone FINALLY mentioned the GoPro camera in the river. I pointed it out to my friends and they genuinely thought I was crazy.
He read the Hobbit everybody! He's done it again!
I just watched a supercut of the Hobbit trilogy and let me tell you, didn't miss the excised stuff at all, especially Radagast the I like to have Birds shit on my head and side-quest to Dol Guldur, now with Zombie Galadriel.
I worked in the film industry in Wellington (mainly on LOTR Prime show), worked my ass off for 6 months on it, but when that dried up I was told by my company “Don’t come in next week! Bye!” I then fell into a depression for a long time. The contractor laws are so shit here thanks John Key bending over for an overseas corporation. Great stuff!
And then of course after the first season, their saying "Fuck it, we're going to the UK anyway even though we got you to pass that law that screwed over your film industry."
I think it's important to remember that in your Minisode Weekly Planet when you originally watched the third Hobbit, Mason liked the love story. Just keep that in mind. :) (Great stuff as always!!)
Just finished an overnight and just about to head to bed better refresh the homepage one more time. Feck, looks like im staying up for another half an hour.
That whole New Zealand actors bit reminded me of one of the New Zealand posters in flight of the conchords that says “New Zealand, like Scotland but further”
I'm Just grateful that we even got to see these adaptions on the big screen. I still loved the hobbit for what it was.
A cash grab that no one making it cared about, split up into 3 seperate cash grabs for no other reason than making you buy 3 tickets?
The editing remains phenomenal on these videos
I love the scene where Smaug says “It’s smaugin’ time”
Not funny didn’t laugh
Very funny, did laugh
Fun fact about the white sweat: in Evil Dead 2 the same thing happened to Ted Rami and in certain shots you can see it leaking out of the holes in his prosthetic in places like his ears and nose and eyes
I'm glad you guys mentioned Lindsay Ellis' videos. Those were the most enjoyment I got out of the Hobbit Trilogy and are just really well done in general.
And then she was eaten by her own.
It's crazy that the Extended Cut (Director's Edition) of The Battle Of The Five Armies is shorter than the theatrical cut of Fellowship of the Ring.
If you're going for the audiobook versions of LOTR might I suggest the Phil dragash version he blends the music from the films into the audiobooks and its a fantastic rendition.
As someone whose read the book parts were amazing thanks to Ben's pictures and quotes. Top stuff guys. 🤣
LMAO Ben couldn't find a good tweet so he just posted one himself
They finally did it. They finally got me to expect the Blue Harvest bit from the beginning.
I still weirdly really love these movies because of nostalgia, even though I definitely see the flaws
12:36 the genuine disgust in his voice while talking about the Dwarves' gold statue is hilarious
"what are you doing?"
I'll never forget my then-boyfriend having to actively convince me to not walk out of the cinema when the "barrel transformer" sequence happened. Absolutely excruciating, but also the only thing about the movie I remember so...
Wow you seem like a great time
@@Chris-zo4vu no u
@GiRayne You know, I 100% agree with this. These films were way too at odds with being epic and being silly. And not Afrid silly. He just go around and becomes way too annoying than amusing.
Four words that might save your sanity. The Maple Films Edit.
I think it was the closest thing to a character I actually liked in these films, and that's because it was so unabashedly shameless in its cartoony nature that it was genuinely funny.
The only thing I remember about watching this movie in the theater is how badly I needed to pee like halfway through but I didn't want to leave because I didn't know when Smaug was gonna show up
17:01 I could listen to him say “Smaug” all day 🥰
I’ll admit, I’ve clicked that time stamp at least twenty times
YES!!!
SMORGYS!!!!! Best memory from 90s - school lunch excursion trip. Not only students shoving tons of extra donuts off the dessert buffet into pockets but I catch my French teacher doing it also, wrapped in napkins and placed in suit jacket pockets. Priceless. Did anyone ever work out WHY the hawaiian/pacific islander/tiki theme?
I still love these movies despite their flaws. They’ve got a weird charm to them similar to the Star Wars prequels
We were given the Hobbit to read in Primary School ... year 5 at Redfern Primary School in Sydney Australia ... loved it!
I really liked the Laketown scenes, they really put a lot of effort there. And Stephen Fry is amazing as the corrupt Master (his sidekick, too is excellent). But what really struck me with the entire Laketown arc was how grounded it was. You had this run-down town, past its prime, with the people living in filth and dreaming of past glories. Then, some savior comes from nowhere (Thorin and the dwarves) and promises the people what they want to hear (riches, wealth), while the only one who speaks any sense (Bard) gets thrown in jail, because he poses a threat to what the Master wants- more riches for himself mainly, and maybe a few scraps for the common folk (and because he was on the Master's shit list for some time). Then, we see in the Battle of the Five Armies how right Bard was, but too late. Laketown is fucked. I really enjoyed that part (as well as the design of Laketown, it felt realistic). Desolation is easily the best of the trilogy.
Same, Laketown was my favorite part of the trilogy. I also enjoyed the siege stuff in the third movie, thought that may just be because I enjoy that kind of thing.
@@ThreadBomb Yes, the battle scene was amazing. I really loved the duel between Thorin and Azog, too.
As cartoonish as some of laketown was, I agree. It was just nice to see a bit of human society outside of Gondor and Rohan
*Was that a fart at **12:43**? “What are you doing? (FART)”*
Was packing the bowl when James said "blue hue" and I instantly said "Blue harvest?" out loud and then he did the blue harvest joke. I am now smiling.
:)
No you weren't.
The exasperated sigh at 7:57 was great
'Desolation' is the weakest of the six films and has too many scenes that go on for too long, but it also highlights Mr. Jackson's strengths better than any other film, and that's how well he handles spooky stuff: Gandalf's infiltration into the High Fells, while invented for the film, has this wonderful maliciousness to it, and Smaug is one of the best dragons ever put on screen. His design, his animation, his voice, it's all just *chef's kiss*. But in my opinion, Gandalf's search of Dol Guldur and his subsequent confrontation against Sauron is one of THE coolest moments in the Middle-Earth saga. It elevates Sauron into an eldritch abomination that really sells how terrible and powerful he is, as well as ret-conning the Eye of Sauron into being an envelope with Sauron in the center.
'Desolation' isn't that good, but it does have some freaking amazing moments that deserve to be recognized.
Oh thank god I thought I'd actually have to do some work but now I can just watch this at my desk instead
Alright now back to work
I understand all the issues with these movies, but for whatever reason they're just a blind spot for me and i love them. Watch the extended eddtions all the time! Also the behind the scene documentries are amazing like the LOTR ones.
The problem is they're a lavish adaptation of a beloved story wrapped an incoherent mess yet crafted with some excellent production, casting, acting, etc. It's easy to find things to like about them but also easy to find them boring, overwhelming, and/or disappointing. WETA is obviously amazing and it's fun to see all the effort that went into the films.
@@spaceghostcqc2137 I understand how people feel all those negitive things when rhey watch it, but i dunno what to say i just dont at all. I genuienly love the films.
@@aleckgardner6845 Yah nothing wrong with that. Lots of stuff to like in them too. My favorite scene is the dwarves at Bag End.
@@spaceghostcqc2137 I wouldn't say "incoherent". The movies are pretty easy to follow.
I know yall arent doing the the extended editions but for any redeem-ability for the next film you really really should.
There was an interview where Evangeline Lilly said she'd signed on to The Hobbit on the condition that she didn't have to do another love triangle after Lost.
And then they immediately rewrote the script to include an unnecessary love triangle. She was not pleased.
For someone who hadn’t read the hobbit and lotr books, i doesn’t didn’t care about this trilogy’s reception so I really did enjoyed it. In my opinion, the hobbit showed more of the elves and dwarfs than lotr which mainly focused on the human conflict. Plus these movies do connect to lotr (if you watched the extended versions for 6 films) smoothly so the continuity fits and seeing more Gandalf and Legolas is a automatic A plus for me. Is Legolas pretty much pointless in this story? Yes but I honestly didn’t care, fan service for me I guess. My only complaint/nitpick is unlike lotr, these movies tend to go to the CGI path like so many movies do after their predecessors which used practical effects.
I think they'll have to bring back H8 Mail but the H8 has an 8 in it while covering this trilogy
The H8bbit Trilogy?
Mason sounds so fucking done with the blue harvest trivia joke. I just imagine him looking at James with a straight thinking "I'm done with your shit James"
Masterpiece, worthy of 20 Oscars, best film in the history of cinema... compared to Rings of Power.
Hahaha I see what you did there
I love the channel!! So glad you guys got to take a break(everyone needs a little break now and then)
There is no way that a dragon in a cave controlled more wealth than my guy Sheev Palpatine.
I implore anyone here to watch the M4 Book Edit of this trilogy. It cuts out all of the gaff that wasn't in the novel and keeps anything that was in the novel and it's a wonderful 3.5ish hour experience.
I genuinely forgot that I had seen the Hobbit movies until I watched the Lindsay Ellis documentary and got to the weird love story and the barrels in the river scenes. What a strange movie series.
Love your videos! I know you guys aren’t doing the extended versions but maybe make an exception for the third one, it’s rated R and has better fighting scenes than the theatrical and the best one of the trilogy. There’s some actual gore and stuff that was kinda cool. It’s a good payoff for sitting through so much meh with the first two.
I really do think Battle of the Five Armies is the only extended edition out of the six that dramatically improves on the theatrical cut. As far as I understand, the theatrical cut of Five Armies was what it was because they couldn't finish all the effects by the deadline and so scenes were cut. I'd massively recommend watching the extended edition over the theatrical cut.
I'm sorry maybe it was a joke in this video, but the Thor entrance is really really good actually. Because while it is the hero from off screen showing up at the last moment, it also coincides with the climax of Thor's character development story in the film. It's the resurrection scene for Thor who has grown from someone who doesn't care about anything or anyone to someone who will literally sacrifice his life if it might help the greater fight (he basically willingly dies to create Stormbreaker).
Calm down, Stephen.
@@GoddoDoggo no u
I rewatched these during the week, because I'd completely forgotten about 90% of what happens and this is a low point for the majority of the trilogy.
I hadn't watched them on my new TV and maybe its just because I was thinking about it, but so much of it looked extra fake and very soft. And again, maybe it's just because I was thinking, but I think it's that 48fps that makes it slightly 'off' to me.
I played with settings and even my partner, she wears glasses and mentioned about an hour in how this looks 'weird'.
Absolutely howling at the 2002 digital camera that they dropped into a river
James seemed pretty knowledgeable this episode. Did he happen to read the book by any chance?
We have no way of knowing. It's probably because he's a father tbh...
My friend is the biggest Lord of the Rings fan you could ever meet. He adored the Peter Jackson trilogy after loving the books for years. When the Hobbit came out I went with him to the cinema and I've never seen a man so broken with disappointment in my life. On the way out it was like he was in total disbelief at what he had just witnessed. He couldn't fathom why this was allowed to happen. I didn't care really, its all the same to me so I found this all very funny. He was nearly crying in my car.
The Blue Harvest joke will never get old
Never stop never stopping putting in sneaky clips of those cheeky 'Aunty Donna' boys