The Road Goes Ever On and On: Everything Tolkien - Book 2

[Meltintalle]

Far Over the Misty Mountains EE

For those who want to hear all the verses (though I have not verified that myself) from the book sung to the movie tune...

[Catmint-the-Witch]

Hello? Just popping by! So, who's buying the Hobbit when it comes out and who's waiting for Extended Edition? I'm going to wait since I was extremely disappointed with Desolation of Smaug.

[johobbit]

Yes, that is very cool, indeed, Dot!

Mel, that song brings so many goosebumps (thanks for the link!), but I must admit that after so many verses, the repetitive music got a bit monotonous after awhile.

Hi Catmint! *high fives* I will not be buying The Desolation of Smaug. I have not even yet bought An Unexpected Journey, although I will in time, I think, but only when I see a great price. And then I will probably only watch the first hour of it over and over and over. Oh, and "Riddles in the Dark". But as for TDoS , I doubt we will ever have it in our collection, I was so disappointed.

I longed to love these movies, but I just ... can't.

[Varnafinde]

Good to see you popping by, Catmint!

I'm going to wait, too - I think.
I wasn't too disappointed, and I liked it better at second viewing - but I'm in no hurry to watch it again, and the EE may be worth waiting for.

[Mehinen]

I'm torn . It would be really nice to see more of Thranduil's halls and Beorn, but the EE is nearly half a year away and more expensive (and who knows what is in it? It might be something I won't like), while it would be so easy to just walk in the shop and buy the original version... Life is full of difficult decisions. I think I'll settle for the shorter film in the end.

[Catmint-the-Witch]

Hey, guys!
I could rant forever about it but I don't like focusing on negative things. Smaug was awesome. ^_^

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

DoS did some things better than AUJ but not many. It certainly did some things worse. I'll wait for the Extended Edition. The behind the scenes for AUJ were excellent.

[fantasia]

Interesting. The Hobbit 3 has been changed from 'There and Back Again' to 'Battle of Five Armies.' Probably much more appropriate since there isn't much getting 'there' in movie three.

[Impending Doom]

I'm kind of disappointed. There and Back Again was perfect for the last Middle Earth film. It gave a sence of closure but I understand why they changed it. Though it's going to take some time to get used to.

Peter also mentioned that there would be 25+ minutes of new footage (with a new score ) in the EE!

[johobbit]

*sigh* Though this is probably my least of complaints from The Hobbit movies, it still irks me. As someone else has said, does this mean we are going to get 3 hours of the battle? Obviously that is an exaggeration, but I still betcha' PJ is going to go to town on this.

I can see the former title did not totally suit, but I still think, as you do Impending Doom, that There and Back Again gave a nice finale, very Tolkien feel to the trilogy.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

The Hobbit movies need to be drastically cut-down and reworked, not added to! I'm loving the behind the scenes though. Pity the movies were only average.

[Lady Galadriel]

"Into the Fire?" I have a hard time believing that this title was ever a consideration. Not only does it not fit Middle-earth, but it almost suggests the possibility of a fourth movie. It's not a good title for the ending of a trilogy, that's for certain.

"The Battle of Five Armies" is an improvement, but this almost foreshadows that the battle will take up the majority of the movie. Battles are nothing new, and I'd prefer not see one that takes up a huge portion of the movie.

The Hobbit movies need to be drastically cut-down and reworked, not added to! I'm loving the behind the scenes though. Pity the movies were only average.

DOS definitely had an issue with pacing. Beorn's house and Thranduil's hall were so rushed that I was shocked. Going in to see the movie, I wasn't expecting that. It seems that this was done so that we could spend a longer time watching Smaug's confrontation with the Dwarves.

(I loved the idea of the Dwarves confronting Smaug. Personally, it's something that I wish had happened in the book. But in the movie, it went on...and on...and on... One almost wonders, if Smaug is so deadly and frightening, then how come in that whole length of time he couldn't catch one Dwarf?)

DOS is almost trying to make up for AUJ. AUJ had the opposite problem with pacing -- going extraordinarily slowly! (As a book fan, I appreciated more time spent in Bag End. But on the same token, I was getting bored after spending so long in Goblin Town.)

Despite all of my comments, I am still interested in the extended edition of DOS. It depends on what it contains. If it includes more of Beorn, Mirkwood, or Thranduil's hall, I would love to see it. If it includes more Tauriel-Kili scenes, or more of the Smaug-Dwarf confrontation.... then I may have to pass.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

Good point. I agree with you on all accounts (or at least what you've just described). I guess I was thinking more about the overly-long scenes rather than the rushed scenes. Yes, the rushed scenes needed more airtime. I really enjoyed the Smaug versus the dwarves scene too but it became a bit much when they poured liquid gold over him.

[Impending Doom]

"Lord of the Rings: Battle of Pelennor Fields"

[Meltintalle]

I finished reading The Fall of Arthur last night, and among the bonus features was a bit of commentary on how the poem related to the Númenor legend as it stood at the time. (Also there was a recap of what The Lost Road was supposed to be which is rather fascinating to contemplate because Tolkien and time travel do not seem to go together...)

As a long-time visitor of Middle Earth, it was quite strange to read of Arthur going through Mirkwood. Granted, it is a descriptive name as opposed to, say, Gondor, but there was also a part where it felt like Arthur was the king visiting the paths of the dead. It wasn't quite as jarring, however, as reading about how Lancelot might have been meant to go on the same journey as Eärendil.

Anyone else have the same sort of experience?

[Lilygloves]

I would say that I liked DOS, but the list of things I didn't like is actually really long. The most concise way of expressing my feelings about the film would be, "cut out the white orc". I didn't really enjoy any of the plots involved with the white orc, and there was actually a lot of cause and effect that I didn't like because of him. I mean, it's Middle-Earth! Does it really need more action added? I didn't care for Tauriel and the implied love triangle, and her involvement with the company would not be necessary if the dwarves were not being chased by the white orc. Kili wouldn't have been shot with the arrow, and so he and Fili would actually be there with the company on the Lonely Mountain. I have no idea why they added that.
They replaced the clever scenes with action, and that affected the pacing a lot. My favorite scene is the one when Gandalf slowly introduces the dwarves and Bilbo to Beon because it's done so cleverly and it's funny and interesting. That was replaced with action. The same thing happened to dialogue with the spiders in Mirkwood and with Smaug. All the cleverness was taken out and replaced with action. I really wish I could like the movie more than I did.