The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Teaser

[Coldsnap]

To be honest, all I was able to notice wasn't much else than the many changes this seems to imply. I don't think they are all for the worse and expanding the elves role and motivation could certainly be interesting.

One thing that did illicit a sigh from me was the barrel snippets. I hope to be wrong, but it certainly looks like they are going to turn it into the drawn out silliness of the goblin mines escape scene.

 

[idarkphoenixi]

Guess I was right in wanting to give the rest of the Hobbit movies a miss. I gave the first one a chance and was thoroughly disappointed, but at least I tried.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

The elves jumping through the trees firing arrows is the only thing that bothered me. Mainly because the elves did not know that that was how the dwarves escaped, and if they did, the dwarves would not have escaped. Based on the Lord of the Rings movies (and the books, I suppose, though it's clearer in the movies), the elves are crazy accurate with their bows and would have literally turned the dwarves into fish in a barrel. Ha ha. The CGI of them moving through the trees also looks rather poor, like their monkeys or something.

Good stuff: FINALLY get to see Gandalf in that old castle drawing his sword. That shot was all over the trailers in the first movie, but was not in the actual movie. Drove me nuts. SPIDERS! Pleas,let the spiders talk! Please, please, please! I was very upset that the eagles did not speak (hoping they do in the extended edition), so please don't make the same mistake with the spiders. Radagast is back. I like him. Smaug looks good, although I'm forced to wonder why Bilbo doesn't have the Ring on when he's in there. That's rather foolish.

All things considered, I'm excited about this.

 

[Casual Shinji]

It just looks like the same soulless, emotionally disconnected, flat, tensionless CGI holocaust that typified the Star Wars prequels. I never thought I'd say this, but can we go back to puppets and models please? Until they sort out how to make the CGI not look so fucking awful?

The more advanced CGI gets the more attention it seems to drawing to itself. This mentality of "Whoa yeah, look who awesome this CGI looks, ey" is not likely to disappear anytime soon.

The first movie already looked like it was shot on a sound stage, and the fights scenes were worse then the Warg Battle in The Two Towers.

And even apart from that, I just don't care about any of these characters at all. Except maybe Gandalf, but he makes such a bushed and tired expression. Probably because Ian McKellen is bushed and tired. And it looks like that totally flacid presence of a white orc is back, too. Goodbye, sweet proshtetic make-up. Where's Lurtz when you need him.

And it looks like RedLetterMedia fucking called it in their Half in the Bag review of An Unexpected Journey, in regards to how the barrel scene is now turned into a big over the top action scene.

 

[DementedSheep]

It actually looks pretty bad. Much of the movement and CGI look off and overall I'm just not feeling the hype for it.

 

[Vrex360]

I can tell you right now the CGI is way too excessive and if it already looks vaguely cartoony now when its new it's going to look worse in ten years time but whatever.
Also there is way too much action in this, the Hobbit is a children's story, why do we need all the 'impending doom' evil stuff anyway, isn't a giant dragon 'villain' enough?
Dragon does look amazing by the way.

Also looks like it'll cover the spiders, more orcs and the dragon at the end which is pretty much all the parts of the book that I know/care about which again really makes me wonder why this is a trilogy if the third installment is just going to be 'the stuff at the end no one remembers/cares about'.

But maybe I'm being too harsh, I should wait and see.

 

[Super Kami Guru]

It does look really cartoony -_- Having never read the books, does Legolas appear in The Hobbit book? If not it's just blatant fan service to try and get a few more LOTR fans through the door.

I still haven't even seen the first one, it just doesn't excite me, I loved LOTR for the action, large battles and sword play more than the fantasy element.

 

[Sixcess]

It does look really cartoony -_- Having never read the books, does Legolas appear in The Hobbit book? If not it's just blatant fan service to try and get a few more LOTR fans through the door.

He doesn't appear in the book, but there's no reason for him not to appear in the film, as he is the son of King Thranduil of Mirkwood, and Thranduil does play a part in The Hobbit.

It is, undoubtedly, intended to tie the new films more closely to The Lord of the Rings, but as changes go it is justifiable. Book purists will be unhappy no doubt, but lore purists don't really have much to complain about.

 

[Baron von Blitztank]

The CGI does like a bit off. I'm not sure if it was like this in the first one, but here it makes everything look unnaturally smooth.
Still, I did enjoy the first movie so I'm definitely going to go see this one.

 

[Rossco64]

Ugh way too much CGI. It's actually starting to look like The LotR and Hobbit films were directed by different people.

 

[TheFunPolice]

I've not actually seen The Hobbit yet, but I've gotta say, the amount of CGI going into this is waaayy too noticeable, I hope they don't fire the entire cast by the 3rd film and try to just make the entire damn thing out of CGI

 

[Froggy Slayer]

The CGI people look quite silly.

The CGI dragon, however, looks pretty great.

 

[Drops a Sweet Katana]

Let me say one thing: CALM DOWN WITH THE CGI! I don't mind having lots of CGI in a film. However the amount here and its use is frankly ridiculous. The scene with the elves chasing the dwarves down the river (because apparently THAT had to be an action scene) looks really bad. There's way too much movement in the camera and CG models and it makes it look stiff and artificial. Smaug looks pretty good though.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

I am rather bugged by the total xenophobic elves. In the book, the Mirkwood Elves were isolationists, rather than being openly hostile to the Dwarves. When the company tried to reach the elves campfire, they simply vanished and darted away, egging the Dwarves on. They didn't go all Warhammer and try to exterminate any non silvan who entered their domain.

And the reason the Dwarves escaped in the barrels was because the two guards on duty got overconfident with the Dorwinian Wine and passed out. Even Elves have alcohol limits.

 

[sylekage]

I saw this trailer and went full nerd. My only gripe with these movies is the over abundance of CGI. It seems like they put most of the budget into that, hell, the smoke from the pipes is CG, but other than that, it has the feel of the Lord of the Rings, and it's a beautiful.I absolutely can not wait for it.

 

[ImSkeletor]

Loved the LOTR films, loved the Hobbit Book(Bored by it when I read it originally when I was 10, but grew an appreciation for in retrospect), and loved the Hobbit movie. Added some nice character stuff to Thorin who wasn't particularly well fleshed out in the book. He was just kind of the leader dwarf. It maintained the goofy nature of the book, but updated it a bit. I have never understood purists.

 

[King Billi]

I really liked "An Unexpected Journey" and this certainly looks like it will be just as much fun as that movie was.

To be honest though even though I am excited about this film myself I'm even more interested in the idea of taking my nephew to see this, I took him to see the first one because he was nine and I just thought he'd appreciate the action and adventure of the whole thing. In doing so though I unwittingly created a sudden Tolkein obsession in him, he immediately read the book from beginning to end to find out the whole story(he never mentioned having any issues about the changes the movie made). He also sought out and watched the entire Lord of the Rings Trilogy on DVD and has told me how he intends to start reading those books soon as well which for a kid his age I think would be very impressive.

He often reminds me how excited he is about seeing the next "Hobbit movie" at the cinema, I wonder what his reaction would be to this trailer?

 

[The-Traveling-Bard]

The CGI people look quite silly.

The CGI dragon, however, looks pretty great.

Really?

I thought the CGI dragon looked horrible and too fake. o.o.

Although this is a kid's movie apparently..

 

[lapan]

And even apart from that, I just don't care about any of these characters at all. Except maybe Gandalf, but he makes such a bushed and tired expression. Probably because Ian McKellen is bushed and tired. And it looks like that totally flacid presence of a white orc is back, too. Goodbye, sweet proshtetic make-up. Where's Lurtz when you need him.

Well, he has to act out all the scenes with the dwarves all by himself. They only get inserted later to give the illusion of size-difference.

I can't even immagine how tiring that must be.

http://www.nme.com/filmandtv/news/ian-mckellen-filming-the-hobbit-made-me-cry-with/291187