Let me get my checkbook out... I'll pick this musty old book over a BMW any day...
I don't think I'm seeing the second or third movies in the theater... will stream instead. My hearts just not in it. Remember the Battle of Five Armies is just one chapter. There were about 18 chapters some as short as 10 pages. Thank goodness we don't have 6 movies full of filler material.
It's just Beorn, what little they've shown of his human form reminds of me the 2000 A.D. Slaine and I am a big fan of Slaine, if Beorn says Kiss My Axe to Azog I will consider not hating PJ's Hobbit for about 5 minutes anyway....
Beorn's farm is my favorite part of the story, several days of peace and magic sandwiched in between dark, life threatening events.
), I was pleasantly surprised.
The new trailer for Desolation of Smaug is up
Outside of TMT (Too much Tauriel - bleh) and NNEB (Not Nearly Enough Beorn
Like Bard, really like Smaug and seems like Thorin's 'greed' is staring to manifest.
I hope this will still be shown in 2D since my peepers/noggin can't handle 3D.
Yeah, I only see 3D info on this trailer. I cannot watch anything in 3D so I will probably just rent now myself. This on top of seeing Beorn's human design
(Don't what I was expecting given the disappointing character designs thus far...)
I'm looking forward with some slight trepidation on how they treat it visually. The descriptions of the the main house are fairly specific. I'd have to go read it again, but as I recall it's something like a rambling ranch house made out of hewed timber, nothing "elf" fancy.
I've just taken a look at the trailer (thanks Kazmac). Oh dear, here we go again. I also googled the Beorn character. And my only conclusion is that I think they're designing merchandise action figures first, and then scaling it all up to fit the actor. (I think the brief is probably how to make this character stand out when they're four inches high and sat in a vac formed package.)
Huntn - I hope you don't mind me cross posting this about Beorn's house from the book thread...
Well, it just has to be some sort of Anglo-Saxon style great hall. That's pretty much what Tolkien drew in the book - even down to the sunken fireplace and benches etc. My ongoing gripe with these latest films is that they're completely loosing their ascetic anchor in the myths of Anglo-Saxon/Norse world. It went somewhat in the LOTR but that in itself is not an issue if you've got a better place to go - which they did in the case of those three films. But I think the Hobbit - which is a wittier, less epic story just can't take this shift. Personally (with the exception of Gollum) I thought the story seemed to inconvenience the director. I wish they'd go back to the roots of the story, go smaller scale - more live action - hint at stuff, (far less hyper real in your face GCI and 3d). Gently tell this Beowulf inspired story in a more of a Games of Thrones landscape. (If that makes sense?) If you want to make an epic - expand on the opening to the Lord of the Rings (do something from the Similarion instead.)
Lord of the Rings was the spectacle. Even though there is a Battle of Five Armies mentioned in The Hobbit, it is practically mentioned in passing. Nothing like the battle of Helm's Deep or Pelennor Fields. No The Hobbit was intended as a different kind of story and Jackson blew it up, way up. To lose such artistic vision is a huge disappointment. Let's see how Smaug dies, if it is as sample as an arrow to the heart, probably not... Bilbo probably puts a choke hold on him. 
Got my arm twisted into seeing The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. You guys have all ready gotten to endure my whining about part one, so I'll I'll just say LOTROzied once again, no place for charm, it's totally absent. Charm in the manner they met Beorn, charm in taunting the spiders, and the interaction of Bilbo with the Dragon. Yes a decent "action" movie, two big fabricated (outside the book) action sequences, and they could of done this in 2 movies max.
All Spoilers!
The Hobbit:SoS Differences from book:
All of these changes are to facilitate adding extra material, drama, and "action" to the film.
-No significant pursuit by orcs once the Dwarves were transported to that rock (forget name) by the Eagles and on their way to Beorn's (book).
-Meeting with Beorn was a complete let down in movie. In the book it was magical. He did not try to attack the party when it first showed up (as in Movie), the meeting was cordial with charm as each member was supposed to space their arrival. I don't remember him expressing such disdain for dwarves in the book. Gandalf did not express the possibility that Beorn might kill them all.
-No Elf parties in the woods (movie)! Thorin Party was desperate in the forest running out of food, so after Bilbo peaks out of the tree tops, and sees nothing but more trees, they lose hope and end up they chasing Elvin lights in the forest only to get completely lost and caught by spiders (book).
-Bildo not caught by spiders.
-Bilbo taunts spiders with his ring on, leads them away from dwarf prisoners, then comes back and rescues them (book). Dwarves not recused by Elves from spiders.
-With Bilbo's help, Dwarves escape from Forest Elves in sealed barrels, stealth mode. Elves did not know they were in barrels (book). In movie, Elves are aware and this sets up river chase sequence. A little too spectacular for me to maintain my suspension of disbelief.
-No drama between Bard and Lake Town leader (book) that I recall.
-Exchange between Bilbo and Smaug was better in book. I believe Bilbo kept his ring on the whole time so Smaug talked to him just to get more time to figure out where he was. As in the movie, he did discover that Bilbo had some association with Lake Town by virtue of being a "Barrel Rider".
-No fighting between Dwarves and Smaug (book). In fact they were not aware that Bilbo had stolen the Arknstone and that Smaug had left the mountain on rampage to Lake Town because the jewel had been stolen. Not because Smaug was mad at Lake town for helping Bilbo (movie)? Besides, I don't believe that Smaug would leave his treasure with dwarves running all over it for any other reason that he had been stolen from and there were no dwarves about, that he could detect other than smelling a draft from the back door. Otherwise he would have stayed there and fought the dwarves (my opinion). In the book he smashed the back door trapping the dwarves inside the mountain, although at this point he left for Lake Town.
The rock in question would be the Carrock, sir.
I need to reread the book. I vaguely remember most of that. The biggest tweak that worked for me was fleshing out Bard's background.
And no I have not seen Thor The Dark World.
Possibly this is so because the book itself was just not as good. I recall that it took me a long time to get into the book and reach the point where it became a page turner; maybe around Lake-town because I like water and fantastic dwellings. Perhaps Tolkien was still building up a head of creative steam when he wrote it and was still working out his world creation algorithms.
The Hobbit was written as a children's book. Although related, it's nature is completely different than the LOTR. Peter Jackson was the wrong person to direct this adaption, burt I'll acknowledge that whomever had directed, once the decision to turn this fairly short story into three, 3+ hr movies, the story that I love and cherish was doomed. Hopefully I'm not coming across as too emotional. It's just a movie (blast PJ!).
This is what happens when a 287 page book is turned into a 9+ hours of movie, when the plot is substantially altered to allow for the addition of 6+ hours of filler material and "over the top" action sequences, with many good elements (I called it "charm" in a previous post) of the story removed in the name of making it the LOTR prequel.
Blasphemy!
