Stitch on 2/1/2014 at 20:42
Quote Posted by Fafhrd
20 bucks says that there's going to be a ridiculous set-piece where the dwarves left in Laketown are going to bust Bard out of prison and run across town dodging Smaug and fighting corrupt guardsmen to get Bard to the tower with the harpoon launcher so he can make the shot that we all know he's going to make.
That's depressingly plausible :(
Blastfrog on 4/1/2014 at 10:07
The molten gold at the end looked inexcusably bad. The reflection effect looked so plain and overly-smooth that it reminds me of bad prerendered CG of low-budget early-mid '90s games.
Seeing it in 3D made it look even cheaper. Closing one eye helped a little bit with reducing how fake it looked, but not much.
nicked on 4/1/2014 at 19:17
I've never seen tons of molten gold myself, so I'm not sure if it was realistic or not. The CGI certainly didn't bother me. It's a fantasy film in a fantasy world. I can handle a bit of suspension of disbelief. That's the least of the problems with it though. The real problem is all the unnecessary extra BS shoved in, like "Obligatory female elf love-story demographic-pandering" and "Virtually contextless 20-minute fight scenes with silly bits because I'm Peter Jackson and I can".
The Lord of the Rings films worked because they were not afraid to deviate from the books, but usually only did so where it would be shit if they translated it to the screen literally. The Hobbit films seem to deviate from the book wherever they can get away with it because "Hey, who's to say this didn't happen, even if it wasn't written about?!" to sell more tickets.
All that said, I enjoyed this installment and I'm still looking forward to the third one. I think you just have to treat it as it's own entity inspired by the Hobbit rather than a direct adaptation, and enjoy it for the popcorn spectacle it is.
Fafhrd on 4/1/2014 at 19:41
The reflection in molten gold would look really smooth. Because it's molten. It's not going to have the little imperfections that we associate with reflective materials because those imperfections get introduced as the metal solidifies and as it weathers.
SubJeff on 4/1/2014 at 21:58
I love these opinions.
2 SUNS COLLIDING WOULDN'T LOOK LIKE THAAAAAAAAAT
Tony_Tarantula on 5/1/2014 at 05:12
Quote Posted by nicked
The Lord of the Rings films worked because they were not afraid to deviate from the books, but usually only did so where it would be shit if they translated it to the screen literally. The Hobbit films seem to deviate from the book wherever they can get away with it because "Hey, who's to say this didn't happen, even if it wasn't written about?!" to sell more tickets.
The one factor that ruins more movie adaptations than anything else: when the director and script team think they can tell the story better than the person who ruined the book.
Hint: You can't. There's a reason the author is a famous writer and you aren't.
Renault on 5/1/2014 at 07:14
Writing what works in a book vs. writing what work on a big screen are very often completely different things.
Pyrian on 5/1/2014 at 08:15
Quote Posted by nicked
I've never seen tons of molten gold myself, so I'm not sure if it was realistic or not.
I don't know what it is with film makers forgetting the most obvious aspect of really hot things: they're
really hot. Molten gold straight from the smelter is
bright. And you don't want to boat in it, despite the facts that you'd be very buoyant and most rocks and metals have higher melting points. You'd still be roasted. Good chance it would crust over at those distances, too; it will start cooling pretty fast.
Quote Posted by Fafhrd
The reflection in molten gold
would look really smooth. Because it's molten. It's not going to have the little imperfections that we associate with reflective materials because those imperfections get introduced as the metal solidifies and as it weathers.
I would replace "would" with "could". A calm standing pool, cooled from bright hot but not yet solid? That could be brilliantly reflective. As shown in the movie, though?
(
http://www.google.com/search?q=molten+gold&tbm=isch)
nicked on 5/1/2014 at 08:35
I think I've figured these films out now - they're elaborate pantomimes.
Take a classic children's story, pad it out to last long enough to sell tickets to a performance of it, have scary-for-kids but high camp and largely ineffectual villains, reduce character moments in favour of big laughs and exciting set pieces, don't worry about crappy special effects as long as they're loud, and break up the pacing with wink-at-the-audience moments. All they need now is some way to detect people shouting "He's behind you!" at the screen, and some cross-dressing (although actually Thranduil kinda has that covered).
faetal on 5/1/2014 at 11:53
You're all forgetting that the molten gold was real - siphoned directly from Jackon's gold silo.
