I've been trying to stay clear of all the promos and stuff, but this should be great.
cant wait

also known as Icelandic breeding, amirite :awesome:

modest reviews surfacing.

yeah, fellowship might have had similar points tho... hopefully we get better pacing in 2 (two towers pacing was by far best, not that its all that relevant)

also expected that the cgi orcs have nothing on the make up-based orcs in lotr. a real shame that

Leaffan20 @ 6/12/2012 16:02

Boc @ 6/12/2012 1:10 Wait ALL of the orcs are CGI now? Even the close-ups? Sigh... A part of me wishes del Toro would've stayed onboard. I really like his animatronics/makeup for his creatures and it would've been really interesting to see his take on middle-earth Yes this is one of my biggest problems. I loved LOTR for its set pieces and proper use of ORC's Uru'kai costumes. Now everything will feel like a Star Wars prequel like movie. I joked awhile back that a good hour of the film will probably take place in Hobbiton and it looks like it most likely will.

I just don't understand why they cop'd out with the makeup for cgi... blah.

but yeah still immensely looking forward to it...

cop out, poor decision making, whatever.

Why change a working formula.

From IGN

Unfortunately, Azog, like all the orcs and goblins seen in The Hobbit, is a CGI character. Remember how formidable and scary the Uruk-hai were in the LOTR movies? It's because they were played by real actors in makeup and wielding actual weaponry, monsters who had a presence that CGI just can't recreate. The phoniness of these CG-heavy creatures makes The Hobbit feel as inorganic to LOTR as the prequels were to the original Star Wars films.
There's actually a lot of less than jaw-dropping visual effects work here, whether it's Azog -- who looks like he walked out of a video game -- or the horde that chases Radagast the Brown (Sylvester McCoy) or the wargs. The Goblin King (Barry Humphries) and his minions are all CGI. At a certain point during battle scenes with these CGI characters it becomes evident that the main actors are swinging at nothing; you never get the sense anything's actually connecting and thus you're never fully invested in these battles or what happens to anyone in them. It's makes you think that if you went 20 minutes in any direction outside of The Shire you'd end up in Toon Town. Add in the brighter landscapes and The Hobbit often looks more like a Narnia film than an LOTR one.

well I agree that the tone is different, I personally liked the hobbit book more then lotr fwiw (3 movies is a massive stretch tho)... but they were different. LOTR everyone was on stake, in hobbit it's more tied to the party and the personal growth of bilbo. But small things like make up and costumes could have been done in the same vein as lotr, there is no reason why they couldn't, regardless of "silliness". Not so much to keep in vein with the atmosphere of lotr, but the atmosphere of middle-earth.

The IGN report did say the one place where CGI was win, was indeed gollumn, but other then that it was pretty meh. The urukai and orcs in lotr were pure epic, from what I've seen and read about hobbit, not so much.

Pa Hupu @ 7/12/2012 6:31

From what I've heard Smaug is the best part of the film, but he only appears Spoiler + in a flashback for his conquering of Erebor, which doesn't leave him much time to show off his chatting skills.

Spoiler	+
ya i read that he is in for a flash int he first one. look forward to his bits in the next movie.

@malion
im pretty sure it is just in the first movie, not sure how they are doing it exactly tho and how loyal it will be to the book.

is that technicality due to it being pretty friggin' shit? (:

thought it was god awful.

Leaffan20 @ 14/12/2012 1:00

Dutchiee @ 13/12/2012 20:48 is that technicality due to it being pretty friggin' shit? (: thought it was god awful. Ohmen really? Give us a review!

probably a hyperbole, but I didn't think it was good.

ive seen it twice.

3D + 48 frames on opening day and iver the weekend in 2D and 24 scenes.
While it made little difference, I preferred the later. Also the 48 was hard to get used to at the start, really quite weird. But it passes.

Anyway I really liked it.
@rob a lot of your critiscm is pretty true to the book tbh. But some of it is just nitpicking, pretty hard to find any movie without some degree of logic flaws (i.e. why were the elves there etc).

I thought the movie flowed nicely, except that rivendale was a bit much. I had no problem with the bag end scenes, in fact I liked them (apart from the dishes scene... face in palms).. but after that, when the movie started to gain momentum (trolls, wargs chase) the rivendale scenes i felt were overdone. But tbf it was following the book order I guess.

overall i liked it a lot tho, and cant wait for next installment.