did anyone else catch, or at least perceive that after bilbo puts the ring on he can understand the spiders? Or at least the speech becomes clear to the viewer? Or am I off my rocker?

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richmondwarmancers we play Lord of The Rings, Battlefleet Gothic, Infinity, some board games, and really whatever tickles our fancy..

No, it's true - a really smart way of dealing with talking spiders without making them silly, in my opinion.

We can still hear them when he takes the ring off though.

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Let's fight in phalanx formation with more swordsmen and archers then pikes!
-Easterlings

I saw it at 48FPS last night and found it to be a very interesting effect. I didn't manage to catch HFR for the first film so was really keen to this year. I thought everything digital looked absolutely stunning, Smaug, the barrels and the spiders all looked far better than at 24FPS and you genuinely could notice more without the motion blur. The very frenetic fight with the spiders in particular looked far, far smoother at 48FPS and I noticed details I hadn't seen before due to the motion blur. For example, the first 2 times I saw it in 24FPS 3D, I thought during Legolas' entrance that he slides down the spider web, crushes the spider as he lands, slides under a log and then points his bow at the dwarves. In fact, after crushing the first spider, it's another spider that he slides under and he kills it with the arrow he's notching to his bow to point at the dwarves - cool stuff! I also didn't think that the "sets looked like sets" and the "prosthetics looked like prosthetics" as a lot of the critics of 48FPS said. However, there was definitely an aspect where the close ups of actors looked too much like television which brought me out of the movie although it definitely wasn't a movie-wide thing. I'd say I noticed the negatives for about 5%, was impressed by the positives for about 20% and didn't notice it for the rest. I was honestly surprised how similar to 24FPS it looked for the majority of the film. I still prefer 24FPS (although that's probably because I'm institutionalised into expecting that like everyone else) so I'll skip the HFR next year. Glad I saw it though, it was certainly interesting. And most importantly I still loved the film, I genuinely think I've enjoyed it more with each viewing as I become used to the changes, it's only the grand finale with Smaug (particularly Thorin standing on his nose and Heroic Wheelbarrowing) that I find over the top.

Think I'll try and catch a 2D viewing in the New Year

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I'm classing that as an error more than anything else, honestly. A bit of a cock up on the film-makers part.



As for HFR, I missed HFR last year (I did have a ticket, but the HFR projector was broken - for it's first screening, too) so I was eager to make up my mind this year.

I loved it. Totally worked to bring me into the movie more, and make it seem more real. Bree was fantastic in it, a great introduction, and after that I didn't really notice it, which can only be considered a positive. The only time I disliked it was one instance when Bilbo was caught in the spider webs and does some very quick, short slashes with sting. It seems that for those sort of small, but fast movements, HFR makes it seem exaggeratedly fast. But that aside I thought it was great, and as I said, I barely noticed it except in the way that the film was so clear and free of motion blur. Perhaps it's because I have a gaming PC and regularly play videogames at 60fps or more, but it felt completely natural.

It's only just been released in Australia and I went to see it today - finally!

I've been avoiding this topic deliberately so that I don't see any spoilers - that's been really really hard!

Ok, what did I like about it? I thought it held to the books for the important parts (which was good) and deviated from them at the unimportant parts (which was also good). The design of the sets and locations once again showed the genius of Weta's Art Department and Laketown made me sit up and take notice - I can see a new terrain piece coming on. It felt as richly detailed as Rivendell did in the FotR.

I loved the dialogue between Bilbo and Smaug, although I couldn't understand why Bilbo didn't use the Ring all the time he was there. The amount of gold in the chamber seemed ridiculous to me too, especially as Bilbo is entitled to 1/14th of it and only comes back with a single chest (that still smelled of Troll, apparently).

But Martin Freeman continues to shine as Bilbo - his depiction of the title character has more depth to it than any of the hobbits from the LOTR series. He made the film for me - an excellent choice.

I didn't mind the side trip to the High Fells - it helped put the whole Necromancer thing into context. But of course, the Ringwraiths were not killed or entombed after the fall of Angmar, and so it's a bit of a 'PJ fabrication'. Still, it worked ok.

I did expect Kili to say something like 'I used to be an adventurer like you, till I took an arrow in the knee' but oh well, opportunities missed.

And I am going out on a limb here - the whole barrel scene left me cold. Not a single broken bone or concussion to be had, despite being a roller-coaster ride down some (totally over-the-top) whitewater rapids. I just knew that the scene was going to feature waterfalls and roiling frothing rapids - how many barrels actually survive the trip on a normal day? Not many I suspect. And sorry, but the bouncing Bombur part had me cringing. My kid loved it, but he's 11.

Oh, and Tauriel... you'll have hairy babies if you keep going down that path, lassy!

More shield-surfing antics too from Legolas, this time playing Frogger across the river on the heads of the Dwarves. Pfft, I hated that stuff in the LOTR and it's back again - not yay. And several of the CG characters (Bolg, Azog, Beorn) looked plastic to me.

I started off talking about what I liked but it quickly descended into my dislikes. Human nature I guess.

I loved the sequence with the spiders, right from the moment when Bilbo poked his head out of the forest canopy (nice butterflies). The whole segment was excellent.

I loved the characterisation of the Master of Laketown - Stephen Fry, a solid choice for the role.

Overall, I really enjoyed it - more so than An Unexpected Journey. I want to see it again.

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Dagster

Didn't Bilbo donate his share of the gold to Laketown and only keep the one chest that Gloin buried in AUJ?

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"Leave Sauron to me."
If you're in the Raleigh, NC area, let me know.

I enjoyed the movie!
There is a few things I didn't like:
Beoron didn't have that much screen time.
Why didn't bilbo just use his Ring in the smaug scene? Like, hello you have a magic ring!
Apart from that great movie!

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2014 Oathtaker (16 points)

Smaug said he could sense the Ring, I got the feeling that Bilbo was Compelled (pun intended) to take it off and keep it off.

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"Leave Sauron to me."
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Just watched the film, and theres one scene that really mindf'd me.

The scene when Thranduil has captured the Dwarves, and speaks to Thorin privately. Thorin berates Thranduil for turning his back and refusing to aid the Dwarves of Erebor when they fled the mountain after Smaug took it. Then Thranduil responds:



When he says this, theres a rumbling sound like thunder and his face distorts, revealing a hideous wound with exposed muscle, bone and flesh. He looks like a zombie!

WTF is going on here? Was his face burned in an encounter with a dragon? Has the wound since healed, and it was just a memory or vision of the past? Or is this his true and current appearence? Is he using some kind of magical glamour to conceal his wounds?

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@KO, I took it to be a wound that Thranduil had gotten fighting a dragon of the north earlier in his life. I also took it to be actually there, and that Thranduil just covers it up with magic because of his vanity.

It freaked me out. A zombie elf. Looked a lot like Harvey 'Two Faces' wound in Batman: Dark Knight.

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I thought he fought dragons some time in the past and suffered a terrible wound from it but he uses magic to cover up his disfigurement. Did Thraundil ever fight dragons in the books?

No.

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Just because it never mentioned him fighting Dragons doesn't mean anything. He might have been encountered Glaurung for all we know. All we know of him is that his father served Thingol and then died in the Battle of the Last Alliance. Thranduil could be 6000+ years old, or only 3000 years old. We don't know too much about him.

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"Leave Sauron to me."
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Thats true, but as its never mentioned in any of the source material its not Canon, just a possibility. And the question was "did any of the books mention that he fought Dragons?".

Wasn't Thranduil born in the First Age? I thought he lived in Doriath for a while. That would make him considerably older than 3000 years.

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I don't think that was ever confirmed, but it's a definite possibility. So he was born either in the 1st or 2nd ages, making his age range 3000-6000 years. In that span of time, he definitely saw some stuff, possibly even the Sack of Doriath, which would explain his disdain for dwarves.

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"Leave Sauron to me."
If you're in the Raleigh, NC area, let me know.

I looked for a birth date but all I found was early second age so far

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"the same as a duck you must be made of wood"

Im almost certain Thranduil was born in the early first age.

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2014 Oathtaker (16 points)

The dwarves killed Thingol for the Nauglamir (a necklace with a Silmaril in it), and after he died the queen Melian (a Maiar) dropped her enchantment that protected Doriath, which allowed Doriath to be sacked, and Morgoth to roll unopposed into Thingol's realm.

So if Thranduil witnessed any of that, "disdain" would probably be a bit of an understatement

I'm glad they gave Thranduil a bit of backstory, at least he has a character-driven reason for being a jerk.