re: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
 

He looks awesome and matches the kite seen during the prologue of the last movie but I wish they'd not shown him. It would have been better to see him in the film proper first than in the trailer.

re: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
 

That's what I'm fucking talking about!

re: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
 

There so much cartoony cgi in this trailer alone that I'm startimg to worry that this movie will look like Kingdom the Crystal Skull shit.

re: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
 

Did they CGI in Orlando Bloom?

re: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
 

No, he just got chunky. Luke Evans now looks more like Orlando Bloom than does Orlando Bloom.

re: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
 

Looks like they went all X3 Prologue Professor X on him.

re: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
 

Looks impressive, but I'm seeing less "The Hobbit" and a lot more of the extra stuff. I will admit, I skipped the first one in IMAX 3D, but this one looks like a must for that format.

re: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
 

Like the first film, everything seems to be amped up to about twice what it needs to be. I don't mind the idea of extending the story... I just don't think the perilous scenes need quite as much embellishment. Everything doesn't need to be an escape from death. Great looking vistas though, they've got those down.

And I suppose if we're going to have CG characters jumping about, it might as well be elves.

re: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
 

++++

Still annoyed by the additions to the films, but I enjoyed the first one more than I thought I would. Hope he keeps the pacing up for this one as well.

re: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
 

I noticed the cartoony look, too, but like Smaug at the end of the trailer, I have to assume they're still going to be working on it between now and December.

re: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
 

In all fairness, the LOTR films had plenty of cartoony CGI. The worst being Legolas climbing on top of the cave troll of FOTR. I guess Peter Jackson is willing to let some shots slide more than we'd like. It didn't kill my enjoyment of the previous trilogy (overdoing Frodo's constant whining almost did, however) and thus far it hasn't ruined my enjoyment of this one.

re: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
 

I'm kind of surprised to see so much Smaug already. I would have preferred only seeing a tiny bit, maybe the end of the tail, up until his reveal in the movie.

re: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
 

I feel the same way. Looking back, however, the same thing happened with Gollum. They were all mysterious with his look in FOTR. They even revised his look for TTT. However, instead of saving that reveal for the film itself, the trailer for TTT gave away his appearance (as well as the return of Gandalf).

re: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
 

The psychotically huge budget for these things might just mean he has a finite amount of time to do what he can with the ungodly number of FX shots these films must have. Plus, as some have pointed out, this is only a trailer, I'm sure there's plent more work to be done before the film itself comes out. Whatever one says about Speilberg, the CG in his films almost always looks perfect though, and he seems to be under shorter schedules. By hey, I love Jackson anyway. Though I don't get why Azog couldn't be done with makeup like Lurtz. He looks like an albino reject from Avatar. Was the $300 million figure for the first movie the budget for the trilogy as a whole, or just that one movie?

re: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
 

It was the pacing; horrible first act, improved second act, and great final act.

re: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
 

All 3. So 100 million per installment.

re: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
 

I really had no issue with the pacing. But I suppose I was forgiving with the first act since it made sense to me to establish the Arkenstone and Dáin early rather than have them (and other persons/places/things addressed in the prologue) pop up at random as they did in the book. Especially when those two were apparently important all along but come across as pulled out of Tolkien's ass (as likely they were) at the last minute.

re: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
 

so basically the exact same as LOTR:LFOTR then

re: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
 

The Orcs look nothing like they did in LOTR. They look fake and all computer generated. Terrible in my opinion, as much as I like the story and the movie overall.

re: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
 

Agreed. It was jarring watching them onscreen. The idea that Jackson thought this was the way to go is a bit of a head scratcher. The film never really recovers from the decision to create the lions share of the "villains" in CGI.

re: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
 

I was not impressed with the barrels in the river sequence. Bad decision.

re: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
 

Makes a little more sense, though I'm curious how they spread the money $100 million actually seems small given the scale of the individual films.

Sometimes it's the only viable option when you're dealing with non-humanoid characters, but like I said, the Orc makeup for LOTR was great, I don't know why they didn't do it the same way this time. Beyond that, I would think it would be more financially feasible, some the make wouldn't require all of the post-production visual effects shots.

We only saw a couple of seconds of it, it's just a trailer.

I wonder what Guillermo del Toro's "creative consultant" job on these movies entails, precisely?

re: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
 

Beyond possibly using some of his leftover ideas, not much. Remember, he was originally the director and his take was a radical departure from Jackson's LOTR trilogy and the source material itself. For instance, Del Toro wanted Thorin to have a giant crown of thorns because he felt Thorin sounded like thorn.

I must admit, I'd like to see Del Toro's trippy take on the book but can also understand why it's best he stepped down.

re: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
 

And Frodo could have an afro and Bilbo can carry a dildo.

re: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
 

I'm surprised no one mentioned Beorn. He's there!


I didn't mind the barrel in the water sequence. It looked neat and fits nicely into the grand scheme of things. The Dwarves and Bilbo are a resourceful bunch. I also like the scenes with Lee Pace as Thranduil. I think he's gonna kick some ass. Did you guys see his double swords on his back?

The Necromancer will also reveal himself.