TH: Desolation of Smaug Extended Edition Anticipation Thread

[Beutlin]

I see PtB is in "Peter Jackson is a uneducated buffoon-Alfonso Cuarón is a genius" mode again.

I would say Jackson is very good at reaching emotional heights, the problem with "The Hobbit" for some, however, is that he does not try often enough to do so.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

My fault; I gave him the opening.

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[Passdagas the Brown]

I actually like Peter Jackson a lot, and find his fertile imagination to be quite infectious. He clearly loves his craft and pursues it, and that's an admirable thing.

But I also think he's an uneducated buffoon compared to Cuaron, who's a genius.

And I disagree that PJ is good at reaching emotional heights. Whenever a scene is emotional by its very nature (Gandalf's fall, Boromir's fall, Frodo's return from Mordor, etc) he ends up milking it for all it's worth, blaring the trumpets, shredding the heart strings like a heavy metal guitarist, and beating the drums until they break. He doesn't trust the story, and doesn't trust his audience to respond to the emotional core of the story, and so he piles on the melodrama to make sure you get the point.

IMO, there was a lot more genuine emotion in AUJ and DOS than there was in the three LOTR films combined. That doesn't make the former better. But I did get the sense that this time, PJ was more comfortable with himself, and didn't feel the need to cake on the layers of "faux-motion," as I've heard someone describe it.

That said, he did get some heavy emotional beats right in LOTR. The Frodo and Sam stuff on the slopes of Mt. Doom, and Théoden by Theodred's grave, being the best examples.

[Jude]

Would I be right in saying that the extended editions will not be made available in 3D?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

No, the extended editions are in fact available in 3D.

Here is the Amazon.com link for the recently realized DoS EE in 3D:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Hobbit-Desola ... B00MG4OXWO

[Jude]

Ah, thanks!

I wonder why I couldn't find it before

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I did a search on Amazon.ca and it only came up with the 2D version. Perhaps that is why?

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[Elentári]

Some of you may remember TheHutt produced a beautiful booklet for the AUJ EE BR and DVD since WB neglected to do so...

He has now finished a similar project for Desolation of Smaug. The link below offers free downloads of both BR and DVD versions, as well as the original AUJ booklets if you missed them the first time. (Scroll down the page for the English versions)

http://www.henneth-annun.ru/index.php/d ... uklet/#eng

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I can now see more why my favorite scene is so good.

(Who can guess what I am referring to. [Not the golden statue, so don't guess that, much as I appreciate it.])

[Frelga]

The barrels?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Nope.

I see the barrels as a fun, though ridiculous, action scene. Hardly favorite scen material in my book, though of course othe tastes vary.

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[Passdagas the Brown]

Thorin and Balin entering the back door?

If not, I will simply take this opportunity to reiterate that its one of my favorite scenes across all five films.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I knew you would get it. I had absolutely no doubt at all.

[Passdagas the Brown]

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Have you seen the portion of the appendices where they talk about that scene, and the set that they used? Impressive stuff.

[Passdagas the Brown]

Yes. All in all, I loved this set of appendices (and was impressed by PJ's process).

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I'm just getting a chance now to work through them, and I very much agree thus far.

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[Voronwë the Faithful]

I split off the discussion about the Beacons.

[narya]

So I watched the EE with the voice over commentary, and can boil it down to PJ's two main self-professed motives:
1. Make things less boring by adding constant tension in the form of relentless orc attacks.
2. Give Legolas the job of finding more and more creative ways to kill them.

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[yovargas]

Does anybody know if it's possible to rent this online somehow?