The Hall of Fire

The part where the Master riles Laketown up against the dwarves after Smaug's death is a great scene from the books. And it would fit great with the political situation they set up in DoS. I don't know why they decided to kill the Master off and give Alfrid a major role. Yes, it was a great moment ...

If anything, Gandalf uses the Moth far too quickly in AUJ than he should have. Yes, you have to feel for Dori and Ori hanging from Gandalf's staff for sooooo long! Unfortunately I think that must have been due to the insertion of the Thorin-Azog showdown to provide a climax to the reworked film 1 e...

I know the palantír vision was filmed, because Doug Adams mentioned seeing it in the cut of DoS he viewed in October 2013...but it was removed from the released version. There is some speculation that it might possibly have been kept over for BotFA, but personally I don't really think it would work ...

Well, there is the house where he wrote The Hobbit, FotR & TTT, and of course the University colleges he was associated with... http://www.tourinaday.com/oxford/jr-tolkien-tour.php If you can get to Birmingham, then there is a Tolkien Trail: http://middleearthnews.com/2014/04/23/birmingham-visit...

Interesting...has the feel of a Welsh Male Voice choir about it!

Hey, welcome, Beorn's Bees (you'll know me as Eleniel elsewhere!)

I also recall that it was the very first scene that Viggo filmed - literally thrown into it on his first day. Not using that to excuse any of PtB's complaints, but if it was that early on in the filming one could suggest that PJ was also finding his feet with regards to how the Ringwraiths were to w...

And yet the CGI digital double dwarves in Goblin Town (and the troll fight for that matter) are so obvious and take me out of the story each time as well. Some things are hard to improve, it seems

Regarding cockney orcs, I had always assumed that "Garn!" was an expletive that Tolkien made up, until I read Liza of Lambeth. I think their dialect is actually meant to be based on what is spoken in that area. I seem to remember it was a favourite expression of Eliza Doolittle... :) Rega...

That's awesome!

Ah, ok. But that picture is photoshopped, no? It's not actually a picture a scene being filmed in which Bilbo is presenting a gift to Thranduil, right? Because there are some things that I really don't want to get any ideas about expecting to see. Yes, definitely a 'shop job of Bilbo presenting the...

Nicely done, Al. I don't have any problems with how Jackson presented the eagles in BotFA, particularly since made sense that the eagles had an equal foe to deal with in the bats. It's the whole "Dial-a-Moth" taxi service started with the Orthanc rescue and perpetuated unnecessarily in AUJ...

<in Sam's voice> behind-the-scenes!

Most certainly is...I would guess that it's a "b-t-s" shot, caught between takes!

Until the EE comes out we don't know it "will never happen" do we?

I guess...

Coincidentally, this happens to be the latest offering from Kimberly80: Kheled-zâram "And saw a crown of stars appear"

To the peerless Professor!

Yes, she has a beautiful voice, , which I very much enjoyed but I found the fact that the words had nothing to do with the visuals meant the whole package ended up not doing anything for me, really...

Wonderful review (IMO) by Michael Martinez - cuts to heart of the matter in many cases!

http://middle-earth.xenite.org/2014/12/ ... ve-armies/

I too thought Dol Guldur was poorly conceived, especially on my second viewing. And for pretty much the same reasons V states. Especially Galadriel going all damsel in distress in front of the Nazgûl to wonderwoman against Sauron. And what exactly happened with the Nazgûl? so after all they were ac...