The Hall of Fire

But why wouldn't painting a deep, wide, rich and layered world, on top of the drama, be appealing to audiences? I would say that this is just what PJ did with LotR (jury is still out on The Hobbit) - not perfectly, but mostly quite successfully. The secondary world of the LotR movies really did cap...

And the stone giant sequence...WTF??? Peter (and everyone else involved with the writing) WHAT were you thinking?? You know, most of the time I can pretty much accept Peter Jackson's lack of subtlety and enjoy his style, but the stone giants are one place where a lighter touch would have REALLY hel...

Considering the bad jokes that made it back into the RotK EE, there's a chance we'll be seeing it yet!

But yeah, I liked the Goblin King too.

He's referring to how the Goblin King bursts through the bridge before they all fall down.

Yep, Bilbo's moment of pity was fantastic. When I said Riddles in the Dark was one of PJ's best scenes ever, I was including everything with Gollum.

Didn't Liv Tyler also think that Arwen just shouldn't fight and it actually degraded her character? I would put Osgiliath under "dubiously conceived, well-executed." The scene with the Nazgûl over the parapets (and no, Frodo is not "offering" the ring!) is visually stunning, one ...

I think they overcooked Thorin's anti-elf hostility, but I liked him overall. He had the right mix of stubborn pride and nobility. I'm going to say that I actually kinda enjoyed the Goblintown stuff in a purely hedonistic, non-Tolkienesque manner Yeah, I agree with this. I'm kind of mixed on Radagas...

Seriously though, I think a lot of dwarf character development was edited out because you can see little bits of personality for the other dwarves that match the descriptions given in writing or by the actors - Nori being a bit greedy and underhanded, Dori being "fussy" and mannerly (at le...

You mean instead of one EE, we'll have to buy the "Gloin edition", "Bombur edition", "Ori edition", and so on? Gotta catch 'em all!

I think we will probably get more dwarf character development in the EE. It's too bad, though - one of the reasons I gave PJ the benefit of the doubt on the trilogy is because I thought he would take the time to develop the dwarves individually. Instead we get Thorin, Balin, Bofur, a little bit of F...

I thought Out of the Frying Pan was the best non-flashback action scene. I would have preferred the more tense and suspenseful version in the book and I'm not a fan of Bilbo becoming a warrior so soon, but the visuals were excellent and it was an enjoyable climax.

Here's the problem with Azog: the main motivation for the journey is supposed to be reclaiming Erebor. Peter Jackson has also decided to add the Necromancer as a secondary plotline. Azog has only indirect connections to both of these things, so he's almost a third storyline. And he's not an interest...

I'm not really a fan of the one in TTT (setting canon aside, the execution feels rather perfunctory compared to most other LotR action scenes), but from a film standpoint I feel like it works better to raise the stakes than the Hobbit warg battle does to force them into Rivendell. And it ties better...

The White Council and Radagast basically go nowhere (and I mostly liked Radagast besides a few jokes). I'm sure there will be a payoff later, but in the context of this single movie they just bloat it up.

Anthy and Inanna, if you find The Hobbit tiring, then surely the somewhat over-wrought RotK ought to give you both a headache. I don't think so. RotK is unwieldy at times, but the subplots all go somewhere and contribute to the story (even the Arwen plot at least has a payoff at the end). And the a...

The trolls actually say something like "when the sun comes up, we'll turn to stone."

Well, I liked it, but definitely less than LotR. If I were to give it a grade right now it would be a B-, but I'm still processing and that could go up or down later. Loved Riddles in the Dark, the Unexpected Party, and Freeman in general. Didn't like Azog or most of the non-Hobbit material besides ...

Two more negative reviews, both of which have similar points and are pretty well-written. Both are unhappy with overcaffeinated action and PJ's use of the appendices. They have some complaints about Bilbo too, though I'm not sure if their appraisal of book Bilbo is accurate: http://www.patheos.com/b...

I still think that you will love some of it, and hate some of it. The real question is what the percentage is, and which side outbalances the other. We'll see. Personally, I think spoiling is a good thing, because it lowers the shock value. We have a pretty good idea of what we are in for. I'm pret...

Nooooo! Al, tell me this isn't true! Lissuin on TORn reports: In Riddles in the Dark, for the egg riddle, in the book Gollum remembers teaching his grandmother to suck - "Eggses!", but in the film he says something like, " my granny taught me to suck - Eggses!" If it is true, it...