Desolation of Smaug reviews

For discussion of the upcoming films based on The Hobbit and related material, as well as previous films based on Tolkien's work
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Smaug's voice
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Post by Smaug's voice »

Well, I have seen it only twice so I can be wrong of course! But I didn't see anything odd with Kili in the scene.
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Post by Passdagas the Brown »

He is indeed quite pale in the scene where Thorin asks him to stay.

But whatever the case, there was a large crowd there and realistically, someone would have offered help. Even if their motivations were primarily monetary.
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Post by Passdagas the Brown »

Just saw the film with some work colleagues in St. Petersburg.

DOS is GREAT in Russian - particularly Thorin (and all the dwarves, really), Smaug, Sauron, the orcs, Bard and the Laketown sequences in general.

Some people shouted "Rasputin!" when Alfrid appeared. :D
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Post by Frelga »

You are in St. Petersburg? Not Florida, I am guessing. :D It's the most beautiful city of all I've seen, and I've been lucky with travel, but man is it COLD in winter!
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Post by narya »

I've only been there in January. It was warmer than Fairbanks, but that's not hard to do. The Ethnographic Museum had some great, first contact collections of North American indigenous people.
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Post by Passdagas the Brown »

Frelga wrote:You are in St. Petersburg? Not Florida, I am guessing. :D It's the most beautiful city of all I've seen, and I've been lucky with travel, but man is it COLD in winter!
Yup. Here for a week-long conference.

A wonderful city, even when it's bitter cold!
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Post by Passdagas the Brown »

Is it just me, or do the clothing and hair styles of many of the people in Laketown, including Bard, have a decidedly Tibetan look?
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Post by Elentári »

That's because there is definitely a Tibetan influence to the design, as explained in the Weta Chronicles III

"Much of the influence in our Lake-town's architecture comes from the East. There's a Tibetan influence, but that said, there's also a hint of Scandinavia." ~ Dan Hennah

"I drew upon all kinds of references from our world: Tibet, India, Mongolia, Afghanistan, Russia, Inuit, the Balkans and many more." ~ Ann Maskrey
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Post by Passdagas the Brown »

Cool!
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Post by sauronsfinger »

Elentári wrote:That's because there is definitely a Tibetan influence to the design, as explained in the Weta Chronicles III

"Much of the influence in our Lake-town's architecture comes from the East. There's a Tibetan influence, but that said, there's also a hint of Scandinavia." ~ Dan Hennah

"I drew upon all kinds of references from our world: Tibet, India, Mongolia, Afghanistan, Russia, Inuit, the Balkans and many more." ~ Ann Maskrey
After reading the CHRONICLES ,the last time we saw it I was very interested in seeing those Tibetan influences and was struck by how the entire place looked the ghetto in Shangri-La. At least what one might imagine such thing would look like.

When you think of how Dale appeared at the start of the first film and you consider that Laketown was rather close geographically - it is a bit jarring that two places would be so different.
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Post by Elentári »

I wonder if the perhaps the idea is that the original Esgaroth was more similar to Dale - at least the ruins that the company pass through on Bard's barge looked to be stone ruins rising up out of the waters.
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Post by Passdagas the Brown »

Watching FOTR also made me appreciate the DOS soundtrack a lot more. Though the score for LOTR is good, there seems to be a serious overabundance of very intrusive and relentless choral work. The soundtrack during the Arwen/ Nazgûl chase scene, for example, is incredibly overwrought and full of an incessant pounding of loud chorus. IMO, Howard Shore (and PJ, who helps guide the process) have definitely improved over the years. They've moved in a more subtle direction, to be sure.
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Post by axordil »

Elentári wrote:I wonder if the perhaps the idea is that the original Esgaroth was more similar to Dale - at least the ruins that the company pass through on Bard's barge looked to be stone ruins rising up out of the waters.
I assumed exactly that: Laketown was but a wooden shadow of its predecessor.
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Post by Passdagas the Brown »

axordil wrote:
Elentári wrote:I wonder if the perhaps the idea is that the original Esgaroth was more similar to Dale - at least the ruins that the company pass through on Bard's barge looked to be stone ruins rising up out of the waters.
I assumed exactly that: Laketown was but a wooden shadow of its predecessor.
Yes, which I like a lot. Reminds me of the Anglo-Saxons building wooden towns in the shadow of Roman towns and ruins made of stone (which, some theorize, the Anglo-Saxons deemed haunted and uninhabitable).
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Post by axordil »

Passdagas the Brown wrote:
axordil wrote:
Elentári wrote:I wonder if the perhaps the idea is that the original Esgaroth was more similar to Dale - at least the ruins that the company pass through on Bard's barge looked to be stone ruins rising up out of the waters.
I assumed exactly that: Laketown was but a wooden shadow of its predecessor.
Yes, which I like a lot. Reminds me of the Anglo-Saxons building wooden towns in the shadow of Roman towns and ruins made of stone (which, some theorize, the Anglo-Saxons deemed haunted and uninhabitable).
Or built by giants:

Wrætlic is þes wealstan, wyrde gebræcon;
burgstede burston, brosnað enta geweorc.
Hrofas sind gehrorene, hreorge torras,
hrungeat berofen, hrim on lime

These walls are wonders, that fate has broken;
The fort-town has failed, giants' work wastes away.
Roofs are caved in, towers toppled,
Rime mars the mortar of ravaged ruins
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Post by Passdagas the Brown »

Ah, yes. The Ruin.

It is little visual touches like these, I think, that make me appreciate DOS. And something tells me that Lee and Howe were quite conscious of poems like "The Ruin" when creating concepts for Laketown and the old stone Esgaroth.
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Post by axordil »

And for that matter, Osgiliath, which visually captured the decay of Númenórean culture perfectly.
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Post by narya »

I thought Osgiliath was a mess due to being on the wrong end of a number of trebuchets, not due to slow decay. :scratch:
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Post by axordil »

It had been abandoned for centuries by its civilian population by the time of the War of the Ring.
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Post by Elentári »

Osgiliath was the ancient capital of Gondor, with Minas Anor, as it was then, being more of a summer residence!

Osgiliath was hit hard by the catastrophic civil war of the Kin-strife. In TA 1437, the city, then held by Eldacar, was besieged by Castamir's forces. During the fighting, fire broke out, and large parts of the city were destroyed, including the Dome of Stars. The Palantír housed in the Dome was lost in the river. The decline of the city was accelerated by the Great Plague of TA 1636. Many of its people died from the disease, while others fled to remote parts of the country. The severe depopulation caused Osgiliath to begin to fall into ruin. In 1640, Tarondor, whose predecessor Telemnar had died from the plague, moved the capital permanently to Minas Anor.
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