The Hall of Fire DoS Review Thread

[Smaug's voice]

Oh yeah. I was close to that.
Well, if they had put this in Freeman would have done a great job there too! Perhaps in the EE?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Al, I think you have identified the ending confrontation as your least favorite thing about the film (yes?). What was your favorite?

[Alatar]

Conversation with Smaug of course! Followed closely by the Spiders in Mirkwood.

[Smaug's voice]

Which performances you liked the most among the new appearances?
And by "emotional high" I meant was there any scene similar to the breaking of the fellowship (or coming close)?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Conversation with Smaug of course! Followed closely by the Spiders in Mirkwood.

That's what I wanted to hear.

[Alatar]

Which performances you liked the most among the new appearances?
And by "emotional high" I meant was there any scene similar to the breaking of the fellowship (or coming close)?

Not really. As I said, the most emotional scenes for me were Bilbo's ring moment in Mirkwood and Balin and Thorin on entering the Mountain.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The highly emotional scenes are going to be in the next film.

[Passdagas the Brown]

Thanks, Al!

But now I'm very worried.

And it looks like most of the OTT stuff, like the dwarf confrontation with Smaug, was constructed basically at the last minute in pick-ups.

It may be safe to say that if PJ is given too much time to fiddle with and add to his films, after principal shooting is done, he tends to make the film worse.

The confrontation sounds worse than I could have possibly imagined.

Perhaps it's best to walk out of the cinema after the Bilbo and Smaug dialogue, which sounds like it was amazing?

The dwarf confrontation is too big a set piece to have been constructed in Pickups. I think it was a bad idea, but I don't think it was last minute.

Armitage confirmed in an interview (forget where) that PJ constructed it after the three-film decision, and it was shot entirely during pick-ups.

[Passdagas the Brown]

Questions:

1. Is there still a flashback to Girion, and how does it play?

2. If yes to the above, is it (and the beginning) the only flashback material?

3. Is the King Under the Mountain prophecy still in, and does Bard recite it? If so, what's the context of that scene?

Thanks!

ETA:

4. What about the music? Noone seems to be commenting on it. For example, is the Smaug material intact, with the Balinese bells and all that?

[Dave_LF]

Probably went down something like this:
"We're making three films instead of 2."
"Ok, so #2 ends with the death of Smaug?"
"Nah; if we did that, no one would bother to come back."
"So...?"

[Passdagas the Brown]

Exactly. Only there are answers to that last question that don't involve turning the film into a Star Wars prequel.

[Dave_LF]

One of the writers mentioned that Thorin and Smaug would be brought face to face (very literally, apparently) quite some time ago, I believe. There was probably always going be some sort of dwarf-dragon confrontation at that point in the story, but originally on a much smaller scale. And the idea of taking that and inflating it into the climax for part 2 isn't horrible if you absolutely must save Laketown for part 3, but it sounds as though the execution is less than stellar.

[Passdagas the Brown]

A number of people who enjoyed Goblintown are coming down pretty hard on the dwarf-dragon confrontation. So it looks like the execution is abysmal!

[Voronwë the Faithful]

4. What about the music? Noone seems to be commenting on it. For example, is the Smaug material intact, with the Balinese bells and all that?

I have it on the best authority that the Balinese bells have been replaced with Celtic hard rock punk band! Awesome dood!

[Passdagas the Brown]

woohoo!

[Elentári]

So I read elsewhere, that Tauriel doesn't heal Tilda anymore: that was replaced by her healing Kili in the pick ups...

Can't help but wonder how the original version would have held up.

[Passdagas the Brown]

One thing that tempers my fears about the ending is that I generally love the look of Erebor, in all its Petra-Angkor Wat-Egyptian inspired glory. It evokes those feelings of ancient depth that Tolkien excelled at.

Do we at least get some great shots of Erebor during the dwarf-dragon fight, or is it mostly a CGI blur?

[Passdagas the Brown]

So I read elsewhere, that Tauriel doesn't heal Tilda anymore: that was replaced by her healing Kili in the pick ups...

I can't help but wonder how the original version would have held up.

Given PJ's track record, I also have to wonder if Kili "fake dies" before being healed...

[Voronwë the Faithful]

So I read elsewhere, that Tauriel doesn't heal Tilda anymore: that was replaced by her healing Kili in the pick ups...

Can't help but wonder how the original version would have held up.

Responding somewhat blindly since I have seen the film, and likely will never see the Tilda healing, but I suspect it would have been better.

[Elentári]

Overall, it sounds so far that there is the basis of a wonderful film in there, it is just buried beneath a lot of extraneous padding and frills....and I don't just mean the parts that are true to the book!

I think Al is right in that once we have the extended versions of all three movies there could be a truly great fan edit waiting to be revealed...