The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

[jye4ever]

Actually Lee Pace was riding a real horse they just mo-capped it and painted an elk over it.

 

[Irvy]

It was a real horse with branches duct taped to its head

 

[crows]

Actually Lee Pace was riding a real horse they just mo-capped it and painted an elk over it.

It was a real horse with branches duct taped to its head

 

[Khev]

I must admit I don't really love the way the final exchange between Bilbo and Gandalf plays out, especially in light of all that they've been through together.

In the book it goes like this:

Bilbo: "Then the prophecies of the old songs have turned out to be true after all, after a fashion!"

Gandalf: "Of course! And why should not they prove true? Surely you don't disbelieve the prophecies, because you had a hand in bringing them about yourself? You don't really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit? You are a very fine person Mr. Baggins, and I am very fond of you, but you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all!"

"Thank goodness!" said Bilbo laughing, and handed him the tobacco-jar.

But in the movie Bilbo tells Gandalf not to worry about the ring because it fell out of his pocket and then Gandalf abruptly says in response, "You are a very fine person Mr. Baggins, and I am very fond of you, but you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all," causing Bilbo to do a double take as if he was pondering whether or not he was just insulted. It kind of plays like Bilbo is saying "don't worry my friend" and then Gandalf replies with "yeah well you're just a little punk."

Hopefully once again the EE expands their last conversation to give a softer context to the wizard's final statement.

 

[Khev]

#1 in the US for its second full weekend and already #8 for the year. In the next week or so it'll pass DOFP and Maleficent. I imagine it'll end up 3rd overall for the year between GOTG and TWS. Not too shabby. When I saw it yesterday it still had a good crowd. I think tons of people are quietly enjoying this one despite the vocal minority criticizing it. I see that on rottentomatoes it's got a 78% audience approval rating and Cinemascore of A-.

 

[The Ween]

#1 in the US for its second full weekend and already #8 for the year. In the next week or so it'll pass DOFP and Maleficent. I imagine it'll end up 3rd overall for the year between GOTG and TWS. Not too shabby. When I saw it yesterday it still had a good crowd. I think tons of people are quietly enjoying this one despite the vocal minority criticizing it. I see that on rottentomatoes it's got a 78% audience approval rating and Cinemascore of A-.

I'm hoping to get to see it again in 2D soon.

 

[Khev]

I really do wish it had an extra 20-30 minutes of scenes/characters we've already talked about but I do admit that the two hour running time (not including credits) makes this one very easy to watch over and over.

 

[JAWS]

The other thing to consider is that no one in the world is complaining about Smaug being cgi

No one in the world is complaining about the eagles being cgi
If you want to think of other movies, no one ever complained about the prawns from district 9, the dementors from Harry potter, rocket and groot
..

Fantasy having cgi creature wonders is pretty well accepted. The problem is how it id used or when it replaces things it didn't need to the way I am legend replaced the vampires with CGI for no good reason

Then it becomes too obvious and it becomes awful

Great example with I Am Legend... Those Stupid things took me out of the movie... But I would not compare the Hobbit films to that... First the CGI is much better... Second what they recreated with the CGI was much more complex... I am Legend were people with Big Mouths when they screamed... No reason at all for full CG o those..

But I get why some don't like the use of it.. To me the CGI was good enough that it did not matter.

Most fake horses look terrible. There were a few instances of that in LotR too.

I feel the same way with CGI. I give it a pass in Sci Fi and Fantasy movies, but I hate all the fake explosions and fake blood splatter that they're using now. Right off the top of my head what The Expendables. Those explosions were terrible in that.

All that really terrible CGI in the movies on SyFy. I can't stand it, but my mother watches a lot of those movies and enjoys them. She's not spoiled like some of us are.

CGI explosions in The Expendables 3 was so awful as was much of the Helicopter chase... Sci Fi channel quality CGI bad.... Really took me out of the film.

 

[Khev]

People are claiming that Dain ended up being CG due to a particularly bad spell Bill Connoly had with his Parkinson's disease during filming. Rather than recast another actor PJ opted to keep Connoly's recorded dialogue and CG'd the character around it. Battling both cancer and Parkinson's at the same time occasionally wipes Connoly out.

In The Hobbit: The Battle of The Five Armies, why was Dain the dwarf a completely CGI character? : movies

IF that is true then I can at least count that as an example of PJ's heart being in the right place even if it was at the expense of the end result. This wouldn't be the first time PJ has had to watch an actor suffer from the Parkinsons on his watch. Michael J. Fox's symptoms first manifested when he was filming The Frighteners and Ian Holm suffers from it as well so I could see PJ being particularly sensitive to the disease.

 

[jye4ever]

He sure has bad luck with unhealthy actors.

PJ is probably wondering how the heck the MCU has made it this far.

 

[The Ween]

People are claiming that Dain ended up being CG due to a particularly bad spell Bill Connoly had with his Parkinson's disease during filming. Rather than recast another actor PJ opted to keep Connoly's recorded dialogue and CG'd the character around it. Battling both cancer and Parkinson's at the same time occasionally wipes Connoly out.

In The Hobbit: The Battle of The Five Armies, why was Dain the dwarf a completely CGI character? : movies

IF that is true then I can at least count that as an example of PJ's heart being in the right place even if it was at the expense of the end result. This wouldn't be the first time PJ has had to watch an actor suffer from the disease on his watch. Michael J. Fox's symptoms first manifested when he was filming The Frighteners and Ian Holm suffers from it as well so I could see PJ being particularly sensitive to the disease.

I never knew Connoly was that sick. What kind of cancer does he have? Poor guy.

 

[Khev]

Prostate. He was actually diagnosed with both cancer and Parkinsons the same day. It sounds like since filming his Hobbit scenes (or recording the dialogue as it turned out) he did get the "all clear" on the cancer following a successful surgery but obviously the Parkinson's will continue to take it's toll.

 

[The Ween]

Prostate. He was actually diagnosed with both cancer and Parkinsons the same day. It sounds like since filming his Hobbit scenes (or recording the dialogue as it turned out) he did get the "all clear" on the cancer following a successful surgery but obviously the Parkinson's will continue to take it's toll.

Hopefully they can slow down the Parkinson's. It just makes me mad that there are things that can help this but our government won't allow it.

 

[JAWS]

All of this talk about Dain being all CGI... I never noticed when he was not riding his Pig...

I guess I just assumed it was a real actor because why would it not be and thus never looked at it too closely. When riding the Pig it was obvious... Ignorance is Bliss.

 

[TURINS~BANE]

Poor Lad

 

[agen_kolar]

From the reddit link, a quote from the Hobbit Chronicles book:

"Some months later we had a second round of design on Dain when Peter asked us to conceive him without the restrictions of costume and make-up. What had been achieved on Actor Billy Connolly with the prosthetic make-up and costume was cool, but it hadn't given Peter, Fran and Philippa exactly what they wanted from the character and we all felt that Billy had become a bit lost under it all. Paradoxically, if Dain were entirely digital we could bring more of Billy to the front of the new design brief. At the same time we could shift his proportions in subtle ways that costume could only achieve to a certain degree. We were able to broaden him, enlarge his head in relation to his body and make him feel chunkier, without encumbering Billy's performance the way a heavy costume, armor and prosthetics had."

This sounds less like the Parkinson's theory and more like Peter Jackson wanting to yet again do more CGI, like Azog and Bolg. What a shame.

 

[The Ween]

From the reddit link, a quote from the Hobbit Chronicles book:



This sounds less like the Parkinson's theory and more like Peter Jackson wanting to yet again do more CGI, like Azog and Bolg. What a shame.

Could've been a little of both. Maybe the extra costuming that making him bulkier would take could've been a problem for him. I guess we'll never really know unless Billy says something about it himself.

 

[T.E.D]

From the reddit link, a quote from the Hobbit Chronicles book:



This sounds less like the Parkinson's theory and more like Peter Jackson wanting to yet again do more CGI, like Azog and Bolg. What a shame.

If it was a decision made because Connoly's health was affecting the performance they wouldn't come out and say that in a making of book anyway it would be considered disrespectful to the actor and in my opinion very distasteful. To say it was one thing or the other at this stage is just speculation, we likely won't know until the documentaries in the extended editions and even then they may not talk too candidly about it out of respect for Billy.

 

[agen_kolar]

If it was a decision made because Connoly's health was affecting the performance they wouldn't come out and say that in a making of book anyway it would be considered disrespectful to the actor and in my opinion very distasteful. To say it was one thing or the other at this stage is just speculation, we likely won't know until the documentaries in the extended editions and even then they may not talk too candidly about it out of respect for Billy.

With all due respect, the whole Parkinson's theory/rumor/whatever you want to call it was a fan made explanation for why Dain was CGI. Yes, Billy Connolly has Parkinson's, but we have no reason to believe that's why he was CGI'd. Parkinson's has plagued some members of my family. It is controllable for a time, a long time in many cases. Connolly was diagnosed and treated in September 2013 for the initial symptoms, which are not debilitating and would unlikely affect his physical performance - especially since he likely would've filmed his scenes well before then.

The Hobbit Chronicles states he was CGI'd for the same reasons Jackson wanted Azog and Bolg CGI'd - to get rid of those human proportions - so it's not really speculation at this stage. This is just another case of Jackson channeling Lucas.

 

[T.E.D]

With all due respect, the whole Parkinson's theory/rumor/whatever you want to call it was a fan made explanation for why Dain was CGI. Yes, Billy Connolly has Parkinson's, but we have no reason to believe that's why he was CGI'd. Parkinson's has plagued some members of my family. It is controllable for a time, a long time in many cases. Connolly was diagnosed and treated in September 2013 for the initial symptoms, which are not debilitating and would unlikely affect his physical performance - especially since he likely would've filmed his scenes well before then.

Believe me I know, I've seen for myself through family how Parkinsons can affect people it's a truly horrible disease and I am sorry that people you care about have had to go through it, it's not something I would wish on anyone. What I was trying to get at was that before is that I've seen someone I love suffer the symptoms for around two years before they were diagnosed they just assumed it was part of them getting old and tried to ignore it, I didn't know when Connoly started treatment I just had an idea that it was a few years ago. At the end of the day whether or not he is completely CG makes no odds to me, I had to be told after i'd seen the film and if I hadn't been told I wouldn't have noticed.