The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

[Khev]

List of Extended things I do like,

Fellowship

- Isildur being a *****, yanking the ring, turning invisible, then getting shot
- Concerning Hobbits
- Sackville-Bagginses, Bilbo and Frodo talking (theatrical isn't as good because Bilbo and Frodo don't even have an exchange till Rivendell)
- Green Dragon, happy Frodo
- marshes, Strider/Frodo exchange
- Stone trolls in the forest
- Boromir and Aragorn exchange about narsil
- the departure from Rivendell (left or right?)
- Moria beheadings, Aragorn saving Boromir from a moria orc stab when the troll throws Boromir
- Lothlorien meeting, not allowing passage, Gimli insult, everyone looking at Frodo, Boromir telling Frodo Gandalf's death isn't his fault
- gift giving
- Boromir watching Gollum on the river, telling Aragorn he's afraid, Frodo and Sam exchange
- Amon Hen neck slits, dismemberments, decapitations, Boromir fighting a little longer, Merry and Pippin helping, Aragorn struggling to get to them, Lurtz knife lick
- "they will look for his coming from the white tower, but he will not return" *tear*

I notice you didn't mention Wood Elves, Boromir reaching for the Ring in Rivendell, and the Mithril Shirt discussion. I would have very much preferred your extended version. I would have then just gotten rid of Concerning Hobbits (but kept the extra Isildur stuff because that was all Galadriel) and the extra Lothlorien intro and it would have been pretty much perfect in my eyes.

Two Towers

- Mina's Tirith in the background when Faramir is taking them to osgiliath. In the theatrical, they painted it out because New Line execs thought audiences were too stupid and thought they would think it was Helms Deep

What!? I never knew that.

 

[DiFabio]

I updated it with dislikes. It's tough on an iphone.

 

[The Josh]

Whatever you say Josh.

Just the facts ma'am.

 

[The Josh]

List of Extended things I do like,

Fellowship

- Isildur being a *****, yanking the ring, turning invisible, then getting shot
- Concerning Hobbits
- Sackville-Bagginses, Bilbo and Frodo talking (theatrical isn't as good because Bilbo and Frodo don't even have an exchange till Rivendell)
- Green Dragon, happy Frodo
- marshes, Strider/Frodo exchange
- Stone trolls in the forest
- Boromir and Aragorn exchange about narsil
- the departure from Rivendell (left or right?)
- Moria beheadings, Aragorn saving Boromir from a moria orc stab when the troll throws Boromir
- Lothlorien meeting, not allowing passage, Gimli insult, everyone looking at Frodo, Boromir telling Frodo Gandalf's death isn't his fault
- Gandalf fireworks poem
- gift giving
- Boromir watching Gollum on the river, telling Aragorn he's afraid, Frodo and Sam exchange
- Amon Hen neck slits, dismemberments, decapitations, Boromir fighting a little longer, Merry and Pippin helping, Aragorn struggling to get to them, Lurtz knife lick
- "they will look for his coming from the white tower, but he will not return" *tear*

Two Towers

- More Merry, Pippin, Ugluk and Grishnak "give him some medicine!"
- "we will die for Saruman"
- Eomer banished
- Merry and Pippin "they think we have the ring"
- Gollum tries lembas
- Gandalf and Aragorn, night, "sam went with him"
- black gate with Frodo, Sam and Gollum
- Grima being spared, spitting
- Grima and Saruman talking about Aragorn
- Aragorn tames Brego
- Faramir introduction when he captures Frodo and Sam and talks about war
- Boromir down the river, Boromir/Faramir/Denethor flashback
- beating/interrogating Smeagol
- Mina's Tirith in the background when Faramir is taking them to osgiliath. In the theatrical, they painted it out because New Line execs thought audiences were too stupid and thought they would think it was Helms Deep
- added Helms Deep violence
- "he's got my axe imbedded in his nervous system"
- Faramir strangles and warns Gollum not to **** with Frodo and Sam

Return of the King

- Saruman and Wormtongue (pretty crucial in my opinion, the theatrical "reasoning" was lame)
- Gandalf explaining Gondor to Pippin, Gandalf the White's lungs not handling weed well
- Sam threatening Gollum, ringing his neck
- the orcs in the river, Gothmog telling them to keep quiet
- Merry pledging himself to Theoden
- Denethor's Boromir hallucination
- Pippin and Faramir exchange
- Gothmog, Grond more orcs at Minas Tirith
- Witch King vs. Gandalf
- death of Gothmog
- Pippin searching for Merry all day/night (theatrical has it during just the day)
- Orcs vs uruks at Cirith ungol
- shagrat taking the mithril shirt
- Faramir and Eowyn hooking up briefly
- Aragorn challenging Sauron
- Frodo and Sam orc disguise, going through a orc platoon, inspection! (One of my favorite scenes)
- the Mouth of Sauron
- "Smeagol lied"




List of things I don't like and think are unnecessary.


Fellowship

- Wood elves. Do not want.
- Boromir trying to grab the ring and Gandalf going ape****
- Aragorn's mom?
- Elrond and Aragorn

Two Towers

- Frodo, sam, the rope . . . Roast chicken?
- Theodred, who cares
- Legolas telling them that elves taught trees to talk. Gimli acting like an idiot in fangorn
- treebeard songs
- ent draft (unnecessary)
- all extra Ent crap
- Treebeard extras
- funeral of theodred
- Aragorn is . . . 87. Eowyn sucks at cooking
- more Aragorn and Arwen visions
- Eowyn and Aragorn
- treebeard "good morning" nonsense (though I like when he yells when Pippin and Merry trick him and he sees the leveled forest)
- Uruk Hai going into the Forrest and getting killed by the trees after running from helms deep
- Merry and Pippin finding Saruman's weed, meh, we see it in Return of the king


Return of the King

- legolas, gimli drinking game, ugh. The extended makes Gimli look retarded
- Aragorn, eowyn's dream
- goofy scene where Sam and Frodo see the beheaded statue and the sun light hits the flowers. That's too on the nose and corny
- Eowyn and Aragorn part 2
- Paths of the dead. Worst part of the extended. Kills suspense. gimli acts like an idiot. skull avalanche?
- Corsair pirate ship take over. Extremely lame and ruins the arrival later on. Shouldn't have happened.
- Aragorn healing peeps. We're approaching the climax here, ain't nobody got time for dis! Kills pace and momentum.
- Sam sees a star in the sky!

Your not like moments IMO would take out properly filled in gaps or moments that do make it flow even as good as the book does. Different strokes for different folks I suppose.

 

[DiFabio]

Yeah, that's the thing though, what works in terms of the flow for a book doesn't necessarily work for a feature length film.

Intercutting to slow Ents taking their time to make a decision hurts what is going on at Helms Deep. The goofy drinking game adds nothing to the story and makes Gimli look silly. Theodred alive, dying and dead has no bearing on the plot at hand. The funeral, while brilliantly shot, brings the pacing down (especially when all you need is Theoden's potent "no parent should have to bury a child" line in the theatrical. The extended paths of the dead and corsair pirate scenes? Those completely spoil the suspense of Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli arriving just in time and jumping over the side of the ship . . . with the army of the dead. Knowing that they'll show up takes away from that, especially when you know the King of the Dead has already agreed and killed all the pirates.

 

[Khev]

Yeah, that's the thing though, what works in terms of the flow for a book doesn't necessarily work for a feature length film.

Intercutting to slow Ents taking their time to make a decision hurts what is going on at Helms Deep. The goofy drinking game adds nothing to the story and makes Gimli look silly. Theodred alive, dying and dead has no bearing on the plot at hand. The funeral, while brilliantly shot, brings the pacing down (especially when all you need is Theoden's potent "no parent should have to bury a child" line in the theatrical. The extended paths of the dead and corsair pirate scenes? Those completely spoil the suspense of Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli arriving just in time and jumping over the side of the ship . . . with the army of the dead. Knowing that they'll show up takes away from that, especially when you know the King of the Dead has already agreed and killed all the pirates.

This one gets it. I'll be watching his career with great interest.

 

[The Josh]

I understand that. Thing is though is how Jackson shot them doesn't do any of that. At least for me and What I've seen from plenty of other fans it does work. I do get for some it doesn't and that's fine.

I admit I'm not a huge fan of Treebeard in general. His parts in the book used to be one I read faster than other but those moments are important to the story and why the Ents decision is so important. I agree the drinking game is silly and I would take it out. I love all the Theodred stuff because of its importance to what has been going on in Rohan. It I think adds an even more emotional high to Theoden's speech. I love the paths of the dead stuff. A lot of it is so dead on with what that moment felt like minus a few characters. I don't feel it spoils any of that. You have to have some recognition that the KOTD has decided to help and this does that. It's not a surprise in the book that he shows up in the private ships without any pirates. I guess for me having read the books at least 20-25 times over the last 13 years I don't see stuff as taking away but adding to.

 

[DiFabio]

This one gets it. I'll be watching his career with great interest.

 

[jye4ever]

Hayden and I share a common bond, our acting careers.

 

[ZaCHw117]

I'd rather watch the trailer for cannibal campout then I would the prequels

 

[pixletwin]

This one gets it. I'll be watching his career with great interest.

Why is it that some people think if someone disagrees with their opinion it because the other person "doesn't get it". Like it's some incomprehensible puzzle to them that someone might think differently. :

 

[Irvy]

Man, try as I might I just can't get over the gold covering run around at the finale of this, it's like something out of a lego game and makes Smaug look like a dumbass.

If there's one thing I'd change, remove it and add more conversation with Bilbo.

 

[Khev]

Why is it that some people think if someone disagrees with their opinion it because the other person "doesn't get it". Like it's some incomprehensible puzzle to them that someone might think differently. :

Just because DiFabio "gets it" doesn't mean that everyone else who disagrees with me inherently "doesn't" get it. One person clearly doesn't but I don't recall mentioning you by name. So relax dude and enjoy your EE's.

 

[Khev]

Man, try as I might I just can't get over the gold covering run around at the finale of this, it's like something out of a lego game and makes Smaug look like a dumbass.

If there's one thing I'd change, remove it and add more conversation with Bilbo.

I don't mind the gold bath but I do think the dwarves outsmarting Smaug on the different bridges by continuing to yell "hey, over here!" do make him seem like a gullible dope. I wish those scenes weren't there especially after his talk with Bilbo makes him out to be such an all knowing, all perceiving badass.

 

[The Josh]

Just because DiFabio "gets it" doesn't mean that everyone else who disagrees with me inherently "doesn't" get it. One person clearly doesn't but I don't recall mentioning you by name. So relax dude and enjoy your EE's.

You shouldn't talk about yourself like that.

 

[jye4ever]

I'd rather watch the trailer for cannibal campout then I would the prequels

Which version of CC do you prefer, TE or EE?

 

[Fritz]

Wait, what? Beckinsale played an elf in the FOTR EE?

She cannot be an elf as she is already an angel.

...The goofy drinking game adds nothing to the story and makes Gimli look silly.

How come Legolas seems to have a higher tolerance for alcohol than the guards watching over the Dwarves in Mirkwood?

...The goofy drinking game adds nothing to the story and makes Gimli look silly...

It's what Dwarves do. Sure it made him look silly, he was drunk.

...The extended paths of the dead and corsair pirate scenes? Those completely spoil the suspense of Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli arriving just in time and jumping over the side of the ship . . . with the army of the dead. Knowing that they'll show up takes away from that, especially when you know the King of the Dead has already agreed and killed all the pirates.

For the most part I would think that the majority of people that have watched the EE have seen the TE previously so there really isn't anything to spoil. Even so, you don't know that the King of the Dead is going to save the day at Gondor. Maybe Gimli pissed him off and he changed his mind, maybe the boat hit a rock and sank, maybe he got homesick and went back to his mountain.

 

[Fritz]

I don't mind the gold bath but I do think the dwarves outsmarting Smaug on the different bridges by continuing to yell "hey, over here!" do make him seem like a gullible dope. I wish those scenes weren't there especially after his talk with Bilbo makes him out to be such an all knowing, all perceiving badass.

I'm not a fan of the gold bath and the Dwarves outsmarting Smaug was a bit much as well. Smaug deserves more respect. But for the most part, he doesn't have that much time in the book so PJ had to stretch his screen time out somehow.

 

[pixletwin]

Smaug's folly is precisely that he believes his own press. So the dwarves in that scene don't really bother me. The gold bath on the other hand, while visually kind of cool, was a bit of "hmmm oooookay" moment for me.

 

[Khev]

Smaug's folly is precisely that he believes his own press. So the dwarves in that scene don't really bother me. The gold bath on the other hand, while visually kind of cool, was a bit of "hmmm oooookay" moment for me.

The dwarves on the bridge don't ruin that sequence, I just wish PJ had thought of something else. But yeah, I can accept that even as a superdragon Smaug hasn't really had to work for his food or a victory in decades and was just a bit rusty when push came to shove.