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Author Topic: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug  (Read 81327 times)
Merusk
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Reply #35 on: June 13, 2013, 07:31:05 AM

Goddamn autocorrect!

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HaemishM
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Reply #36 on: June 13, 2013, 08:59:45 AM

DAMN YOU SIRI!!!!!

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Reply #37 on: June 13, 2013, 11:10:31 AM

I don't really mind and just think of it as Peter Jackson's style.



I just remembered that is Samwise's dad.

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Reply #38 on: June 16, 2013, 09:48:27 PM

Oh, great, the barrel sequence is going to be some giant amusement park/video game combat scene.

I don't have a problem with a little artistic license for that sequence. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3XNQja0H7I&t=7m38s



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Reply #39 on: June 17, 2013, 03:42:26 AM

I always thought it would have been awesome if Daphne turned out to be a monster who ripped Dirk's head off after she was freed.
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Reply #40 on: June 17, 2013, 03:55:23 AM

He married her, right ?  So the end result is the same.

 Ohhhhh, I see.

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Merusk
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Reply #41 on: June 17, 2013, 05:04:21 AM

Yeah, but SHE kept her figure after having a kid.  Or did you never see DL2?

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Reply #42 on: June 17, 2013, 05:52:57 AM

I didn't, No.


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Merusk
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Reply #43 on: June 17, 2013, 06:11:14 AM


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Ironwood
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Reply #44 on: June 17, 2013, 06:46:06 AM

EEk.  Another question, while I remember :  When I used to play this as a Kid, I never, ever, ever saw any goddamn flashing hints.  Was that put in for the video or was that in some edition ?  Because we in the UK got the 'fucking hard, no idea what to do' edition.

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Reply #45 on: June 17, 2013, 06:58:04 AM

I think it was linked to the difficulty setting the arcade decided on.  I remember seeing them for it and Space Ace at all the arcades I went to.  I've got the PC port off Steam at home. I wonder if "hard" removes the flashes.

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Reply #46 on: June 17, 2013, 08:02:44 AM

I really disliked the first one at first viewing.  I have come around and now actually like it pretty well.  The only thing that still irritates me is the crummy makeup job on the dwarfs. 


Those were dwarfs?  I mean, there was clearly one old dwarf, a fat red haired dwarf, then a bunch of hairy men.
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Reply #47 on: June 17, 2013, 09:31:12 AM

There were some scenes in the original arcade version which did not have flashing hints no matter what difficulty setting it was on. That was kind of the point--you put in the quarters to learn the game.
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Reply #48 on: June 17, 2013, 11:49:30 AM

I get that, but that's not how it worked in practice.  Over here, it was 50p, which was a massive amount for the time (bear in mind, in my youth they'd just done away with groats) and there wasn't any instructions.  So Dirk ran in and just died and you had NO CLUE why.

I swear, it just stopped people even trying.

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Reply #49 on: June 17, 2013, 11:53:44 AM

Yeah, I think as a child I put two quarters into Dragon's Lair before thinking "five seconds of game for a quarter, think I'll stick to Millipede" and never played it again.  I actually kind of want to try the PC port now that it's not going to cost me a hundred bucks in change to play through it.

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Reply #50 on: June 17, 2013, 12:02:54 PM

I get that, but that's not how it worked in practice.  Over here, it was 50p, which was a massive amount for the time (bear in mind, in my youth they'd just done away with groats) and there wasn't any instructions.  So Dirk ran in and just died and you had NO CLUE why.

I swear, it just stopped people even trying.
Probably, though the death animations often gave you a clue what you did wrong. The machine I learned on was set on one of the "medium" difficulties so you saw some flashes but not all time. It was expensive over here too (50 cents vs the normal 25 cents), but it was so novel that it was a popular game and you could learn a lot just by watching other people play.
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Reply #51 on: June 17, 2013, 12:04:54 PM

Well, I learned a lot of swearwords that way.  This was Kilmarnock.

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Reply #52 on: June 17, 2013, 03:33:04 PM

I actually played DL for the first time in Soho and got murdered.  Don't remember any flashes but back at a German arcade there were definite flashes and that's where I beat the game.  Proud gaming moment!
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Reply #53 on: June 17, 2013, 03:47:48 PM

Yeah, I think as a child I put two quarters into Dragon's Lair before thinking "five seconds of game for a quarter, think I'll stick to Millipede" and never played it again.  I actually kind of want to try the PC port now that it's not going to cost me a hundred bucks in change to play through it.

It's much more fun on the PC.  I watched a guy who was probably 17 (I thought he looked "Old" and I was 11-12) breeze-through, then tried to emulate and got frustrated when I lost the $2 I'd been given in a blink.   While you're limited on 'lives' in the PC version it doesn't feel as bad as having had cash on the line.

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Reply #54 on: June 17, 2013, 07:08:54 PM


"In my day we paid $60 for a game that lasted only 10 minutes AND WE WERE GRATEFUL FOR IT."  Oh ho ho ho. Reallllly?

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Reply #55 on: June 18, 2013, 03:51:41 AM

Dragon's Lair was the first game I was dazzled by... I mean it was cartoons!! you controlled!! Then I played it and realized how cost ineffective it was. It was the first time I actually thought about the value of my money/time relationship because the 50 cents to play 2.5 minutes of a game was worse than the +10 minutes for a quarter on Galaga. So I would just watch other people play.

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Reply #56 on: June 18, 2013, 07:37:02 PM

How is the PC port? Is this something you can get on steam? I wouldn't mind playing it again without having to feed that goblin hiding in the cabnet all those quarters.




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Reply #57 on: June 18, 2013, 08:06:14 PM

How is the PC port? Is this something you can get on steam? I wouldn't mind playing it again without having to feed that goblin hiding in the cabnet all those quarters.



PCM port works as well as anything.  Woad and space bar for controls, no stutters.  I got it about 3 weeks ago on Steam for a few bucks.  It was on sale as I recall.

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Reply #58 on: June 19, 2013, 07:32:15 PM

Ok, I just read a blog review that sums up one of my biggest problems with The Hobart and by extension, the LOTR trilogy, though it ramped up during LOTR.
Peej turns the epic up to 11 and keeps it there. Everything is epic and amazing and action and intense and there's no pacing and no breaks and no tension.
It's what makes the riddles in the dark sequence stand out so well. He takes a fucking break and tells some story for a change. And then it's back to action and roaring monsters and fire and epic and epic and epic!



 "What I'm saying is you should make friends with a few catasses, they smell funny but they're very helpful."
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Reply #59 on: June 20, 2013, 02:20:35 AM

Um.

I don't agree with that.

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Reply #60 on: June 20, 2013, 04:45:02 AM

Ok, I just read a blog review that sums up one of my biggest problems with The Hobart and by extension, the LOTR trilogy, though it ramped up during LOTR.
Peej turns the epic up to 11 and keeps it there. Everything is epic and amazing and action and intense and there's no pacing and no breaks and no tension.
It's what makes the riddles in the dark sequence stand out so well. He takes a fucking break and tells some story for a change. And then it's back to action and roaring monsters and fire and epic and epic and epic!

The Hobbit has a scene about doing the washing up.

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Reply #61 on: June 20, 2013, 05:48:08 AM

And a scene about riding horses. And a scene about hanging out at a ruined farm. And a scene of dinner in Rivendell. And a scene where the White Council talks about stuff. And a scene where old Bilbo remembers being younger.

The problem is not a lack of quieter scenes, it's that both the quieter scenes and the action scenes are padded so that they go on interminably.
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Reply #62 on: June 20, 2013, 08:27:16 AM

PJ needs a goddamn editor and a studio that doesn't want to whore out one thin story for 3 fucking movies.

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Reply #63 on: June 20, 2013, 09:35:53 AM

The Diablo III of movies.

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Reply #64 on: June 20, 2013, 11:13:22 AM

a studio that doesn't want to whore out one thin story
Hahaha.  You're funny.

Hahahaha!  I'm really good at this!
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Reply #65 on: June 20, 2013, 06:06:30 PM

The problem is not a lack of quieter scenes, it's that both the quieter scenes and the action scenes are padded so that they go on interminably.

The problem isn't a lack or existence of quieter scenes. The problem is the pacing, the use of them, the lack of tension, and that the action sequences are ridiculously overblown in order to top what's come before.

Though I do note that the washing up scene is padded with action, and the talky scenes are all about moving the galumphing juggernaut of a plot along. There is so little character building, except maybe for Bilbo when he isn't being pushed aside so Aragorn Thorin can angst about being a deposed king or hack some goblins.



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Reply #66 on: June 21, 2013, 09:53:41 AM

What kind of character building are you looking for besides Bilbo and Thorin? The other dwarves have 100% more personality in the film than in the book simply because they each have a visual schtick--Dori and Ori, for example, have gone from being Dwarf #5 and Dwarf #6 to being "Effeminate Gay Dwarf" and "Quieter Effeminate Gay Dwarf". Do you think there's room for more character building without padding the film more? The story doesn't really need that many dwarves with specific personalities.

They did a bit of character building even with Gandalf, to be honest, which also not something that happens in the book.
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Reply #67 on: June 21, 2013, 05:31:27 PM

What kind of character building are you looking for besides Bilbo and Thorin? The other dwarves have 100% more personality in the film than in the book simply because they each have a visual schtick--Dori and Ori, for example, have gone from being Dwarf #5 and Dwarf #6 to being "Effeminate Gay Dwarf" and "Quieter Effeminate Gay Dwarf". Do you think there's room for more character building without padding the film more? The story doesn't really need that many dwarves with specific personalities.

They all still blended together into a mush of Dwarves to me.

Quote
They did a bit of character building even with Gandalf, to be honest, which also not something that happens in the book.

If anything, these kinds of threads help refine my complaints.  smiley But really, Gandalf doesn't require any character building. He's the grumpy sage dude who guides them on the first half of their quest.
What character development did he get? I can't remember any.

No, my complaint is that Blibo didn't get enough character building. You know, Bilbo, the hero of the story? And I'm not talking about the dreary catchphrase style dialogue that permeates the Middle Earth movies. I'm talking about stuff like the excellent sequence with Gollum, which is one of the few things the movie got right.



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Reply #68 on: June 21, 2013, 06:39:04 PM

Look, at some point, either you like the baseline source material or you don't. There are a lot of complaints to be made about pacing and padding, but bitching that Bilbo Fuckin' Baggins didn't have a complex enough character arc for you in the first act is pretty much like complaining that Macbeth doesn't have enough of a complex reaction to the witches' prophecy.  The film actually accelerates his arc from the book: he goes from being a timid not-Took to giving in to an impulsive Tookishness to learning to listen to and understand his dwarvish companions' situation to reluctantly accepting Sting when it's offered to him after having the guts to confront trolls to not just dealing with Gollum in the riddle game but having the moral strength not to kill him when he might to ascending to a position of implicit leadership of the dwarves.

What else were you looking for with Bilbo in the first film? That he have an adulterous affair along the way with Galadriel? (Not that he's married--say Gandalf if you prefer). That he develop a crippling addiction to snuff and have to fetch some out of a goblin's toilet? That he write a novel manuscript that gets lost when they get pulled into Goblintown? That he remembers that Lobelia Sackville-Baggins molested him in his tweens? Seriously, Bilbo has as much arc as could be fit in any movie imaginable.
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Reply #69 on: June 21, 2013, 09:42:31 PM

Look, at some point, either you like the baseline source material or you don't. There are a lot of complaints to be made about pacing and padding, but bitching that Bilbo Fuckin' Baggins didn't have a complex enough character arc for you in the first act is pretty much like complaining that Macbeth doesn't have enough of a complex reaction to the witches' prophecy.  The film actually accelerates his arc from the book: he goes from being a timid not-Took to giving in to an impulsive Tookishness to learning to listen to and understand his dwarvish companions' situation to reluctantly accepting Sting when it's offered to him after having the guts to confront trolls to not just dealing with Gollum in the riddle game but having the moral strength not to kill him when he might to ascending to a position of implicit leadership of the dwarves.

I didn't say he didn't have any at all. I think what we got was sparse, and some of it was trite as hell. The scene where Gandalf gives Bilbo Sting, and we get that hokey speech from Gandalf, which felt like a cut n paste job from the Big Book of Hollywood Dialogue. They hit the beats, but didn't deliver much of the meaning. So I'll back up a step, and say that the quality of the character building that we got was lacking. Except, as I said, for a couple of scenes and sequences that were done well. How they handled Bilbo chasing after the Dwarves and his encounter with Gollum were fine. Maybe even good, which makes the rest of the flim look so terrible in comparison.

Quote
What else were you looking for with Bilbo in the first film? That he have an adulterous affair along the way with Galadriel? (Not that he's married--say Gandalf if you prefer). That he develop a crippling addiction to snuff and have to fetch some out of a goblin's toilet? That he write a novel manuscript that gets lost when they get pulled into Goblintown? That he remembers that Lobelia Sackville-Baggins molested him in his tweens? Seriously, Bilbo has as much arc as could be fit in any movie imaginable.

Yeah, that's exactly what I meant.  rolleyes



 "What I'm saying is you should make friends with a few catasses, they smell funny but they're very helpful."
-Calantus makes the best of a smelly situation.
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