Great review @Pumpkinjuice. Nice commentary on the structural and thematic issues in the film. Tolkien very much had that all laid out in LotR, and they just had to shift some things around to make 3 arcs for each film, but here it's a lot different. With such a small novel, Tolkien hardly has time to delve into those deeper aspects and I feel as though Jackson and co. should've fleshed that out a lot more before starting work on the trilogy. Once again, another negative product resulting from the very late trilogy-split decision.
This movie is called "The Hobbit," and goddammit, you better have that stout mofo in the movie and not shoved to the background.
Pottermore username: DustBlade76
So Crucify the ego, before it's far too late, to leave behind this place so negative and blind and cynical. And you will come to find that we are all one mind, capable of all that's imagined and all conceivable.
I had mixed feelings about it the first time...but my question was mainly directed at some comentaries here stating that this time the regular version is not good.
I've been listening to the score, and while I can't ever dislike anything Howard Shore writes for Middle Earth, it really doesn't sound as memorable as anything from LotR or AUJ. It's kinda underwhelming, if I'm honest.
Probably the most memorable cue in the score is A Spell of Concealment, because it launches into Sauron's theme. The only real discernible, memorable theme that recurs consistently throughout the album is Smaug's little leitmotif, because Shore just really felt like beating that anvil more times than necessary.
Yeah I thing the only theme I remember was the lake town one.
What's Sauron and Smaug theme?
Smaug's theme is that little descending strings bit that you hear in almost every track. Haha. It's also in AUJ, when he attacks Dale. It's hard to miss, really. As soon as I heard it, I instantly thought 'I'll be seeing you next year'.
And Sauron's theme is pretty unmistakable. If you hear music that you can associate with Mordor, and it's not the Nazgul choir, or the loud banging of Isengard, it probably belongs to Sauron.
I can't remember anything except from the reused LOTR themes.
Except the LOTR times were barely present in this film either! I heard the Ring theme a couple times, maybe the Shire theme once or twice. That's all I really remember. The only real standouts were Smaug's theme and the Wood-Elves theme. I was hoping for a great score to accompany Lake-Town, but it fell extremely flat and wasn't memorable in the slightest. Even the Erebor/Quest/Misty Mountains theme that was extremely present in AUJ was barely present here, which was a disappointment. I thought it would be the overarching theme of the trilogy.
The misty mountains theme wasn't written by Shore, but from Jackson's music team Plan 9. Given the fact that the first Hobbit score suffered a lot of re-recordings and tracking from LOTR themes (there was a hymn for Erebor played in utilean pipes), and it was the first time that Jackson worked with Shore since ROTK (since Shore's score for King Kong was rejected), it was pretty much a mess.
In the sequel, Shore only wrote the score (Conrad Pope conducted and orchestrated it), but he had a better way to make this better.
One of the themes for LOTR, the theme for the downfall of the dwarfs, used in Moria scenes, became the real theme for the film, since it's about the dwarfs and their quest. Ring's theme was used once in the first score, but here is much more used.
Sauron's theme is used for the big reveal, as much as it was used in the first score. Thorin's theme which is actually in the LOTR score, when Gandalf looks at the map with the Lonely Mountain) gives a return. Gandalf's theme (the one for Grey, he had one as the White) comes back once (given how short his scenes are, there's some point of not playing the theme).
Besides Smaug and the Wood-Elves's theme, there's also a theme for Lake-Town, where Shore introduces harpsichord. A theme for Tauriel herself, and another one for the Bard.
Also, and maybe because of Pope's orchestrations (apparently, Shore's sketches are pretty much complete), the score felt much more original and complex than the previous one. What made the LOTR scores memorable wasn't the (80) themes (have you ever seen someone humming the Shoire, Ring, Fellowship themes?), it was the way that Shore represented Middle Earth through several kind of instruments, styles and sounds. That made lots of influences in other fantasy scores, especially Desplat's scores for Deathly Hallows.
DAT CLIFFHANGER!!! Holy hell, that is the mother of all cliffhangers. Seriously the best cliffhanger in a movie I have ever seen.
Favorite parts: Barrel ride - especially Bombur bowling down the Orcs! I was laughing through out that whole scene! Any action scene with Tauriel and Legolas. All of them were perfect, and those two stole any scene they were in. Legolas versus Bolg. Bilbo naming his sword. All of the confrontation with Smaug. Especially the whole dialogue part between him and Bilbo. Benedict did amazing as Smaug's voice!
I also liked the Tauriel/Kili scenes.... those were kind of cute. Tauriel's "tall dwarf" line was great.
Favorite characters: Tauriel - Evangeline Lilly was amazing. Legolas - wonderful to see Orlando back and not missing a beat in his action scenes. Smaug - Again, Benedict was awesome. Bard
I'll have to watch it again before I say too much more. But I will say I liked it a lot better than the first.
I like for music to inspire emotion and complement a scene to lift it higher than it would normally be without it... And the only time that happened was the elven theme when Kili views Tauriel in all her glory.
That was the memory that sticks out. The rest are a blur, I barely remember the one ring theme once...
"If you make yourself more than just a man... If you devote yourself to an ideal... You become something else entirely- A Legend."
Speaking of credit song, who do you think will sing the credit song for the third movie?
I don't know why I see Peter choosing Lorde since she's from New Zealand
I don't know if Lorde has the right voice for this sort of thing, but I didn't expect Ed Sheeran to be doing this one at all. But I know that if Lorde did end up doing it, I would love it.
Speaking of credit song, who do you think will sing the credit song for the third movie?
I don't know why I see Peter choosing Lorde since she's from New Zealand
I don't know if Lorde has the right voice for this sort of thing, but I didn't expect Ed Sheeran to be doing this one at all. But I know that if Lorde did end up doing it, I would love it.
I think she might. I was discussing this recently and a few things came up; Lorde has a wonderful voice, is relevant, different, and with all of those elements, I think she'd add a certain flavour to it. It also helps that she's from New Zealand.
Speaking of credit song, who do you think will sing the credit song for the third movie?
I don't know why I see Peter choosing Lorde since she's from New Zealand
I don't know if Lorde has the right voice for this sort of thing, but I didn't expect Ed Sheeran to be doing this one at all. But I know that if Lorde did end up doing it, I would love it.
I think she might. I was discussing this recently and a few things came up; Lorde has a wonderful voice, is relevant, different, and with all of those elements, I think she'd add a certain flavour to it. It also helps that she's from New Zealand.
Lord Stafford.
Well yeah, you're right, she's great, and it would definitely fantastic if she did it. I can easily see Jackson choosing her. But I have a tiny bit of doubt that I can't really pinpoint into words. I'm not even sure what it is.
I saw it today and I might write my own review if I feel like it, idk, but I largely agreed with @Pumpkinjuice. It was certainly better than I expected it to be.
Enjoyed The Hobbit very much so, found the pacing to be a lot better than the first and as always Martin Freeman is a beautiful man! :P Also Smaug looked brilliant, like a very threatening winged, clawed, sharp toothed angry cat aha ^^
Comments
This movie is called "The Hobbit," and goddammit, you better have that stout mofo in the movie and not shoved to the background.
So Crucify the ego, before it's far too late, to leave behind this place so negative and blind and cynical. And you will come to find that we are all one mind, capable of all that's imagined and all conceivable.
Lord Stafford.
Lord Stafford.
And also the group going through Dale.
Lord Stafford.
Hope you like it!
Personally I love it
Hope you like it!
Hope you like it!
http://www.thehobbit.com/hfr3d/faq.html
What's Sauron and Smaug theme?
And Sauron's theme is pretty unmistakable. If you hear music that you can associate with Mordor, and it's not the Nazgul choir, or the loud banging of Isengard, it probably belongs to Sauron.
In the sequel, Shore only wrote the score (Conrad Pope conducted and orchestrated it), but he had a better way to make this better.
One of the themes for LOTR, the theme for the downfall of the dwarfs, used in Moria scenes, became the real theme for the film, since it's about the dwarfs and their quest. Ring's theme was used once in the first score, but here is much more used.
Sauron's theme is used for the big reveal, as much as it was used in the first score. Thorin's theme which is actually in the LOTR score, when Gandalf looks at the map with the Lonely Mountain) gives a return. Gandalf's theme (the one for Grey, he had one as the White) comes back once (given how short his scenes are, there's some point of not playing the theme).
Besides Smaug and the Wood-Elves's theme, there's also a theme for Lake-Town, where Shore introduces harpsichord. A theme for Tauriel herself, and another one for the Bard.
Also, and maybe because of Pope's orchestrations (apparently, Shore's sketches are pretty much complete), the score felt much more original and complex than the previous one. What made the LOTR scores memorable wasn't the (80) themes (have you ever seen someone humming the Shoire, Ring, Fellowship themes?), it was the way that Shore represented Middle Earth through several kind of instruments, styles and sounds. That made lots of influences in other fantasy scores, especially Desplat's scores for Deathly Hallows.
I don't know why I see Peter choosing Lorde since she's from New Zealand
I start this review with two words....
DAT CLIFFHANGER!!! Holy hell, that is the mother of all cliffhangers. Seriously the best cliffhanger in a movie I have ever seen.
Favorite parts:
Barrel ride - especially Bombur bowling down the Orcs! I was laughing through out that whole scene!
Any action scene with Tauriel and Legolas. All of them were perfect, and those two stole any scene they were in.
Legolas versus Bolg.
Bilbo naming his sword.
All of the confrontation with Smaug. Especially the whole dialogue part between him and Bilbo. Benedict did amazing as Smaug's voice!
I also liked the Tauriel/Kili scenes.... those were kind of cute. Tauriel's "tall dwarf" line was great.
Favorite characters:
Tauriel - Evangeline Lilly was amazing.
Legolas - wonderful to see Orlando back and not missing a beat in his action scenes.
Smaug - Again, Benedict was awesome.
Bard
I'll have to watch it again before I say too much more. But I will say I liked it a lot better than the first.
9.7/10
That was the memory that sticks out. The rest are a blur, I barely remember the one ring theme once...
Kili is such a romantic
And that ending knocked CF out of the park... Damn.
Hope you like it!
Lord Stafford.
Lord Stafford.