Board Thread:General Mod Discussion/@comment-25987328-20160413230109/@comment-99.126.157.129-20160416021757

Contradictiary to a lot of you, I loved all the LOTR movies and did in fact enjoy the first two hobbit movies. However, there were a few things in those first two that could have been done better:

1. Replace Azog with Bolg. I mean, I didn't see why they even used Azog beyond the War of the Dwarves and Orcs at the beginning.

2. Change the Arrival at Beorn's House. Instead of being chased by Beorn, tolkien made it where Gandalf had to slowly negotate the dwarves into staying at his house. Oh, while I'm on it, 3. Give Bombur some lines. He would be better with them, and it would develop his character more.

4. The Love Triangle. Personally, I support Legolas and Tauriel's roles in the movie, but I don't support the elf/elf/dwarf love stuff. Just don't...

Here are some things I think the first two movies did well:

1. Smaug. They did him great, and even went beyond Tolkien's description of Erebor to emphasize the vastness of his hoard. I like him so much that I don't even mind the scene with the forges and stuff.

2. The White Council/Dol Guldur. This adds reason to the otherwise massive plot hole created by Gandalf leaving the Dwarf company before Mirkwood. Even though the High-Fells aren't canon, they need to show something to convey the sub-plot.

3. Goblin-Town and Gollum. This was done great, especially the latter.

The rest of the former two hobbit movies were done rather fine, and I approve of those parts (Except Alfrid, I'll talk about him in a second). The BotFA, however, I did not believe was as bad as you all say. They had some canonical fractures (i.e. Were-Worms), but overall was done decently. Here are the indecent elements:

1. Alfrid. No, just no. Instead of 30 minutes of basically useless Alfrid scenes, have him die like the master did, and use that time to actually show Thorin's funeral in the Theatrical version.

2. Leaving Thorin's funeral and Dain's coronation out of the Theatrical edition. These were key elements in the book. Leaving those scenes out of the theatrical version left a huge open hole on what the dwarves did after Bilbo left for home. Instead, they leave in 30 minutes worth of Alfrid...

3. Some particular useless contradictions to canon in the battle. These included were-worms and the absence of Wargs. I mean really, this was unneccesary.

4. Some CGI elements. Some of the trolls and such looked fairly unrealistic, and could have been done better, similar to the Olog-Hai in RotK.

Things they did well:

Smaug vs. Lake-Town. This was well-done, and almost inarguably the best moment in that movie's theatrical edition, and the close second in the extended edition.

Some other more useful contradictions to the Canon. They made the battle more intense with the armies in the battle slightly more even. However, the attack on Ravenhill wasn't needed, instead Thorin should have charged ahead of the other dwarves like he did in the Book.

Thorin's conversation with Bard. As said earlier, this was done exactly as in the Book and was done well.

Those are my thoughts.