Movie Critics Thread

[Gutsman Heavy]

Why is Smaug a Wyvern instead of a dragon? God that annoys me. Still probably the least of all the massive issues with the Hobbit films so far, but god damn it really picks at me.

[Lord_Zed]

millhouse: yeah, I saw The Conjuring recently too. During the whole film I kept on hearing Eddie Murphy's voice from this joke from Delirious

Hobbit 2 spoilers ahead

*snip*

For those who've read the book and may be curious as to where the movie ends, it's when Smaug decides to fly off to attack Laketown -- then cut to credits!

This irked me greatly, after barely staying awake through hours of padding, we get to the good stuff, and then pow movie over! If the rest of the movie hadn't been a chore to watch I might have felt better about it, bah!

Also this means that like the previous film the Hobbits various parts can't stand alone as films unlike the LOTR films which actually work as satisfying films in their own right, the Hobbit just feels like a huge bloated mega movie.

Also given all the padded subplots it hardly feels like it should be called "The Hobbit" anymore Felt like Bilbo was just another guy who was there, rather than the character the story revolves around.

It was kinda novel how Peter Jackson's carrot eating cameo was the first thing you see in the film, It would be a kind of cool Easter egg, if 50% of the film didn't feel like a forced Easter egg.

Why is Smaug a Wyvern instead of a dragon? God that annoys me. Still probably the least of all the massive issues with the Hobbit films so far, but god damn it really picks at me.

Didn't notice he had no front legs, that is a bit lame, though Smaug was pretty much the only thing that was particularly exciting in the film.

This pretty much sums up the Hobbit films.

[Defcon]

I watched the Hobbit 2 today. I enjoyed the first half, but the extra bits later on didn't add anything to the story. I liked the inclusion of Tauriel and Legolas, but I think they were overused. Unfortunately I feel the ending didn't quite reach the significant point where it should of ended, to lead onto the next movie. If it had it would of felt really abrupt, but then again I felt that way after reading that section with the book also.

[Paulbot]

I saw Disney Frozen and it is a solid film. Probably my second favourite Disney film in the string of better Disney films starting from 2008's Bolt (my favourite is still Tangled) but it doesn't compare to the classic Disney films during the 1990's. The songs are the best in recent years but have some questionable lyrics (as in, they don't seem to 'flow' properly) and the pitch in the singer's voice was a bit too high.

The story itself was a good concept but it didn't really live up to it's potential. There is also a noticeable change in style from the first half (where there was a song every 10 mins) compared to the second half (where there were practically no songs). Some of the scenes involving the ice magic were dazzling. I didn't like the ending in how the antagonist showed their true colours, it didn't feel in character. I noticed that there was a lot more modern terms used in the dialogue which feels weird. All in all, still a fun movie that's worth watching .

I saw Frozen today and thought it was great. Really enjoyed it and thought it was really quite funny, I laughed out loud more than I expected to. I was already sold on it from seeing the Let It Go sequence which Disney released on YouTube (which is an amazing musical number). (I also like Tangled a lot too, but Wreck-It Ralph was disappointing)

I think more songs in the first half than the second is not that unusual... like Lion King and Aladdin have most of their songs early on and fewer (and some reprises) in the second half.

The weirdest thing though was last night I watched Troll Hunters on SBS2, so when the Trolls appeared at the start, very different Trolls were in my mind.

[Bidoofdude]

Saw HG: Catching Fire on Christmas Eve. It was good and pretty dramatic at some points. The ending was kinda confusing to me, but cool nonetheless.

[GoktimusPrime]

This irked me greatly, after barely staying awake through hours of padding, we get to the good stuff, and then pow movie over! If the rest of the movie hadn't been a chore to watch I might have felt better about it, bah!

Yeah... I was hoping that this film would end with the battle of Laketown, then save the big Battle of Five Armies for the third film. So now they're gonna squeeze not one but two epic battles into the final movie. I would've preferred from them to spread it out, similar to what they did with The Two Towers and Return of the King (of course, that's also how it played out in the books too). I've actually been looking forward to a film adaptation of the Battle of Five Armies, potentially more epic than the book itself since we're seeing it from an audience's POV instead of Bilbo's narrative.

Didn't notice he had no front legs, that is a bit lame, though Smaug was pretty much the only thing that was particularly exciting in the film.

Ditto, but now that I think about it, I think he might've been a Wyvern. Didn't other characters explicitly refer to Smaug as a Wyrm though?

[Paulbot]

I saw the latest Hobbit movie and I tend to agree with the points so far.

Also given all the padded subplots it hardly feels like it should be called "The Hobbit" anymore Felt like Bilbo was just another guy who was there, rather than the character the story revolves around.

I thought this too while watching. The Hobbit of the title is not up to a whole lot. Felt more like Thorin's movie.

One thing though, maybe a spoiler ahead.... But right at the end when Smaug was in flight and getting ready to take some revenge and saying how he was death or something like that, I was reminded of the classic "for a time I considered sparing" line and moment from TFTM and knew right then that if ever Unicron appears in a TF Movie, I want him to sound like Benedict Cumberbatch as Smaug. (Unlikely Michael Bay would hire an Englishman, but still).

[GoktimusPrime]

Belated Man of Steel rant:

The interrogation scene where Superman explains to Lois that the symbol on his chest isn't an S, but is the (a?) Kryptonian glyph that means "hope," Lois seems to flippantly disregard that and say, "Well here it's an 'S'." Does that come across as just a tad culturally insensitive to anyone else?

[Gutsman Heavy]

Belated Man of Steel rant:

The interrogation scene where Superman explains to Lois that the symbol on his chest isn't an S, but is the (a?) Kryptonian glyph that means "hope," Lois seems to flippantly disregard that and say, "Well here it's an 'S'." Does that come across as just a tad culturally insensitive to anyone else?

It comes across as if you're looking to be offended. It's a joke mate.

[Sinnertwin]

Hopeman?