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[Loxley]

Okay Sushigod, I think this is the collection you're talking about; from the wetacollectors.com forums.

http://www.wetacollectors.com/forum/showthread.php?t=34482

He hasn't made a video detailing his collection in a few years, which is a shame because he's made a ton of improvements and additions to it. Regardless, here's an older video walk-through he did of his collection: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNlrmQj-ki4&sns=em

His collection is ridiculous, not only does he seemingly have every single officially released and licensed statue/bust/miniature/sword/prop, but he also makes props he can't find. Start your way from the end of that thread and work your way backwards if you want to see his most up-to-date pics of it.

 

[RelentlessRolento]

Yep, Target.

awesome thanks.

It comes out a day after my thesis defense so it'll be a nice reward to a long line of hard work.

My thesis is partially tied to Norse culture, which is indirectly related to Tolkien's language and cultural studies.

 

[Loxley]

awesome thanks.

It comes out a day after my thesis defense so it'll be a nice reward to a long line of hard work.

My thesis is partially tied to Norse culture, which is indirectly related to Tolkien's language and cultural studies.

That's awesome, good luck with your defense. I gave mine the day before AUJ hit theaters, I then celebrated by seeing the midnight showing, and buying myself the Noble Collection replica of Orcrist :lol

 

[RelentlessRolento]

That's awesome, good luck with your defense. I gave mine the day before AUJ hit theaters, I then celebrated by seeing the midnight showing, and buying myself the Noble Collection replica of Orcrist :lol

Nice!

As much as my thesis sounds like a history or literature one, it's actually in the arts for Art & Technology. I programmed a game about mashing Norse figures with Floridian animals and my defense is on the topic: "Yggdrasil: The Story, Storyteller, and Listener"

bleh... editing it right now -_-

 

[Sushigod7]

Okay Sushigod, I think this is the collection you're talking about; from the wetacollectors.com forums.

http://www.wetacollectors.com/forum/showthread.php?t=34482

He hasn't made a video detailing his collection in a few years, which is a shame because he's made a ton of improvements and additions to it. Regardless, here's an older video walk-through he did of his collection: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNlrmQj-ki4&sns=em

His collection is ridiculous, not only does he seemingly have every single officially released and licensed statue/bust/miniature/sword/prop, but he also makes props he can't find. Start your way from the end of that thread and work your way backwards if you want to see his most up-to-date pics of it.

Yes! Thats the one thanks a lot!! That is sick bookmarking it now.

 

[peanutbutterlatte]

No one else?

He's an alternate version of Sam sent back from an aborted timeline where he didn't go to help Frodo. That's why he's so chuffed when he sees Gandalf/when the Hobbits return from Mordor.

 

[Loxley]

A few brief clips of the behind-the-scenes stuff included on the upcoming Desolation DVD/BR have been trickling out over the last week.

Beorn's Make-Up

VFX of Laketown

Prepping for the Legolas Lakeotwn fight

 

[Loxley]

The differences between the DOS trailers and the final blu-ray.

Just goes to show that practically none of the effects in the trailers were anywhere near completion. Also looks as though they removed most of the blue/orange color correction as well. The only area I'd say looks worse from the trailers is Thranduil's hall, I love how vibrant it looks in the trailers - compared to Blu-ray where it looks pretty drab.

 

[Little Old Man]

The differences between the DOS trailers and the final blu-ray.

Just goes to show that practically none of the effects in the trailers were anywhere near completion. Also looks as though they removed most of the blue/orange color correction as well. The only area I'd say looks worse from the trailers is Thranduil's hall, I love how vibrant it looks in the trailers - compared to Blu-ray where it looks pretty drab.

Agree with you fully on the colour grading. Mirkwood looks particularly better for it, I remember seeing those bright red and blue leaves and feeling concerned Jackson hadn't realised to tone down the vividness which is initially required to help along the 3D effect.

It would be interesting to know if they tightened up any of the CGI between the theatrical and Blu ray releases though!

 

[Dead]

I wonder how often CG get's touched up for blu-ray releases from theatrical. I don't think I can name one movie where this was done, other than a specific directors cut or something.

Somehow I feel it should be a common thing, but I guess it isn't

 

[Vashetti]

Waiting to hear about the EE now that the Theatrical release is pretty much done.

Edit: wow that comparison video is insane

thanks for posting that

 

[Little Old Man]

I wonder how often CG get's touched up for blu-ray releases from theatrical. I don't think I can name one movie where this was done, other than a specific directors cut or something.

Somehow I feel it should be a common thing, but I guess it isn't

I'm doubtful because I imagine WETA will be worked to the bone to get TABA done in time.

I wish Jackson had delayed all three films to be honest, so many niggling problems with both films so far that I felt could have been addressed with more time to fine tune each one.

 

[Scorpion Soldier]

Just goes to show that practically none of the effects in the trailers were anywhere near completion.

In its defense, the VFX are rarely to never done until maybe a few weeks before release on bigger productions. Though for The Hobbit the changes are without a doubt more extreme than with a lot of other films.

 

[Jedi2016]

Also looks as though they removed most of the blue/orange color correction as well..

That's not uncommon. They often ramp up the blue & orange for trailers to make them "pop" more. I've seen it several times, trailers that look horrendously processed into blue & orange, but the final film looks perfectly natural. It's not so much as they "removed" it in that it was probably never there in the first place and existed only in the trailer.

 

[Loxley]

In its defense, the VFX are rarely to never done until maybe a few weeks before release on bigger productions. Though for The Hobbit the changes are without a doubt more extreme than with a lot of other films.

Oh I wasn't holding that against the trailers or anything, I know that it's very common for effects to be incomplete when the first round of trailers start appearing.

 

[Jacob]

I'm doubtful because I imagine WETA will be worked to the bone to get TABA done in time.

I wish Jackson had delayed all three films to be honest, so many niggling problems with both films so far that I felt could have been addressed with more time to fine tune each one.

The same thing happened with the LOTR films. I don't think delaying it would have helped, it's just the way Jackson works. He always goes right down to the wire trying to finish everything, and inevitably some things are not finished to complete satisfaction.

 

[Vashetti]

The same thing happened with the LOTR films. I don't think delaying it would have helped, it's just the way Jackson works. He always goes right down to the wire trying to finish everything, and inevitably some things are not finished to complete satisfaction.

Yes, I felt terribly sorry for the crew when watching ROTK EE's special features. They were working on the DAY OF THE PREMIERE to get it finished. Astonishing.

 

[Loxley]

Brief twitter Q&A with Armitage. No real revelations as far as TABA is concerned, but he did mention a few scenes that'll likely be included in the EE (More of the company in Mirkwood, Bombur falling into the enchanted stream, and a scene where Bilbo and Thorin see a white stag representing Thranduil - which Thorin tries to kill by shooting it.

Because I have an oddly specific memory for these sorts of things, waaayyy back in Production Vlog #4 - they show a brief glimpse of what I can only assume is the scene where Thorin fires an arrow at the stag.

 

[Loxley]

So my overall thoughts on the DOS blu-ray are pretty much exactly those of the theatrical AUJ blu-ray; it's what you'd expect. There's a nice behind-the-scenes doc to make up for the lack of production diaries this time around (AUJ had 9 and DOS only had 4) which is appreciated.

As with AUJ, they're clearly saving all the expansive extras for EE later this year - so there are no director commentaries or Appendices to speak of. But again, no surprises there. The film itself looks great, Smaug looks incredible in HD, the molten gold still looks like poop in HD, and most of Kili's dialogue is still cringe-worthy. Overall, I would recommend it if you A) figure you won't care for the extended edition or B) are like me and are simply too impatient to hold out until the EE arrives in November.

 

[MoG EclipsE]

I have an ultraviolet code which can only be redeemed in Canada I will give this to whoever quotes me first.

 

[Sibylus]

I have an ultraviolet code which can only be redeemed in Canada I will give this to whoever quotes me first.

Quoteed?

 

[MoG EclipsE]

Quoteed?

PMed you

 

[Sibylus]

Danke kindly sir :3

 

[Charles Foster Kane]

What's supposed to happen in the final one?

 

[Loxley]

What's supposed to happen in the final one?

Assuming you're talking spoilers (without getting too specific):

-

Spoiler

Smaug attacks Laketown

-

Spoiler

The Battle of Dol Goldur

-

Spoiler

The Battle of the Five Armies

 

[Charles Foster Kane]

Assuming you're talking spoilers (without getting too specific):

-

Spoiler

Smaug attacks Laketown

-

Spoiler

The Battle of Dol Goldur

-

Spoiler

The Battle of the Five Armies

Seems like a lot. Does that mean Smaug

Spoiler

dies early?

 

[Loxley]

Seems like a lot. Does that mean Smaug

Spoiler

dies early?

Spoiler

It seems like that could be the case. Smaug's attack on Laketown (and the fallout immediately afterward) is a pivotal event, so it wouldn't surprise me if the first 40 or so minutes of the film were devoted entirely to that. As for the Battle of Dol Goldur and the Five Armies - my theory is that both of these conflicts will happen simultaneously, with the film jumping back and forth between each one (similar to the way Helm's Deep and the Battle of Isengard were edited together in The Two Towers).

Given Jackson's playing around with the canon,

Spoiler

both of those events will likely happen slightly differently than the way they do in the book. In the book, Bolg fights at the Battle of the Five Armies. However, given that Azog is still alive (when he's supposed to have been long dead by the events of The Hobbit) I'd imagine he'll instead take Bolg's place in the fight. As for Bolg, my guess is that when he fled Laketown at the end of DOS with Legolas in pursuit, he was retreating back to Dol Goldur. If that's the case, Legolas will probably take part in the fight there.

 

[LevelNth]

Finally got around to watching DOS today, and I enjoyed it much more than I was expecting. I definitely haven't felt the fervent appeal for the Hobbit films as I did for LOTR (some of my all time favs), and it didn't help that when I finally got around to seeing AUJ I felt it was just ok (kind of long, a bit boring at times, the common complaints others have had), but I enjoyed DOS much more.

Mainly it had to do with the Smaug scenes and the tiny bits of Gandalf's investigations of Dol Guldur, which was just cool in an almost fan service sort of way.

Also, and I can't explain why I felt this way, but I thought the ending scene choice for DOS was absolute perfection. PJ nailed that.

 

[Loxley]

Finally got around to watching DOS today, and I enjoyed it much more than I was expecting. I definitely haven't felt the fervent appeal for the Hobbit films as I did for LOTR (some of my all time favs), and it didn't help that when I finally got around to seeing AUJ I felt it was just ok (kind of long, a bit boring at times, the common complaints others have had), but I enjoyed DOS much more.

Mainly it had to do with the Smaug scenes and the tiny bits of Gandalf's investigations of Dol Guldur, which was just cool in an almost fan service sort of way.

Also, and I can't explain why I felt this way, but I thought the ending scene choice for DOS was absolute perfection. PJ nailed that.

I agree. Going into DOS, if you'd kept up with all the news and bits of info about the film that we'd gotten up to that point, it was pretty clear where the film was going to end. So when I saw it in the theater for the first time and the screen cuts to black after Bilbo's line, the audience let out a collective "UUGGGGHHHHH" whereas I just kind of laughed to myself. It was smart on Jackson's part to hold off the final confrontation with Smaug until TABA, giving people incentive to see the third film. I never for a second believed that he was going to

Spoiler

kill Smaug in the middle of the trilogy, no way. That's something you save for the final film.

Partially because I guarantee you that a lot of people who haven't read the book and have only seen the films likely think that

Spoiler

once Smaug is killed, that's the end.

 

[Ixion]

The problem with ending the film there is that PJ had to add a big action sequence beforehand. And I thought that action sequence was terrible.

The only real way to avoid that problem would have been to only make two films.

 

[Loxley]

The problem with ending the film there is that PJ had to add a big action sequence beforehand. And I thought that action sequence was terrible.

The only real way to avoid that problem would have been to only make two films.

There are two things in my opinion that hurt that last set-piece; Thorin never explains what his plan is, and a number of the effects are woefully unfinished. So not only is it a bit confusing as to what the dwarves are trying to do, but it looks bad on top of it.

I do know that you weren't fond of Smaug seemingly becoming an idiot, which I still argue is justified within the context of the sequence. But again, agree to disagree. The single-most common complaint I've heard from people who didn't like the final action sequence was the shoddy CG. So I genuinely feel like if the effects had been up to par with the rest of the film, those people largely would have been fine with it. I do not envy the artists and animators at Weta Digital, how they manage to not go insane is beyond me.

 

[Curufinwe]

There are two things in my opinion that hurt that last set-piece; Thorin never explains what his plan is, and a number of the effects are woefully unfinished. So not only is it a bit confusing as to what the dwarves are trying to do, but it looks bad on top of it.

I hope it comes across better in the EE.

 

[Charles Foster Kane]

There are two things in my opinion that hurt that last set-piece; Thorin never explains what his plan is, and a number of the effects are woefully unfinished. So not only is it a bit confusing as to what the dwarves are trying to do, but it looks bad on top of it.

I don't understand what happened there. The movie was doing pretty good effects wise, and then it was like they stopped giving a shit.

 

[StormyTheRabbit]

Is Bjorn in this? I haven't seen DoS yet, but I won't continue watching this series if he cuts out my favorite character of both The Hobbit and LotR. Also, if he is in it, do they handle his introduction as beautifully as the book?

(Mind you I'm a massive LotR fan and am actually in the minority of being cool with Tom Bombadil being cut)

 

[peanutbutterlatte]

Is Bjorn in this? I haven't seen DoS yet, but I won't continue watching this series if he cuts out my favorite character of both The Hobbit and LotR. Also, if he is in it, do they handle his introduction as beautifully as the book?

(Mind you I'm a massive LotR fan and am actually in the minority of being cool with Tom Bombadil being cut)

Beorn And he's in it for about 5 minutes, it's suggested he has a bigger role in the final film.

 

[StormyTheRabbit]

Beorn And he's in it for about 5 minutes, it's suggested he has a bigger role in the final film.

Oh, right >_<. Its been a minute since I've read the novel. BUT HOW DO THEY INTRODUCE HIM?!?!?!?

EDIT: Just looked up photos of him. Love the bear design, despise his pre-transformation look. Yeesh, looks like the cat thing from Land of the Lost. Always imagined him as a huge fat/muscular bearded dude who looked much less bear like before changing :/. Each to their own I guess.

 

[Loxley]

I don't understand what happened there. The movie was doing pretty good effects wise, and then it was like they stopped giving a shit.

Simply put - Weta ran out of time. As with The Lord of the Rings films, they're working on effects shots up until quite literally hours before the world premieres of the films. The last shot in AUJ, the one panning through the inside of Erebor ending on Smaug's eye? That was a shot they were working on up until the last moment but they also ran out of time on, which is why it looks a bit weird (particularly the gold).

Joe Letteri, the head of Weta Digital, said just as much for the final Erebor action sequence; it was the last thing they were working on right up until the premiere of DOS.

 

[Vashetti]

I still find it hilarious how in that moment Thorin is screaming on fire, rolls over on the floor, gets up and says "come on!" as though nothing had happened.

Such shoddy editing there.

 

[Discotheque]

I still find it hilarious how in that moment Thorin is screaming on fire, rolls over on the floor, gets up and says "come on!" as though nothing had happened.

Such shoddy editing there.

i'm not gonna defend this film's editing overall. but i kinda thought that was one of the few badass moments thorin's whiny ass has.

it's like he was on fire, panicked for a second and quickly got over it because he has more pressing matters.

 

[Loxley]

lotrproject.com

 

[Mr Cola]

I used to be a big poster in here but this trilogy, while greatly enjoyable, doesn't quite have the same grip on me as the last one, I think it's a matter of timing personally, Lotr got me at the perfect time. This being said I saw dos for the first time the other day and id like to give it a small review. Firstly just like auj I thought it was good, fun and a great addition, however like auj there was a problem that I can't get over, thorin. So in auj I gave it a pass because the film had to set up a lot of things and making thorin stoic and troubled made sense, I though in dos they would build the character more and make me care for him, but ths wasn't the case. I understand why thorin is doing what he is doing, I get his motivation but I just don't like him, not at all, I don't want him to succeed, I don't empathise with him, he doesn't feel like an relatable character. Of all the people in the film who I related to like I did the original Lotr cast it was Evangeline Lilly's character, forced three way romance aside.

I don't think they solved the dwarf problem, I think actually they gave up on it.

Set pieces were amazing, the Long fight between ten elves orcs and barrels was brilliant, amazing how they kept upping the stakes.

Smaug was good, probably the best interaction in the film

 

[Loxley]

Take this with a grain of salt, but there's a rumor right now that "There and Back Again" could be retitled "Into the Fire":

http://www.theonering.net/torwp/201...ck-again-may-become-the-hobbit-into-the-fire/

As they point out in the article, this could simply be the title of some tie-in product and not a new title for the final film, but at this point it's entirely possible that WB could change the title if they wanted to I suppose. Into the Fire does come of as more marketable, There and Back Again almost sounds like a meta-commentary on the number of Hobbit films now that I think about it :lol.

 

[Charles Foster Kane]

Why would they change it into something so generic?

 

[Loxley]

Why would they change it into something so generic?

I guess from a marketing standpoint "Into the Fire" sounds more badass (ie: more marketable). Given the events that have yet to happen, it's probably a more apt title. But again, there's no real indication that they're planning to re-title the third film, this is just speculation at this point.

 

[Vashetti]

There and Back Again is perfect and I will be legitimately pissed if they changed it.

Just leave it the fuck alone.

 

[Loxley]

There and Back Again is perfect and I will be legitimately pissed if they changed it.

Just leave it the fuck alone.

Yeah, I've become pretty attached to it myself.

 

[Yoshichan]

And people in this thread (?) said that Gandalf barely had any lines. Come the fuck on.

 

[Raptor]

I looooved the barrel scene a lot.

For all the hate this movie gets I went expecting something worse than AUJ and to my surpise this one is even better than Return to me, Return is boring to me now, but this one I want to see it again, thinking in buying it to be honest, I did not got bored at all during this, loved the orcs, loved the Necromancer vs Gandalf bit, I didn't even got annoyed by Kili or Fili whatever tauriel scenes.

There is one thing I did not like, there was maybe 3 or more scenes/dialog that was very similar to something in the LOTR trology and I did not liked that even if there is a reason for it, I would have prefered this trilogy to be comepltly separated to LOTR.

Barrels, talking spiders, talking dragon, bolg, azog, orcs, Beorn, etc all great stuff IMO.

 

[Charles Foster Kane]

Who the fuck is Bifur? lol

 

[Poofynamanama]

Who the fuck is Bifur? lol

I recognize maybe 1/4 of those names