[Spoilers] Rings of Power 4: The Battle for Middle-Earth begins

[IlyaP]

28 minutes ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

Yeah. I was into it. What’s the problem?

Clearly someone said, “We need to make this one a bit more ‘Star Wars’”. Exquisite.

The plot synopsis for that film on Wikipedia is wild.

It's deep, profound drama about family ties.

And cars.

Take that, Tolkien!

[baxus]

22 hours ago, sifth said:

Why, because they made him fun of him?

FTFY

[Ser Drewy]

1 hour ago, baxus said:

FTFY

To be honest, he's pretty silly in Fellowship too. Tries to destroy the One ring with an axe and gets thrown on his arse, apparently is the only person in Middle-Earth who doesn't know Balin's expedition failed, "not the beeeeard", snoring when Sam is trying to pay tribute to Gandalf... 

I always found Rhys Davis giving it the big one about 'respecting Tolkien's work' whilst playing one of the worst and most caricatured characters in the films baffling. Like, dude, what part of you huffing-and-puffing like Yosmite Sam, falling over in slapstick comedy multiple times, getting boobies in your byrnie and getting lines like “WE DWARVES LIKE TO GO SWIMMIN' WITH WEE HAIRY WIMMIN” did you find retained the dignity and depth of your character? 

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

Gimli is a better portrayal of dwarves than in The Hobbit trilogy….

[polishgenius]

No-one's defending the Hobbit trilogy.

[Ser Drewy]

I'm honestly not sure. Thorin, Balin and Bofur at least come across as actual characters with some depth. Sure the rest of them are pretty bad, or non-entities, but those three, at least, are mostly okayish (until the action scenes start and they turn into silliness).

Rings of Power probably is the best the dwarves have been treated in ME media overall, to be honest.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

22 minutes ago, Ser Drewy said:

I'm honestly not sure. Thorin, Balin and Bofur at least come across as actual characters with some depth. Sure the rest of them are pretty bad, or non-entities, but those three, at least, are mostly okayish (until the action scenes start and they turn into silliness).

Rings of Power probably is the best the dwarves have been treated in ME media overall, to be honest.

Too bad “Rings of Power” is fan fiction… eat your Mithril Flakes everyone.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

2 hours ago, polishgenius said:

No-one's defending the Hobbit trilogy.

Billy Connolly. I’ll defend him in the Hobbit trilogy. He was cool.

[polishgenius]

I honestly didn't expect two people immediately defending The Hobbit trilogy but given people defend the Star Wars prequels I probably should have. 


(to be fair, the first hour of the first Hobbit movie, plus Riddles in the Dark, fucking slaps)

[Ser Drewy]

I'm not really defending the Hobbit trilogy, just that I think there was more attempt to build Thorin & Balin as actual characters than there was with Gimli.  I mean part of that is weirdly because PJ really wanted Thorin the Dwarf to be the main character in a film called The Hobbit... 

[williamjm]

2 hours ago, polishgenius said:

(to be fair, the first hour of the first Hobbit movie, plus Riddles in the Dark, fucking slaps)

I did like the first part of the film, I think it's about the time Radagast shows up that everything starts to go downhill fast.

[Durckad]

28 minutes ago, williamjm said:

I did like the first part of the film, I think it's about the time Radagast shows up that everything starts to go downhill fast.

Radagast telling Gandalf and the dwarves that he'll lead the orcs away from them and then they both head IN THE SAME DIRECTION has to be one of the dumbest moments in these films... until the quick time event escape from Goblin Town, the river barrel sequence, and trying to kill Smaug with... liquid gold. jfc these films are exceptionally dumb.

You know, I'll fucking say it, some of the "fan fiction" in RoP may be stupid but it's far less stupid than so much of The Hobbit movies.

2 hours ago, Ser Drewy said:

I'm not really defending the Hobbit trilogy, just that I think there was more attempt to build Thorin & Balin as actual characters than there was with Gimli.  I mean part of that is weirdly because PJ really wanted Thorin the Dwarf to be the main character in a film called The Hobbit... 

I will agree with this though. Thorin, Balin, and Durin (from RoP) are all far better characters than how Gimli was treated in the original trilogy. The rest of the dwarves in The Hobbit are barely characters, however accurate to the book that may be. 

7 hours ago, Ser Drewy said:

To be honest, he's pretty silly in Fellowship too. Tries to destroy the One ring with an axe and gets thrown on his arse, apparently is the only person in Middle-Earth who doesn't know Balin's expedition failed, "not the beeeeard", snoring when Sam is trying to pay tribute to Gandalf... 

I always found Rhys Davis giving it the big one about 'respecting Tolkien's work' whilst playing one of the worst and most caricatured characters in the films baffling. Like, dude, what part of you huffing-and-puffing like Yosmite Sam, falling over in slapstick comedy multiple times, getting boobies in your byrnie and getting lines like “WE DWARVES LIKE TO GO SWIMMIN' WITH WEE HAIRY WIMMIN” did you find retained the dignity and depth of your character? 

Eh, he is given jokes in Fellowship but he's not treated as a joke, which I think is the difference. Also, I think Balin's expedition "failing" was changed in the movies, nobody corrects Gimli about Balin being in Moria so I think nobody else really knows whether it was successful or not. So I think that's less making Gimli look dumb and more just a change to the story in the adaptation.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

33 minutes ago, Durckad said:

You know, I'll fucking say it, some of the "fan fiction" in RoP may be stupid but it's far less stupid than so much of The Hobbit movies

Mithril flakes.

[ASOIAFrelatedusername]

48 minutes ago, Durckad said:

You know, I'll fucking say it, some of the "fan fiction" in RoP may be stupid but it's far less stupid than so much of The Hobbit movies.

A budget issue I suspect. Still RoP had Galadriel getting hit in the face by a wave of hot ash and air and not even getting slightly singed.

Edited December 29, 2023 by ASOIAFrelatedusername

[Durckad]

58 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

Mithril flakes.

Kili talking about his dick to Tauriel. Thorin getting all greedy because of dragon madness or some stupid shit. Arthur crossdressing during the Battle of the Five Armies.

47 minutes ago, ASOIAFrelatedusername said:

A budget issue I suspect. Still RoP had Galadriel getting hit in the face by a wave of hot ash and air and not even getting slightly singed.

Like I said, RoP has some serious stupid (Galadriel jumping off the boat in the middle of the ocean and just happening to find Sauron) but man, The Hobbit movies are just plagued with them. The worst part about them, is that those scenes in The Hobbit go on forever. The Goblin Town escape and the dwarves trying to kill Smaug are especially egregious. Like on and on, nonsense dumb CGI action bullshit and it's not even very good action or CGI. It's just endless noise.

While I'll at least give them credit for some really good scenes (Riddles in the Dark, Smaug and Bilbo, anything with Thranduil, Lee Pace can talk about his dick in a Tolkien adaptation all he wants and I won't care), they just make the bad stand out so much more.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

Oh, come on. How could you not like this?

 

[sifth]

Just now, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

Oh, come on. How could you not like this?

 

Why does the CGI look worse, in the more recent films?

[Durckad]

14 minutes ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

Oh, come on. How could you not like this?

 

Okay fine, AI-Generated Billy Connolly is fine I guess.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

21 minutes ago, sifth said:

Why does the CGI look worse, in the more recent films?

Because your eyes are broken.

[Ser Drewy]

1 hour ago, Durckad said:

Like I said, RoP has some serious stupid (Galadriel jumping off the boat in the middle of the ocean and just happening to find Sauron) but man, The Hobbit movies are just plagued with them. The worst part about them, is that those scenes in The Hobbit go on forever. The Goblin Town escape and the dwarves trying to kill Smaug are especially egregious. Like on and on, nonsense dumb CGI action bullshit and it's not even very good action or CGI. It's just endless noise.

 

The attempts I've seem to rehabilitate the Hobbit trilogy in light of ROP is very odd to me. I rewatched them not long after seeing ROP and honestly, yeah, there's some awful choices in ROP (the Mithril stuff especially) and it has some glaring problems with writing/pacing/characterisation, but it's hardly enough to make The Hobbits seem like fond mostly good efforts. There's some insanely indulgently stupid stuff in the Hobbit films that just go on for endless amounts of minutes. Legolas hanging upside down on a bat cutting off dozens of Orcs heads then dismounting on a troll that he stabs in the skull and mind-controls. Bard using his son as a crossbow to kill Smaug. The barrels sequence. Whatever in the name of God this scene is supposed to be: