The Battle Bar, Our Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy

Originally posted by psmith81992
I think we can all agree that Peter Jackson is vastly superior to GL in filmmaking and it's not even close. I mean 13 years after his LOTR trilogy, he makes another masterpiece (especially since people were skeptical about its quality beforehand).

Well that's not exactly fair considering Lucas's films all come from his mind from scratch.

Jackson didn't invent LOTR. He didn't come up with the idea or story. What he did do was a brilliant job at reinventing it for the big screen. He did the same with King Kong. Then again 13 years later he didn't suddenly come up with The Hobbit either.

Jackson's a great guy to go to when you already have an epic story and characters on the plate for you. Not to undermine his efforts because his directing was spot on, and he did do a fantastic job bringing these big franchises to the big screen. He may be the best at doing that.

It's just not a good comparison to Lucas's efforts Imho.

Well, Desolation of Smaug was a lot of fun. Just be warned, if you go in expecting an adaptation of the book you will be very disappointed. I'll comment on it further tomorrow. But suffice to say it was far better than the first part. And Smaug exceeded all expectations. One of the few times where what we see on screen was better than I had ever imagined it.

Originally posted by ares834
Well, Desolation of Smaug was a lot of fun. Just be warned, if you go in expecting an adaptation of the book you will be very disappointed. I'll comment on it further tomorrow. But suffice to say it was far better than the first part. And Smaug exceeded all expectations. One of the few times where what we see on screen was better than I had ever imagined it.

Who I actually thought was bad as **** was the Miar spirit Sauron and his thirteen-fold zoom in. Very Hinduistic.

The Films hierarchy of power levels are very different from those of the books. For instance, the Witch King in RoTK overpowered Gandalf as the Head Istari. The Istari were literally sent from Eru-Illuvatar God and the Witch King never broke his staff in the book.

The Dragons were also a lot more powerful, especially the first one, the Black One from the Silmarillion, what was he called? Ancalchal or something.

The "we are legion" was kind of cheesy, but hey.

Spoiler:
I wasn't a fan of that scene. The duel seemed to Harry Potterish for my liking. But, yeah, I did think they did a pretty good job portraying Sauron.

Edit: Ancalagon was the greatest of the winged dragons. Glaurung, a wingless dragon, was the first.

Originally posted by ares834
Ancalagon

That's the one. Gandalf described his fire breath as able to incinerate all things or something.

Glaurung was killed by a man IIRC. But he was the man who'd, at the end times, **** up Melkor so who knows.

Originally posted by DARTH POWER
Well that's not exactly fair considering Lucas's films all come from his mind from scratch.

Jackson didn't invent LOTR. He didn't come up with the idea or story. What he did do was a brilliant job at reinventing it for the big screen. He did the same with King Kong. Then again 13 years later he didn't suddenly come up with The Hobbit either.

Jackson's a great guy to go to when you already have an epic story and characters on the plate for you. Not to undermine his efforts because his directing was spot on, and he did do a fantastic job bringing these big franchises to the big screen. He may be the best at doing that.

It's just not a good comparison to Lucas's efforts Imho.

Actually, Jackson's job was harder in some respects because he was interpreting material created decades earlier by perhaps one of the best linguistic geniuses of our era. I've known a lot of people without the mentality or reading proficiency to get through the works, much less reimagine them on the big screen and furthermore alter or build on existing events and make them cinematically better. I'd be lying to you if I said the book would make a better movie than the movie here.

Even if you're leaving the creativity aspect out of it, think of the worst moments in SW films compared to the worst of the LOTR films. About the only times I hated the latter included Galadriel's pseudo-fall, Legolas shield-skating, and Gimli's flanderization. And even then, it's still much much better.

Frozen was amazing.

It wasn't bad.

Kristen Bell is a good VA.

She is. Anna was a super-likable character imo. I really liked all the characters. Even that generic prince is just so super nice.

The movie had some meaty balls too. "Do you want to build a snowman" was heartbreaking. Good songs. And "Let It Go" is AWESOME. It blows so many other "I Want" songs out of the water. "Cold never bothered me anyway" = Bad. Ass.

From now on, any negative comment made about Peter Jackson, the LOTR trilogy, or the Hobbit trilogy will be considered heresy and will be subject to an automatic lifetime ban.

Ban from what?

This forum (I'm assuming someone magically gives me mod powers).

Desolation was meh. It wasn't a bad movie (it wasn't great either) but it was a terrible adaptation. I'm all for changes and reinterpretations, but this trilogy doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. The first was schizophrenic in its tone, and this one felt almost as joyless as Man of Steel. If you're going to go dark and serious, do it fully. There are too many contrasting light and fluffy moments in between the epic CGI moments.

The Hobbit would have made for a great, 2.5-3 hour movie. Stayed true to the tone set in the novel. No need for utterly pointless filler, romance, drama, or action scenes.

Originally posted by psmith81992
This forum (I'm assuming someone magically gives me mod powers).

I lol'd.

Originally posted by Lord Lucien
Desolation was meh. It wasn't a bad movie (it wasn't great either) but it was a terrible adaptation. I'm all for changes and reinterpretations, but this trilogy doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. The first was schizophrenic in its tone, and this one felt almost as joyless as Man of Steel. If you're going to go dark and serious, do it fully. There are too many contrasting light and fluffy moments in between the epic CGI moments.

The Hobbit would have made for a great, 2.5-3 hour movie. Stayed true to the tone set in the novel. No need for utterly pointless filler, romance, drama, or action scenes.

Yours is the first truly bad review I've come across. But then again I'm not interested if the movie well matches the book. The book was pretty unimpressive after reading Tolkien's other works, but that's understandable considering it was originally a stand-alone fairy tale and not part of a growing epic saga spanning thousands of years.

If anyone's interested, I've made a Qui-Gon respect thread.

http://www.comicvine.com/profile/intrepid37/blog/respect-qui-gon-jinn-unfinished/95268/

Nice work, although wasted at Comic Vine (hint: post it here).

Also, how outdated is some of the latter stuff? I find it hard to believe that Qui-Gon Jinn is really better than Anoon unless the guy is all hype. I mean, Qui-Gon Jinn's technical skill in TPM is not that great. If he is a sign of the "top tier" of the PT Order, that's not a good sign.

I posted it on Comic Vine 'cause of infinite edits.

Eh, don't know. Got the scan from Tempest from the Jedi Academy Training Manual then quoted it. Why is it difficult to believe he's a good swordsman though?

Because I know how to fight and I've watched the TPM battle probably more than any other fight in the film series. Ray Park was probably itching to actually use some of his ability while two guys were flailing away at him and leaving huge openings. The guy is extremely talented and he's dialing it down drastically to not make the other guys look even worse.

He's also a very very awesome guy and proficient fighter himself. For extra lulz, play that on fast. And the Revan cosplay in the background looks a little basic.

[11/26/2013 6:11:42 PM] Blaxican: Megatron paces back and fourth on the command deck. Seated below, in little classroom tables far too small to support any of their bulks, are his bitches
[11/26/2013 6:12:11 PM] Blaxican: Mechagoomba Marine, Lenrt, Scenario Marine, and Jorge, the cocaine snorting Tzeentch Marine.
[11/26/2013 6:12:55 PM] Blaxican: "You have been chosen because you are the best." Megatron says, leaning over the railing.
[11/26/2013 6:14:19 PM] Blaxican: "Your mission, is to capture Dr. Maguns the Blue and his prodige, Dr. Cyrus. They are in grave danger, and if you can not rescue them from the Slaaneshi ****, they are likely ****ed."
[11/26/2013 6:14:22 PM] Blaxican: "Butt-****ed."
[11/26/2013 6:18:07 PM] Miguel: I had some friends who played Vampire: The Masquerade. I told them that I'd play as long as I could use my gay hawaiin nationalist character.
[11/26/2013 6:18:27 PM] Jack of Diamonds: MAXWELL MARINE is happiest when his name is in all caps.
[11/26/2013 6:18:38 PM] Blaxican: "That is interesting news, private Jorge (he pronounces it as george), BUT NOT PERTINENT TO THE BRIEFING."
[11/26/2013 6:18:48 PM] Badrukk: glorious
[11/26/2013 6:19:46 PM] Blaxican: "You will be dropped directly into the womb of the enemy base via a MASS. DROP POD. ASSAULT." Megatron says, steepling his fingers VILLAINOUSLY. "Are there any questions?"
[11/26/2013 6:20:25 PM] Badrukk: "I AM ERADY"
[11/26/2013 6:20:46 PM] Will of the Scenario: "I don't like w-wombs..."
[11/26/2013 6:20:59 PM] Blaxican: Megatron appreciates the priest-marine's enthusiasm. It's not everyday that his loyal troops are so ready to die that they adopt retard-speech.
[11/26/2013 6:21:04 PM] Jack of Diamonds: "ARE WE EQUIPED WITH WASTE RECYCLING UNITS?"
[11/26/2013 6:22:16 PM] Miguel: "Death is certain for our enemies"
[11/26/2013 6:22:22 PM] Blaxican: "YOUR WASTE RECYCLING UNITS ARE YOUR ALLIES, YOUR TOILET PAPER IS YOUR TEAMWORK. DISMISSED. TO THE DROPOD ROOM."
[11/26/2013 6:23:04 PM] Blaxican: Megatron immediately jumps through the viewport of the command room, shattering the saftey glass and venting himself out into space. The vacuum of space threatens to drag you out as well.
[11/26/2013 6:23:28 PM] Blaxican: ROLL STRENGTH TO CLAW YOUR WAY OUT OF THE ROOM

GM thug life.

Originally posted by Stealth Moose
Because I know how to fight