MAMEWorld Forums - The Loony Bin - Anybody else see that movie vaguely based on the Hobbit?

Not to be a spoiler, but… like next to nothing from "part 2" comes from the book. It's like vaguely inspired by the book at best. The first "part 1" took some liberties here and there, but over all you could tell they were following the story laid out in the book… but this "part 2" is like a whole other story. The elf/dwarf love affair, the presence of Legolas at all, Gandalf's business away was previously unknown but here created, Sauron being incarnate despite not possessing his essence locked within the ring (the whole reason he needed the ring in "Lord of the Ring" and pursued Frodo to begin with) and revealed to Gandalf (making the whole surprise of his return in the Lord of the Rings trilogy now a stretch), the Orcs specifically pursuing the dwarves as opposed to being just generally about and dangerous, the entire barrel ride and battle whereas before they were just nailed and shut in the barrels until collected by men, the injuring of and subsequent leaving behind several dwarves in the village, Bard's prior knowledge of Smaug's weakness as opposed to his learning of it from the elderly talking thrush in the heat of battle, the dwarven battle against Smaug is ridiculous considering the dwarves never entered the mountain until after Smaug already had left to destroy the town… the Golden King statue!!! Ridiculous… why would all of that crafting and machinery have been fabricated and prepositioned but for the lighting of the fire to make it all work yet never utilized… they made all that yet no one bothered to light the fire to make it mold the statue until now? Just in time to battle Smaug, albeit futile. Dumb dumb dumb. And why would they think molten metal would be bad for him… his very breath is hot enough to melt metal (e.g. is hotter than molten metal) to begin with… it would be like using 98.7 degree water to try and kill a human.

I REALLY was bothered by how they portrayed Bilbo coming to possess the arcenstone. In the book, he's sent into the mountain to scout around to see if Smaug still lives, with instructions that he may keep what ever he likes… and he finds the arcenstone by chance, and chooses to keep it as part of his take. Only later, as the King is looking around, does Bilbo realize the King looks for what he found. In the movie, he is sent into the mountain specifically to find the arcenstone, and so in keeping it, that would change the very circumstance and moral character of Bilbo from fairly acquired to essentially stolen.

I went in as excited as a kid on Christmas, and came out a disappointed kid who just learned Santa isn't real. No shit?