Richard Armitage Talks Thorin Oakshield And THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG

I can totally see Richard Armitage as Batman.

@ckal - i'm with you on the rock giant scene. It was a dreadful excuse to show off the new 3D cameras. Eh..whatever. And the Azog story was way too forced...

......however....

@monkeyballs - imagine what it would've been like w/out the Azog storyline. The story would've plodded on along with the group until they reach Rivendell, and then they plod along some more until finally they reach the mountains. Because of the awesome material being added from the appendixes they needed to make this movie end where it did, which means they need more action for the audience to not lose focus and get bored. Most of it was completely understandable, albeit a little forced since it wasn't in the novel.

But, Azog's story wasn't the worst they could've gone with. They pulled it straight from the appendix with some slight alterations to make it more personal. Now that we've set that up it will be more meaningful when the Orc army shows up at the end. It will be led by Azog which brings with it so much more meaning. PJ & Co. put enough thought into it, they aren't just adding crap for no reason. Sit back and enjoy my friend, this will be a trilogy to remember...

as someone who has read the hobbit and the appendices multiple times i still am convinced they are fluffing the material way too much. if the reason we are getting three films is to be the most faithful adaptation ever of one book they are failing in some areas pretty badly. its all summed up for me with the beginning of the flick when they change the opening line of the book from "..it was a hobbit hole, and that means comfort" to "This was a hobbit hole. And that means good food, a warm hearth, and all the comforts of home". the changing of this line illustrates why this trilogy will always be a flawed adaptation for me. they take something that is perfect in its simplicity and over complicate it. from there a whole laundry list appears most notably making Radagast discover Dol Goldur and not Gandalf. saying that the witch king was dead and buried when in fact he is a wraith nether living nor dead as stated by aragorn in the fotr, missing members of the white council, bilbo not being kicked out the door by gandalf but running out on his own after the company, bilbo killing an orc to save thorin, etc....and i fear the list is going to only keep growing. like others have said i also felt certain things didn't fit in with lotr films. the tone they should have gone for should have been similar to the beginning of fellowship, the rock giant scene was horrid it would have been fine for harry potter not lotr! i think if pj wasn't busy patting himself on the back and touting this as the definitive version of what tolkien wanted by creating the appendices i might be more forgiving but they just stray way to far and take to many unnecessary liberties! did i enjoy them yes but not as much as i should like and less than half as they deserved!

@monkeyballs I compeltely agree with everything you said. Specifically, the Hobbit and PJ fabricating unnecessary conflicts to pad the movie, and the same holds true with the Two Towers. A lot of people love that movie just because of the epic Helms Deep battle, but it's definitely the weakest of the original trilogy. The Hobbit was a bloated mess, and this coming from someone who has read the Hobbit AND the Lord of the Rings multiple times. Give it a few more years, and Peter Jackson will be compared to George Lucas on every movie site in terms of ruining his own movies.