THE HOBBIT: Concept Art Of Smaug, Azog, Beorn, Tauriel & More

This movie is still on my "Must See" list. :(

Agree, they definitely should've went with either these designs or the original design for Azog:

I like the less regal look for the wood elves

I like that concept for Beon much more than the final version. That's how I always envisioned him to look.

@SauronsBANE1...have you convinced anyone, yet? Yes, they're flawed...yes, they could've followed source...yes, you're a broken record without a life....

@MetahumanAbominationKlone...it not that all. It just that he says the same thing on every Hobbit article. I said NOTHING about him conforming to my opinion, friend. In some respects I agree with him, but trolling is trolling.

No offense, Facade, but if you want to shut me up, then prove me wrong. Give me any sort of evidence that I'm completely out of line, that I owe the filmmakers a huge apology, and that any of my criticisms in the past have been dead wrong.

If not, then I don't see the problem here. In this case, I'm not even the one who first brought up the flaws in the movie. I simply agreed with someone else, and added thoughts of my own. Not sure how that's "trolling", especially on a site where you can go to literally any other article and witness actual trolling by users who are there only to insult, instigate, put others down, and discredit others' opinions.

By that definition, I'd say that telling me I have no life simply because reading my comments are too painful for you to read is a form of trolling, friend =)

@Sauronsbane1

Man give it a rest, I've seen see you bashing these movies on every Hobbit/LOTR related article i've ever been on. Yeah you dont like them and you dont agree with some of the decisions PJ made, But constantly bashing and complaining about it on every article is just sad. If you hate these movies so much just keep to reading the book and get over it

@MightyZeus, I definitely don't have a problem with CGI, I mean the original trilogy had CGI too. It's just that there is such thing as too much of a good thing, and that's exactly what happened here. Not only does it feel like more of a video game than a cinematic movie, but it got to the extent that it started affecting the actual story itself.

It doesn't feel like the characters, locations, and events are real (except Smaug. That looked incredible), and it robs the movie of the sense of tension and danger that the original trilogy had. If Dwarves can fly through the air, fall down cliffs, block CGI arrows with CGI swords, all with barely a scratch...then what danger is there, even in a room with a gigantic fire-breathing dragon? Where's the stakes? It makes it so much more boring to watch, IMO.

But as for your last point, (SPOILERS for anyone unfamiliar with the books) I'm sure those deaths will take place. That's why so much attention was paid to Kili and the love triangle: it was a lazy, shorthand way to give him more character development so when the inevitable happens, it'll actually feel meaningful. I hated the love triangle, but I at least see why they did that.

So they had concepts for a pretty great looking, pretty accurate Beorn, but then for some reason decided to say "[frick] it" and go with the stupid, nearly unrecognizable version we got... >:(

Yay my first picture post!
Off to google boobs to share now I guess...

@Sauron

Agree with you especially on the point of CGI. Here is one comparison of how CGI is so overused in the Hobbit movies. Every single fight in the Hobbit films are CGI because every fight the dwarves, elves, orc, etc... need to be doing some kind of impossible trick to make the fights "cool". All kinds of nothing more then visual garbage thrown on the screen really compare that to the original LOTR movie Fellowship of the Ring the final battle had well over 100 extras running around in real Uruk-Hai costumes fighting real life Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, and Boromir.



Look real people fighting it's amazing versus in the Hobbit movie we need CGI character pulling off tricks of the same caliber as Legolas shield surfing in the Two Towers.

@pesmerga44 Fair point to a degree. To be honest they never bettered the balance of chemistry with FX than Fellowship because of the undertaking of what they had and the time schedule to deliver it in. Each film was always going to be more complex than the last but The Hobbit was always going to be a CGI fest, no way around it. Putting men in suits to play Urak-Hai is one thing, even standard orcs but Goblins have to look slightly less human proportions and scamper faster and more agile than a regular human. Aside from making a meal out of Azog and his 2nd's, they've done amazing work with the Goblins in The Hobbit movies.

They've just gone overboard with trying to enrich the plot beyond its childrens book level. Tolkien himself wanted to do exactly what they're doing and expand the Hobbit so it fits in better with LOTR. Unfortunately the publishers wouldn't let him so he had to write a whole load of tales that surround the timeline of the Hobbit. They've adapted the timeline to fit three movies but they've become undisciplined with the amount of extra crap they've made up themselves to bloat the narrative.

I don't think they'll ever beat the quality of that fight at Amon Hem with the Urak-Hai, its was charged with drama and outstanding individual combat sequences that set a ridiculously high standard for any fantasy film before and after. Fellowship of the Ring just got the balance perfectly right!

Keller is a superb artist. He is one of the best.