IMO adding the White Council was a great choice for the movies. The problem was that they added dragged-out unnecessary action scenes all over the story. The long escape from Goblin Town, turning the barrel escape into an action scene, the ridiculous (and awful CGI) molten gold thing in Erebor itself.
A good cut should concentrate on bringing that stuff down. Not removing the White Council’s concomitant exploration of Dol Guldur and expulsion of Sauron.
I think it depends on what the intent is for the cut. In this case, it was to provide a version that is as close to the book as possible. I agree that what you describe could be a good cut too, but the goal isn’t the same.
One cut I watched cut all the molten gold stuff. But you have to show smaug leaving the mountain and unfortunately he leaves dripping in gold so that looks kinda weird when you’ve cut all the stuff before that
If you feel the movie(s) had promise check the fan’s cut.
Doesn’t that cut all of White Council stuff?
IMO adding the White Council was a great choice for the movies. The problem was that they added dragged-out unnecessary action scenes all over the story. The long escape from Goblin Town, turning the barrel escape into an action scene, the ridiculous (and awful CGI) molten gold thing in Erebor itself.
A good cut should concentrate on bringing that stuff down. Not removing the White Council’s concomitant exploration of Dol Guldur and expulsion of Sauron.
Molten gold does not look like that!
Molten gold looks like this: Basically, it looks just like any other molten metal – brightly glowing yellow/red.
If they had just made it look like actual melted metal, that would cure ~80% of the hatred I have for that scene.
I think it depends on what the intent is for the cut. In this case, it was to provide a version that is as close to the book as possible. I agree that what you describe could be a good cut too, but the goal isn’t the same.
I love the single movie book edits! They are so much better and more enjoyable without a lot of fluff
One cut I watched cut all the molten gold stuff. But you have to show smaug leaving the mountain and unfortunately he leaves dripping in gold so that looks kinda weird when you’ve cut all the stuff before that