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Anyone else excited? I really can't wait to see if it has the council's raid on Dol Guldur. Also really can't wait to see Bard kill Smaug. Also, as a total guess, Tauriel is going to croak like an Uzzah against a TSA.

It's going to be the best of the three, and still a pretty bad movie all in all.

They didn't make them like the lord of the rings. They should've just followed the books exactly, same with Eragon and every other book made into movie there is.

It's going to be the best of the three, and still a pretty bad movie all in all.

It's going to be the best because...

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Thorin, Fili, and Kili all bite the dust. Hopefully, Tauriel will also. And Legolas. (Shoot. Legolas can't die. Nevermind)

I happen to like what they added to the movies. (the book was a little slow)

More.

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There has to be a prophecy for EVERYTHING these days. In the book, it was just an old, hopeful song.
Biggest thing of all. Gandalf is overcome by Sauron. That CANNOT happen. His staff is broken. CANNOT happen. And why doesn't Sauron kill Gandalf? Gandalf is the single greatest threat to Sauron that exists. And Sauron would know this.

Azog would be dead. He DID die at the battle where Thorin cut off his hand.

The actor of Thranduil over emotes.

You don't care about any of the characters, because you never feel even remotely afraid for their lives.

Humor wasn't funny. (Except for the crack about Gimli and Gloin's wife)

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Tauriel healing Kili with Athelas. Only the king of Gondor or his kin can use Athelas for healing properties. Otherwise, it is useless. Not some random elf babe.

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Drowning Smaug in molten gold? Really? Dwarves would know the properties of metals, and since gold is one the of the most dense metals in existence, Smaug would rise to the top of it.

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If you will recall, Thorin gets set on fire in the mountain. Dragon fire would burn him to a crisp in seconds. And if you say, "It was a dwarven flame-resistant cloak",no. It was a laketown cloak.

I will not list any more, as I there would be 20 more pages.

I like the idea of trying to put in the stuff with Dol Guldur, but they failed.

Should I start listing everything wrong with Lord of the Rings?
Aragorn had Anduril the whole time! Why did they make it a Hero's Journey story!? So lame!
What was with Arwen rescuing Frodo?! She doesn't even know how to fight! It doesn't make sense! Glorfindel was way cooler.
It seems like the Fellowship knew where they were going, but in reality Gandalf was just making it up along the way! In fact, Boromir and Aragorn were really just going to go to Gondor the entire time, and were along with the company only until then. So bad! Would Elrond honestly send Boromir for an extended time with the Ring? Of course not.
Oh, and that's another thing. In the movies whoever wants to go just goes, but there's no way Elrond and Gandalf would allow that. They hand picked the Fellowship, only using the ones they trusted.
Gandalf never mentioned to Frodo that Gollum was following them, and he didn't fully figure it out until he conferred with Aragorn after Lothlorien. I'm not sure why this is important.
On that note, the Uruks didn't just randomly find the Fellowship, which is quite ridiculous, Gollum lead them to them.
And let's not forget Tom Bombadil like they did...

And that's just a few of the problems in Fellowship.

While you can pick over things like "humor wasn't funny", or the fight scenes being ridiculous, saying things like "Azog would be dead. He DID die at the battle where Thorin cut off his hand." is off the table if you enjoyed LotR. I thought Azog was a great touch to the first movie.

"Gandalf is the single greatest threat to Sauron that exists" is just blatantly false, as well as "Tauriel healing Kili with Athelas. Only the king of Gondor or his kin can use Athelas for healing properties. Otherwise, it is useless. Not some random elf babe."

Oh, I know the inaccuracies in the movie, such as Azog dying, but they were just as present if not more present in The Hobbit. Don't even get me started on how inaccurate the Two Towers was...

The point is that the movie is a different medium, and is therefore going to be a different story.  They have the right to change it and I'm glad they did. The movie shouldn't be the same as the book. There shouldn't be gigantic differences (like imagine if they killed Aragorn instead of Gandalf), but little things are fine (like Azog still being alive...he wasn't crucial to the story other than giving background on Bolg and Thorin's rivalry, which will still be there).

The first movie would have been incredibly dull without Azog. Tom Bombadil was entirely unnecessary, and even Tolkien acknowledged that. 

Eru is largely disengaged from Middle Earth, as far as we know. Ulmo was probably the most active of the Valar at that point.

As for Athelas, I'll need a source on that. Aragorn straight up tells Sam that he should use it on Frodo.
"They are dry and some of their virtue has one, he said, but here I have still some of the leaves of athelas that I gathered near
Weathertop. Crush one in the water, and wash the wound clean, and I will bind it. Now it is your turn. Frodo!"

Obviously, spoilers are ahead.

I mean, there's no question that Aragorn knows the art of healing, but I'm still not convinced somebody like the elves, who also know it, couldn't use it.

Re: Bolg/Azog. This is pure speculation because we haven't seen the final film, but here's my guess as to what they were trying to do with everything.
A. Make Thorin and Azog rivals by Azog slaying Thror and Thorin failing to avenge his grandfather, but making Azog angry by cutting off his arm. This brings tension to the first film and a physical bad guy (as opposed to just thinking about the dragon later on, and the one bout with the goblins).
B. Connect the main story line to Dol Guldor by sending Azog to the service of the Necromancer.
C. Continue the tension by keeping Bolg in the story, chasing after Thorin on behalf of Azog.
D. Necromancer sends Azog and the rest to the Battle of Five Armies, reuniting the original tension.
E. Wrap it up nicely by having Thorin kill Azog, and then having Thorin (and Fili/Kili) die to the hands of Bolg.

I'm not going to continue on the Gandalf tangent and instead keep to the bulk of the argument.  Which is...

They didn't have time to go into so much detail because it's a movie, and that restricts everything. Movies are meant to be watched in one sitting (unlike books), and while splitting up the Hobbit made sense, I'm not sure LotR could have been done effectively since it's already a trilogy. Yes, things were dropped, but it was necessary to do such and didn't detract from the film because it's not a book. LotR did this effectively, and I think once all is said and done, The Hobbit will do okay too. That remains to be seen though.  They did go a bit overboard on the fight scenes.