Well, DBO sure blew up for a bit there, didn't it? (Destiny)

by Leviathan , Hotel Zanzibar, Saturday, August 01, 2015, 03:30 (3409 days ago) @ Avateur

I haven't read it, but just about anything by Jonathan Hickman is amazing as far as I'm concerned. He's so masterful with his writing, and his plans are insane. He seriously visions things out years in advance, has mostly general to solid ideas about how they will play out over the course of those years of writing, and the payoff is still usually unbelievably fantastic. Dude's just amazing.

Yeah, agreed. From SHIELD to Manhattan Projects, I've always been inspired in one way or another. The plans are indeed impressive and usually better executed than other comparable authors's long-term schemes, but the fact that those plans are filled to the brim with a spectrum of fascinating concepts is what makes the ride even better.

I agree. I don't know how well they would have been able to market double films, especially since it only seems to be acceptable for the final "chapter" of a series, but I'm still floored at how amazing the Lord of the Rings movies are. I think that's my problem with the Hobbit stuff. The Lord of the Rings films can be completely justified in not fitting within one movie each. I felt like two movies was more than enough for the Hobbit, but that they were filled with too much "fan fiction" so as to keep expanding it out. I couldn't shake the feeling that they were only doing it to make a third film to make more money, and I didn't like that feeling or the thought that the feeling might actually be true.

I think I had some similar feelings when Two Towers came out actually. There was a LOT of original content in that one and it confused and distracted me the first few viewings. But the Extended Edition completely changed the feel for me. The Hobbit EEs have done the same thing for me, especially with Desolation.

Simply just by making those sequences have less of the total screen time make them feel less of an interruption, but, perhaps more importantly, they were now bookmarked with more dense book material which made the entirety of the films seem more united with themselves and the spirit of the books. Ever since Two Towers, I view the theatrical versions as a long preview essentially and wait to judge until I've let the EEs wash over me a few times. One of my brothers went further and just refused to see the theatrical versions at all, hah.

And while I'm sure WB and New Line would never say 'no' to more money from another film ;), after the 18 hours of documentaries in the two Hobbit EEs so far (plus five art books), I am completely, 100%, convinced Jackson did not extend his vision for money. Despite the troubles with adapting the Hobbit's simplistic narrative style (hence a lot of expanded content), I actually think he enjoyed making this trilogy more than the last one! I highly recommend those documentaries as well. :)

Not disputing anything you've said, but how many Claude Errera's have you met? I went to HBOMB and I'm fairly sure there was a Claude Errera Sasquatch lurking around the cabin (I think Rowboat fought one with his bare hands, as a matter of fact), but I didn't see one personally.

The only person I've ever met that has rivaled the quality of Claude would be this guy named Louis Wu (pronounced 'Lewis', of course).