The thing I find most interesting about watching the movies is discussing it with Earl when we get out. We have two very different knowledge bases when it comes to the movies. I’ve read the book… and spend a lot of time on tumblr, so I know a lot more walking into the theater. I am not, however, one of the many people out there who thing the additions to the story line are a bad thing. (Are they perfect, no, but what is?) Earl hasn’t read the book, he doesn’t go looking for things about the movie before he sees it. He just goes and watches it. As far as I know, he’s never seen the animated version that I’ve watched – probably more than 10 times – whenever my elementary school had to find something to do for “rewards.”
On the upside, we both liked the movie.
I am a sucker for a grand epic, and so Peter Jackson’s films are kind of like my own personal brand of crack – thankfully it’s legal, accessible, and isn’t going to cause me to have fun health problems down the road.
Earl is probably almost as much of a geek as I am… he’s just better at hiding it. Oh, but I should have known he’d love this movie more than the first, since he’s loved dragons since he was a little kid… and well… Smaug.
(The rest of this is my opinion…. because Earl’s not here for me to prod into answering inane questions.)
Lee Pace as Thranduil… I have never before seen a more perfect casting. Not for Thranduil – I’m sure I would have been just as happy with several other people. For Legolas’ dad. Oh my gosh. Put those brunette boys in blond wigs and suddenly they are family.
Murkwood was lovely. I’m a forest girl at heart, so the tangled woods were gorgeous to me (even if they had a sickness).
Stephen Fry! Apparently I wasn’t paying attention and missed that he was the Master of Laketown. I only hope we get to see more of him in the final film.
I was expecting an abrupt ending. Truly I was, and so I kept looking for it, once Smaug actually showed up. So when it came, I was not surprised – though several people in the theater did mutter some annoyance. That didn’t bother me.
While I liked the movie on the whole, there were a few things that did bother me.
One of those was the fact the spiders didn’t sing. I was really hoping that was going to be something we’d get to see. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that will show up in the crazy extended version….
The Dwarf/Elf star-crossed thing was a little odd in this movie, but I’ll leave off full judgement of it until I see how it turns out.
The Sauron plot line is still a little sticky for me. I realize that a lot of people say that it was Tolkien’s intent to go back and flesh out the Hobbit and make it an adult novel and that this might very well be part of that…. but so far… it doesn’t feel like it’s necessary other than to tie these moves to the LoTR trilogy.
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