by Amberfly » Wed Jan 01, 2014 12:04 pm
First time posting here =) I love LoTR and The Hobbit, and I saw the new movie for the second time on Saturday (also saw it the day it was released). I just wanted to share my thoughts on it with people who might understand.
My thoughts on the movie (SPOILERS): I really liked it and have seen it twice in 2-D. I don't plan to see it in 3-D because wearing those glasses for so long gives me a major headache. I loved Beorn and I wish they'd spent longer with him. I'm hoping that if/when they release an extended cut of this movie like they've done with all the others, there will be a bit more with Beorn. I didn't like Radagast much, but then I didn't like him much in the first movie either. Mirkwood and the elven kingdom were well-done, though, and I mostly liked the added sections with Gandalf in Dol Guldur. I was really worried about the character of Tauriel, but I liked her better than I expected to. I kind of feel like they were thinking "this movie needs an Eowyn" so they put in Tauriel where she wasn't really necessary, just for the sake of having a strong female character, but I liked the romance between her and Kili so much that I don't mind too much. I didn't like Kili being shot with a Morgul arrow--I feel like it cheapens the impact of Frodo going through that with the Morgul blade in Fellowship of the Ring. I also don't think Tauriel should have been able to heal Kili so easily, since she describes herself as "a lowly Silvan elf", but even Elrond can't completely heal Frodo from a similar wound in the other story. I find it inconsistent--it takes tons of skill and power to be able to do that, and it just seemed too easy for her. Maybe I'm just a nerd and I'm nitpicking, but it bothered me a lot. Smaug, though, was amazing. I loved that they used so much of Tolkien's dialogue with Smaug from the book without it sounding cheesy. I also loved the shorter scenes when the dwarves first enter the mountain, before encountering Smaug. The confrontation with the dragon (covering him in molten gold? really?) bothered me a bit, simply because I found it highly improbable, but I have to admit it was fun to watch. I liked Laketown, too, and I think both Bard and the Master were well-cast. Probably the thing that bothers me the most, though, it the cliffhanger at the end, and knowing that we have to wait so long to see how they handle the rest of the story.
Wow, that turned out to be much longer than I expected. Sorry for the long post, but I really wanted to share my thoughts with other Tolkien fans. I can hardly wait to see the next one!