It's Finally Here!!!!
After a year of waiting, the second installment in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit trilogy has been relased in theaters.
And oh. My. Goodness...
Desolation of Smaug? Try the Desolation of my Weekend! My sister and I made a semi-perilous journey to Champaign on Friday night, when the movie had been in theaters a total of nineteen hours. (I say "semi-perilous" because it wasn't bad going down, and when we came back north the snow had stopped, but the roads weren't great...ergo, semi-perilous). I was prepared for the movie to be great...and I was also very worried. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say I watched The Unexpected Journey at least twenty times. And I've been following every news release of The Desolation of Smaug (which I shall henceforth call DOS) since the first bits were leaked back in March or whenever it was. What if I had overreached it's amazingness in my mind? What if my expectations were too high?
They weren't. They weren't high enough.
It took me three hours to fall asleep. Three hours! I'm normally not a good sleeper, but I just laid there, trying to process everything I had just witnessed. The film threw one crazy thing after another at me! And then it just ended...exactly where I expected it to, mind you, so I was at least prepared for that.
Now, I don't know how many of you plan on seeing DOS. I don't know how many of you have continued to even continue reading this post. Therefore, I will not include any spoilers. Any references I make will be as vague as possible without giving away any plot points. If you would like to read an amazing review by a blogger I follow on Tumblr, then click here but be warned! It contains spoilers (maybe save it until after you've seen the movie so you can appreciate their comments).
But being a fan of both the book and movie, I can appreciate the changes required turning a beloved book into a movie. We met several new characters in this film: Tauriel, Bolg, Bard and his family, the Master of Laketown, Smaug, Beorn, Thranduil (who we had seen in AUJ but not actually interacted with). And we met up with some old, old friends--namely, Legolas is back! Be still, my heart...
I love Bard and loved even more that we got to meet his family and start to care about him as a character. One minute thing I would have changed: more background information was needed to really explain the conflict between the Master and Bard. The whole thing felt kind of forced and almost like it was just expected. Perhaps there are some deleted scenes here that would have made sense. I love Legolas! I love the tiny reference made to the LOTR trilogy and his character, and I love that we see a slightly different side of him--we get to see him in his natural environment, where he is a prince and not just an archer with fabulous hair. Tauriel is an amazing character addition to the world of Tolkien, but parts of her character development felt a little forced. I'm still trying to figure something out with that, but I don't want to give anything away. I loved the characterization of the dwarves. We met all thirteen in the previous film, and now we get to see aspects of their personalities coming out. Bombur stole the movie, let me just say! I loved that they finally addressed the familial ties between Thorin and his nephews! If you watch AUJ close enough, you can catch little things, but they never come out and tell the audience (who wouldn't know if they hadn't read the books) that Thorin is the uncle of Fili and Kili. I liked that they gave us a reason to care about what happens to Laketown...more than just because of Bard's family. I enjoyed the dwarves taking the reins from Bilbo a bit. In the book, he kind of does everything, and it was nice to see them doing what they could as they sought to regain their homeland. And Smaug...I may not find Benedict Cumberbatch attractive, but that voice! Coming out of a dragon! And I really love the way they started to set up the conflict coming in The Lord of the Rings. They show the way the ring is starting to affect Bilbo. And it wouldn't be a Peter Jackson film without a cameo from the bearded man himself...if you know what he looks like, he should be easy to spot (hint: he's basically the first person that you see)
One blogger on Tumblr said this movie would have been better named The Desolation of Ovaries, and I completely agree! Smaug's voice, Bard, Thorin, Legolas, Fili, Kili...need I go on? (Sorry...that was random. But necessary...and also very random).
If you haven't seen it yet, you need to go see it. If you don't have someone to go with, let me know. I'll totally go again. I'm going to end up seeing it at least twice more anyway. There is so much that I probably missed that I'm going to have to go back just to catch everything...and even then I won't have seen it all until I watch it when it comes out on DVD!
Stay gold!
And oh. My. Goodness...
Desolation of Smaug? Try the Desolation of my Weekend! My sister and I made a semi-perilous journey to Champaign on Friday night, when the movie had been in theaters a total of nineteen hours. (I say "semi-perilous" because it wasn't bad going down, and when we came back north the snow had stopped, but the roads weren't great...ergo, semi-perilous). I was prepared for the movie to be great...and I was also very worried. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say I watched The Unexpected Journey at least twenty times. And I've been following every news release of The Desolation of Smaug (which I shall henceforth call DOS) since the first bits were leaked back in March or whenever it was. What if I had overreached it's amazingness in my mind? What if my expectations were too high?
They weren't. They weren't high enough.
It took me three hours to fall asleep. Three hours! I'm normally not a good sleeper, but I just laid there, trying to process everything I had just witnessed. The film threw one crazy thing after another at me! And then it just ended...exactly where I expected it to, mind you, so I was at least prepared for that.
Now, I don't know how many of you plan on seeing DOS. I don't know how many of you have continued to even continue reading this post. Therefore, I will not include any spoilers. Any references I make will be as vague as possible without giving away any plot points. If you would like to read an amazing review by a blogger I follow on Tumblr, then click here but be warned! It contains spoilers (maybe save it until after you've seen the movie so you can appreciate their comments).
But being a fan of both the book and movie, I can appreciate the changes required turning a beloved book into a movie. We met several new characters in this film: Tauriel, Bolg, Bard and his family, the Master of Laketown, Smaug, Beorn, Thranduil (who we had seen in AUJ but not actually interacted with). And we met up with some old, old friends--namely, Legolas is back! Be still, my heart...
I love Bard and loved even more that we got to meet his family and start to care about him as a character. One minute thing I would have changed: more background information was needed to really explain the conflict between the Master and Bard. The whole thing felt kind of forced and almost like it was just expected. Perhaps there are some deleted scenes here that would have made sense. I love Legolas! I love the tiny reference made to the LOTR trilogy and his character, and I love that we see a slightly different side of him--we get to see him in his natural environment, where he is a prince and not just an archer with fabulous hair. Tauriel is an amazing character addition to the world of Tolkien, but parts of her character development felt a little forced. I'm still trying to figure something out with that, but I don't want to give anything away. I loved the characterization of the dwarves. We met all thirteen in the previous film, and now we get to see aspects of their personalities coming out. Bombur stole the movie, let me just say! I loved that they finally addressed the familial ties between Thorin and his nephews! If you watch AUJ close enough, you can catch little things, but they never come out and tell the audience (who wouldn't know if they hadn't read the books) that Thorin is the uncle of Fili and Kili. I liked that they gave us a reason to care about what happens to Laketown...more than just because of Bard's family. I enjoyed the dwarves taking the reins from Bilbo a bit. In the book, he kind of does everything, and it was nice to see them doing what they could as they sought to regain their homeland. And Smaug...I may not find Benedict Cumberbatch attractive, but that voice! Coming out of a dragon! And I really love the way they started to set up the conflict coming in The Lord of the Rings. They show the way the ring is starting to affect Bilbo. And it wouldn't be a Peter Jackson film without a cameo from the bearded man himself...if you know what he looks like, he should be easy to spot (hint: he's basically the first person that you see)
One blogger on Tumblr said this movie would have been better named The Desolation of Ovaries, and I completely agree! Smaug's voice, Bard, Thorin, Legolas, Fili, Kili...need I go on? (Sorry...that was random. But necessary...and also very random).
If you haven't seen it yet, you need to go see it. If you don't have someone to go with, let me know. I'll totally go again. I'm going to end up seeing it at least twice more anyway. There is so much that I probably missed that I'm going to have to go back just to catch everything...and even then I won't have seen it all until I watch it when it comes out on DVD!
Stay gold!
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