Good movie, if you have young sons it will be enjoyable for them. Review from a guy who has read all the books numerous times and was excited to see how this would be adapted to film. Boooooooooooooo. Spoilers: The good: Smaug was awesome, love how the dialogue between Bilbo and Smaug was kept mostly intact. Especially Bilbo's ass kissing. Oh Smaug chiefest and greatest of calamities. The fight scenes were great, and the way the arkenstone and the great treasure starts to grip Thorin was great as well. The spider scene in Mirkwood was done nicely and even though its not in the book, I thought the way PJ tied the Necromancer story to Sauron (which was revealed in the Silmarillion) was cool too. Beorn was awesome but we will get to this later. The bad: The female Elf, played by Evangeline Lilly, (hottest elf ever) was unneeded. She added no value, except in the fight scenes. Why was there so much time wasted on her and Kili, especially her saving Kili's life, I mean he does die in the book so why waste time saving a character's life only to kill him later? Mirkwood and Beorn scenes were just burned through. Sure would have loved to see Beorn kick some ass but I guess I'll have to wait until the Battle of the 5 armies. Thranduil and Thorin's scene together was just dumb. It was changed completely and didn't need to be. Laketown, over an hour was wasted in Laketown, just getting to know Bard, and what life in Laketown was like. The added scenes in Erebor. Would have much rather seen it the way it happened. The Ugly: I thought alot of the stuff I listed in the Bad could be placed here. But to paraphrase, I understand stuff has to be changed, because PJ is trying to tie in both trilogies. But I think it's been done very poorly. There was so much left out and changed when only a small amount had to be changed and added. I get the necromancer angle, I get the Legolas angle, but why blow through Beorn and Mirkwood to waste time on stupid love stories and Bard's family and Laketown politics. So basically if you are a book purist and a Tolkein nut, you'll probably leave pulling your hair out. If not you'll probably enjoy this movie.
I haven't read any of the books, but my son and his friends have, so I took them to see it when it first came out. The movie was good, but damn, it was WAYY too long. I was kind of lost because I haven't read the books and it had been so long since we'd seen the first one. Because of this, I fell asleep about midway through, but woke up to catch the last 45 minutes or so. First time I've ever done that. Left out of there with my back killing me and having to wait another year or so to find out how all this plays out. I'll probably be even more lost in the 3rd installment; for having fallen asleep in Saug and because of the amount of time that goes by before ep. III is released.
I liked the book and the movies. Movies are supposed to be different. There are no female characters in the book, but that doesn't work in movieland where half the audience are female, so they added some. They also had to make Bard a bigger character to set up the next film. Having a minor character step up and slay the dragon while the dwarves just walked in and took the treasure without a fight is a weak screenplay. I bet that there will be more Beorn and Mirkwood in the extended edition.
I'm sorry but Esgaroth just sucked to me. It was visually pleasing, as was seeing Dale in ruins, and I understand trying add Bard some more parts than merely showing up and killing Smaug. But damn, Peter Jackson is making this shit up.
I did not mind the female elf character because most of the elves in The Hobbit are just referred to as "the elves" or "the elf". Gender is rarely assigned. The romance, however, ruined the whole movie for me. Tolkien is rolling in his grave at the notion of an elf/dwarf romance. It was unneeded and killed the pacing of the story. Its always a shame to see a well thought, masculine story ruined to satisfy a female audience.
This movie would kill Christopher Tolkien. He was quoted as saying the LOTR movies have "eviscerated the books by turning them to an action movie". And that they have "reduced the aesthetic and philosophical impact of the creation to nothing"
I agree on this point. It was lame flirtation. Perhaps they were worried that she came off as an elfdyke.
Then they should have let Legolas have his romance then let her get killed in the Battle of the Five Armies.
