First of all, I'm pretty attached to the book. We listened to it for the first time when I was about nine. We usually listened while we cleaned...and it was a TAPE :) I was excited for the movie.
When I heard it was going to be in three parts...I became very skeptical. Three parts? How are you going to turn that story into three parts? Are you going to ADD to the story?
Yes, you are.
I know a lot of what goes on comes from Tolkien's other works (I've never read all of the Silmarillion or the Children of Hurin). But the movie is called The HOBBIT, and I wanted it to be like The Hobbit.
Oh, well. The added story line didn't bother me that much. Except Taurie. Wasn't too fond of her. When I listened to the book as a pretty young girl I cried when Fili and Kili died, just because they died with their king, protecting their uncle. I didn't need there to be a girl in there. Was it sweet? Yes. Did I like it? No. (What happened to Tauriel, anyway? Did she just go back to the woodland realm?)
But moving on. There's two things I really didn't like about the Hobbit movies. (Then I'll tell you what I did like!) For starters, I felt like it was very slow. The last one was better, definitely. But to me, the first and second ones were very slow. I actually fell asleep watching the second movie. I have never fallen asleep watching a movie for the first time, but that one did it. The second thing I did not like was the style of the movie. By that, I mean how bright and (dare I say) fake looking it was. I know, I know, it's Middle Earth, and it's not real. But the movies were SO bright and fantastic (the river scene with the dwarves, when Bard rolled the cart down the city street over his children). Some of the colors were just a little too much for me as well, like Legolas' eyes.
But, c'mon, it's a movie! I definitely like parts of it. When the dwarves sang in Bag End. Yes, just YES! I loved that! And when Billy Boyd sang at the end. That was pretty great too (*shivers* I like his voice!) I loved Martin Freeman as Bilbo. And I loved all the first part with the dwarves in Bag End. I also liked all the reconciliations between Thorin and the company at the end.
Now, you should obviously listen to this song. Don't blame me if you cry. It's a bit sad. Good sad, and beautiful!
I am listening to the song as I type this, and I agree, it was one of the better parts of the movie. :) I quite liked and agreed with your assessment of the movies (though I'm not quite as familiar with the book - I have read it but not recently). Garrett took out our copy of the book to check on some things after we finished, and we realized that they did stick pretty close to the story...they just draaaaged it out and embellished it. Like you said. We kept saying, "This is very awkward" when the Kili and Turiel scenes were happening. Yikes. Very awkward. And I thought the same thing about the Bard/crart scene! Anyway, good assessment. Good thing I just watched this last week so I could understand and comment on your comments! :)
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