Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

[Rosy]

And according to Blitz. *coughs* All females are stereotypically the same.

[Blitz]

Haha... and no it is a good movie needs an explosion of some sort.

[Tea Ess]

I have absolutely no problem with female characters being added. A completely male character set might work in the book, since it's from Bilbo's perspective, but there need to be female characters in the movie in order for it to make sense. It would even have been nice to see a real female dwarf (we did get a picture, though), as that's something Tolkien didn't expand on much.

I also don't have a major problem with Legolas being in the movie. He obviously hadn't traveled far out of Mirkwood, and so he was most likely present in the book, just not an active character. He was also a popular enough character in the LoTR that people would have been angry had he not been included. It was also entertaining to see the pre-Fellowship Legolas. I think the dwarf/elf rivalry is overemphasized, but I'm sure Legolas would not have considered having a friendship with a dwarf during the time of the book Hobbit. Then by the LoTR appendixes, he's such a close friend to Gimli that they sail to Valinor together.

I do, however, have massive problems with how Tauriel was used. She falls into the same "perfect elf with amazing powers" trap that Legolas did in LoTR. Then, she has to go follow the dwarves and take away even more focus from them. Then of course there's the romance between Tauriel and Kili, which is absolutely unthinkable in Tolkien's universe. The marriages between elves and men were incredibly rare and sacred in his books, like the relationship between Beren and Luthien. Tolkien valued it so much that he compared the story to the relationship between himself and his wife, even having the names engraved on his tombstone. Then the Hobbit came along and had to do this.

One more thing that I wanted to rant about is the use of the dwarvish language in the movies. In Tolkien's writings, the dwarves shared their language with no one*. They had names for themselves (and other things) in their own tongue, and they never shared these terms with anyone outside of the dwarvish race. Then movie Gimli and Thorin go and spew out insults to elves in Khuzdul.

In the end, I wouldn't call it a bad movie, but it fell into a lot of annoying traps.

*albeit with a couple of exceptions.

[ArnoldtheRubberDucky]

I haven't seen the movie, (mostly because I hated the previous one for, I assumed, all the reasons that I would hate this one) but I heard it was quite a bit better than the first one, so perhaps I'll watch it one of these days.

[Tea Ess]

I haven't seen the movie, (mostly because I hated the previous one for, I assumed, all the reasons that I would hate this one) but I heard it was quite a bit better than the first one, so perhaps I'll watch it one of these days.

Out of curiosity, why did you hate the first one, and why have you heard the second one was better? I've heard some of both, so I'm curious about this.

[ArnoldtheRubberDucky]

I think that I might have voiced my opinions on the first movie in the topic made about it on here when it first came out. I believe I can mostly agree with the opinions of my 1 3/4 year younger self. . And, um... to be honest, I can't exactly remember where I heard that the second one was better. I think it might have gotten a higher rating on Rotten Tomatoes, though I'm not quite sure.

[Blitz]

If you live five hundred years and still are always young.... I think you'll be like them.

[connie13]

Who's ready for the new Hobbit Battle of The 5 armies? I know I am I love the HOBBIT AND THE LORD OF THE RINGS it is the best movies ever made what do you think?

[Blitz]

I can't wait for it of course.

[Tea Ess]

I just combined these two topics, as one place for Hobbit discussion is probably enough.

Although I'm excited for the movie, I am also a little nervous about how it will represent the book.