There is Smaug, and there he goes...

[rosa_cotton]

Saw The Desolation of Smaug today as a late birthday present. ...And wow.

*Absolute best part of the movie for me, to my utter surprise, was Bard the Bowman. He was brilliant. Every word, every action, every facial expression. Fantastic!!!

*Smaug was a close second for best performance. He was indeed terrible and impressive.

*Thranduil...amazing, not enough screen time though!

*I actually liked Tauriel, wasn't expecting to. Not sure how I feel about the vibes between her and you-know-who.

*THAT scene Thorin had with Kili and Fili -- oh my heart.

*Radagast! Barely there, but so pleasant to see him again. :D

*The barrels sequence was excellent.

*Howard Shore has delivered another lovely score. I may actually end up getting the soundtrack.

My only frustrations with DoS:
*It seemed any dwarf not named Thorin, Balin, or Kili really got pushed to the background. At least Bofur got to ask "Where's Bilbo?" but that doesn't totally mollify me!

*Beorn was cool but we saw so little of him!!!!! :'(

*Mirkwood went by in a flash. It seemed like the dwarves were imprisoned for barely more than a day.

*Lastly, bad, VERY BAD, PJ for ending the movie like that! I could have strangled someone when I realized that was it!!

Comments

[indes-elfwine.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed Tauriel! I wish that the studio hadn't pushed the romance/love triangle element so hard (I gather from interviews that TPTB interfered with the editing process in a big way there), but I enjoyed seeing a more youthful, impetuous sort of Elf - what was it that Tolkien said about the Sinar? Less wise and more dangerous? And I'm curious about her - as a character created for the films, she has no Middle Earth backstory as such. I've read some fancanons about her being a bastard scion of Feanor's line to explain her red hair and I am intrigued by that line of thought.

Bard was wonderful. I also loved his kids, especially Sigrid (such a beautiful name!) and I loved how Laketown was depicted visually; it actually kind of looks like PJ tapped into my brain and took photos of the setting of the book that I'm writing. Bad PJ.

I agree about not seeing enough of the other dwarves in this one; in particular, I could have gone for more Fili. I'm hoping there's some good stuff put back into the EE them.

Thranduil was GLORIOUS but I was a little disappointed that PJ didn't take the opportunity to sneak his Queen in there somewhere. Mostly I just really want to know Legolas' mother's name.

[rosa-cotton.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, yes, and yes! I completely agree with all your points! Really hope the EE includes more of the other dwarves, and MAYBE about Thranduil's queen. (It has been so long since I read the books...was she mentioned at all in them?!)

[indes-elfwine.livejournal.com]

Not mentioned at all in the book! Not even so much as a name. But Legolas can't have just hatched so she must have existed. I picture her as Charlize Theron's character in Snow White and the Huntsman.