A Hobbit's Take

On Tuesday, the official trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug was released! I was on the edge of my seat waiting for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and this new installment proves no different! I'll be beating down the theater doors come December, believe me. I first read The Hobbit when I was seven, so I've been obsessed with the LOTR fandom before I even knew what a fandom was. I love Tolkien and take pride in learning all I can about the history of Middle Earth. I can't believe I didn't even mention anything about the first movie last year...I'll just blame it on being so in awe of it that I couldn't put my feelings into words. :) When I went with a group of friends to see the first Hobbit movie, we even dressed up...

And yes. This is the entire group of LOTR fans I'm so blessed to know. :)

All of that being said, I've got to say I'm a bit, er, hesitant about The Desolation of Smaug. Not necessarily more so than I was about the first movie, but still. While I trust Peter Jackson, I'm worried that popularity and appealing to mass audiences might take precedence over staying true to Tolkien's original tales.

**Spoiler Alert...The following talks about the previous movie and facts from the book. If you haven't read the book yet, stop reading this post and start! Well, I suppose you could stay, but the book is the best thing ever and I highly suggest reading it as soon as possible. **

So without further ado, here's what's making me a bit nervous for The Desolation of Smaug.

The fact that they're making three movies. Two I could see, but three? Instant giveaway that they're adding a lot to the story line.

The Azog story line. I didn't like it in the first movie, and I'm not looking forward to more of it in the second. Now in the book, Gandalf mentions that Azog killed Thor (Thorin's grandfather) at the Battle of Azanbulizar. In the book Azog is killed, but in the movie he survives. The only other mention is Azog's grandsom, Bolg, who leads the goblins in the Battle of the Five Armies. While I understand that Peter Jackson probably wanted some immediate threat and action in the first movie, I feel that a better-done goblin scene would have supplied that without having to change the original story line.

Beorn. Now, there wasn't anything in the trailer that got me nervous about Beorn. But I just feel that there's a lot of things they could do to make the scenes with him not as awesome as they are in the book.

The red-haired-female-elf. Alright, I get it. If they didn't add her, Galadriel would have been the only actress in the entire movie (they added her too, by the way. She doesn't make an appearance until the trilogy). So because of our mixed up society, we now have a red-haired-female-elf who will do dialogue with cameo Legolaus, and hopefully not effect the story line too much.

Bard. I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure in the books he's described as rugged, dark, and grim. He looks more like a seventeen year old, curly haired elf.

The barrels are open. Seriously! I'm seriously mad about this one. How does that even make sense? They are in the barrels to escape the Murkwood elves! If the barrels are open, not only will they not be non-chalantly pushed into the water, but they will sink once they're in the river! How hard would it have been to close the barrels? Details make (and break) a movie, after all.

I think there's a lot to worry about. I would hate for the movies to flop in the minds of fandom-members because of their inaccuracies, or be so boring that strange people who haven't read the book have no desire to read the book. Peter Jackson did a great job with the trilogy, and hopefully The Hobbit movies will be great additions to the Tolkien world, as well. Just so you don't think I'm being too-knit-picky, here's a list of things I have enjoyed so far...

The songs. They nailed Blunt the Knives and The Lonely Mountain. So, so gorgeous....I just love that it's the actual cast singing them, instead of bringing in different singers! I do wish they put in the Fifteen Birds song that the goblins sing, though. That would have been very cool.

The casting. Perfect. Each and every one. Martin Freeman is a Hobbit, Richard Armitage, Aidan Turner, Dean O'Gorman, and all the other dwarves are doing a fantastic job. Ian McCellan is amazing as always, and I can't wait for Bennedict Cumberbatch to voice Smaug. His voice will be perfect for a dragon.

The entire unexpected party scenes. I just think they did a good job introducing everyone when the dwarves arrive, instantly giving them each an individual personality and setting the stage for the rest of the movie. It made me happy. :)

Radagast. Now, I can't remember exactly, but I don't think Radagast is mentioned in The Hobbit. Even if he is, he definitely does not play as large a role as he does in the movie. However, he is my favorite wizard and I was happy with him in the movie. And I'm sorry. No matter how by-the-book you are, how can Rustabell Rabbits not make you smile?

The Necromancer. Once again, the Necromancer is mentioned in the book, but does not appear in the extent that he does in the movie. But Gandalf does elude to an evil that is growing, and more history of The Necromancer is provided in Tolkien's other books. So I wasn't very unhappy when they added him, because it's simply supplementing The Hobbit with some information from The Silmarillion.

There is so much for I'd love to talk about! I just might have to do a scene-by-scene review of An Unexpected Journey one of these days, because there's just too much to say! Anyway, what are your thoughts about The Hobbit movies? Take a peek at the trailer and tell me what you think!

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Just a quick note about something very exciting (for me, anyway). I finished Algebra 2 today!! Hip! Hip! Huzzah! I actually finished it on time...I just have to keep repeating that to myself. I'm in total disbelief, especially considering I didn't start until January! The sheer awesomeness of the fact can only be compared to this, which ended up being my soundtrack for this last week of Algebra problems. It's worth a listen, believe me!

In other news, I'm leaving to go camping with my family tomorrow! Four whole days of dutch oven cooking, swimming, and reading on the beach. :) I'll be back on Thursday, and have some fun posts planned for that weekend into the next week! Please leave your comments about The Desolation of Smaug, I'll be so excited to talk about them when I get back! :)

Thanks for reading! :)