Docta Corvina
Well-Known Member
The book is BOSS, yo. Gotta read the book. It blows the movie(s) out of the water, honestly. But that's often how it goes. Not surprising.
You are all missing the real question:
...Who voices Smaug?
Now that I've seen Desolation, I think Tauriel was kind of a pointless character. She was just there to be a girly Legolas, and seemed totally unnecessary.
I felt a bit let down by Lake Town as well. I just didn't really care for the place. When Bilbo begs Smaug not to attack them, I was like "Why? Who gives a f#ck about those people."
Apart from that, I enjoyed it.
The book is BOSS, yo. Gotta read the book. It blows the movie(s) out of the water, honestly. But that's often how it goes. Not surprising.
I have the same reaction as you guys do about Tauriel and her useless subplot. There was NO reason for her and Kili to have any sort of romantic interaction. I worry, actually, that it will serve to intrude upon the emotional ties that exist between Thorin and his nephews, and especially at the end of the story. Without going into spoilerific territory, those of you who have read the story know that to which I refer. I hope that Tauriel's "relationship" with Kili doesn't dilute or detract from his relationship with his uncle and brother.
Tauriel herself is also entirely superfluous. She is nothing more than a Mary Sue type, who's there because Pjack and Fran Walsh said the films needed more "girl power" (um, NO). She's the female half of the Elven Wonder Twins, who saved the day at least three times by my count and who really have no business being in the narrative. I don't mind sort of remixing established story and lore material. But bringing in Legolas and inventing Tauriel did the movie no favors, as far as I'm concerned. Even their action scenes were almost humorously over-CG'd.
Aside from them, I loved the film. Monolith has made some very good points about Smaug's treatment. It also caught me off guard (attempting to gold-plate him to death, whut), but I did like the ominious note the film ends on. Some things about the movie were strange and unfortunate, but the majority of it was enjoyable.