Positive Aspects of The Hobbit Movies

[MCRmyGirl4eva]

Okay, we all know that The Hobbit movies were terrible when it comes to following plot. There are enough complaints about them on this site, so let's turn it around; What did you all enjoy?

I liked:
-Effort was made to put the trolls into the same position that they were in in Fellowship
-The White Council scene was included
-Radagast, though done as comedic relief, was included
-Look me in the eye and say that the hedgehog Sebastian wasn't cute
-Repeating the music we're familiar with for Rivendell
-Tauriel is actually a complex character, not a 2D bimbo like I anticipated
-Thranduil is surprisingly well-done
-Smaug's voice

Throw out what you guys liked!

[Andsigil]

Smaug was the best feature of the films so far.

Whenever dragons are portrayed in film or literature, they are always 1) bestial, or 2) any mix of arrogant, mean, evil, etc.

This Smaug was, for lack of a better term, a psychopath. Unhinged.

If they had a giant, padded wagon with normal dragons in white coats, they should have been called to straightjacket Smaug and take him away to a rubber dragon's cave.

And that made Smaug really, really scary.

[Rhod the Red]

Another;

It makes you scared at least a few times. Certainly did for me.

Like with the spider attacks in the Mirkwood scene. A few jolts got me there.

Another is when Radagasts pops into the tombs of the Nazgul in the High Fells
of Rhuadur and takes his normal form. A real jolter that was.

Towards the end, as Thorin talks of Erebor in the secret door & Balin talking, my eyes watered. <-----A good movie does that to me, as I was eye-watering in the end of the Return of the King film.

Another, the Master of Laketown. Even though a bit of a rewrite, Stephen Fry in usual quality performed well in the stereotypical, two-faced greedy political figure. I don't get why anyone would compare his black underling to Grima Wormtongue, apart from his black clothes. He's not a foreign agent with a concealed agenda. He's a corrupt official flourishing from a corrupt city-state regime. I almost laughed when he exclaimed to Bard "These fish are illegal!" perfect intro to corruption & bureaucratic cruelty of Middle-earth. Obviously it wasn't all squeaky clean outside the Dark Powers!

Another is the scenery, both made up & New Zealand mountain shots, etc.

Another the music & sound effects, bought the soundtrack. It kept me up all night in pleasure. Howard Shore quality!

As other have mentioned, Benerdicts' Smaug was a beast! Unlike the cartoon version, I'm sure that if I was sneaking around the treasure trove of that version of Smaug I'd be freaked out trying to move my feet and pick out silver diamonds from the trove. And the way they introduced him with a slow awakening was way better than the cartoon version. Bit by bit he stirs, the music builds, he slowly raises his head and Bilbo takes cover. Awwww, so well done there! Benedict's accent for him was perfect too.

Thranduil....pretty good performance. When you think about it it's a little bit too easy to think he would be instantly kind and compassionate to lost travelers. And offering help with a possible double agenda, that we get a hint of, oww yes!

[Sarumian]

I cannot believe I am writing here after I have finally seen it. If the first movie was better then I expected it to be, the second one is above and beyond all expectations that were very low initially. Having read the reviews I expected that the time given to fighting is going to be something like in the Return of The King (or even more than that). But in fact there was no more than in Fellowship, on the other hand, there was enough of adventures of other sort to my taste.

Taking it right, one should not expect it to be Tolkien's story, but one just loosely based on Tolkien. I have to admit, there are plenty of incongruities (such as the barrels) but I can close my eyes on this. It's a kind of fairy tail, let's imagine something had got to be exaggerated as it often happens. I can accept the shortening of Beorn's part for the sake of a really somber mood typical for the entire movie. High Fells is something odd, as I don't see how Nazgul would have allowed to entomb themselves after the fall of Angmar. They lost power after Sauron's downfall but their bodies were invisible and since that time they had already become active. But I like the fact that Radagast encouraged Gandalf to opt for Dol Gudur instead of the Lonely Mountain - a personal drama.

I like the Thranduil, the Master of Lake Town, Smaug and Sauron (the disclosure of the secrete of The Eye); I like the fact that the dwarves put up a fight in an attempt to put The Beast down; I also like the way Thorin gets corrupt (he's really more Boromir than Aragorn). This corruption also explains why powerful objects are so dangerous even if they were made with a good purpose (as it happened to Silmarils). The contrariety between Rivendell and Thranduil's kingdom is shown in an excellent way. Thranduill's doctrine that whatever happens, the kingdom of the Wood Elves will be forever can be seen as his attempt to conceal the real course of events even from himself. We can imagine how dramatic his conversation with Legolas could be after the latter comes to speak about his desire to sail to the West...

The white orc is alright to me now as he is a kind of reflection of the attractive image of Sauron (orcs are corrupted elves, and Azog has something "elvish" in his whiteness, he is an enchanted orc, a great orc leader).

The "only right" and "the only chance" are juxtaposed - Thorin enjoys this right but refuses the chance and tries to overcome the things that went wrong.

I hope I could explain why I did not get bored by this movie at all.

[Annalaliath]

I found that if you look at the movies as movies and not compare them to the books, they tend to stand better. You can't make perfect adaptions of anything, especially a book like The Hobbit. That has always bothered me about people compare them expecting them to be exact. There are things in the book, that make good reading, but on the screen are just plain stupid, and it works the other way round too. I personally liked how the Dwarves have personalities, and quirks, that (yes a book comparison) they all did things, not just silent partners.

Another, comparison, I liked that they took part in the action scenes with Smaug. That is actually one of my pet peeves with the books, they just sent Bilbo in there, and waited on the stoop. I never liked that part of the books and I loved that PJ had the Dwarves as more active members in the plot. In the books this sit-on-the-stoop-and-wait worked fine, but in the movies that would have been the most boring thing ever! Not to mention that sensibilities have changed, and we need more actions!

Smaug was just cool.

The way they handled the ring, as it affected Bilbo, and how he doesn't use much. I really need to watch it again.

Thranduil was such a jerk, that his character was pretty good. And the addition of the injury was rather disturbing, but good. Also, the tidbit about him being of a higher status Elf was something that many of us Tolkien nerds would get.


The humor was something I liked in these movies so far. It was needed, but I think it was well done. And the PJ cameo was hilarious. I practically laughed myself to death when I saw it.

I was also very happy about the inclusion of at least some of the songs. That is one of the things I remember best when I read the books as a kid.

Azog wasn't an unwelcome addition.

Radagast was pretty cool too. Why? Well, he was more like how I saw him the first time I read about him.... and secondly, he wound up being the Doctor.... That couldn't have been a coincidence. Good wizards almost always turn out to the Doctor.

I think that Martin Freeman did a superb job of playing Bilbo. I've loved him as Arthur Dent, and I found it funny him running around Bag End with his bathrobe on. Honestly, I believe they couldn't have found someone who could have played him better.

Of course Ian Holm is wonderful as well. My favorite scene in the beginning of An Unexpected Journey, was when his face lit up at the thought of the party. Like a kid. It was wonderful.

The inclusion of the White council was also pretty cool, I mean, when I was reading the book for the first time, I was annoyed that Gandalf kept running off to deal with things, with no explanation other than that he was a wizard and did that stuff all the time.

There are many other things that I liked about these two movies (so far), but there are things that I didn't like as well, but that is for another thread.

(gonna apologize for any capitol letters I forgot, my keyboard only has one shift key, and I find it hard to type correctly on it.)