We're back!

[wiseheart]

Thanks for the good wishes. :) The trip was beautiful, albeit edhausting - spending 12 hours of a single day on the coach isn't the fun it's said to be. But the Christmas market in Graz was lovely, the old town of the city is very pretty, too, and we had a good time.

There will be pics, eventually. Especially the Bethlehem scene carved of ice was beautiful, and the orange punch very tasty. Had a kick like a mule, too. AFter a single mug, I felt like a drunken troll. Fortunately, the effect didn't last long. *g*

I bought the edited edition of the first "Hobbit" film and am looking forward to see the second part, somewhen between Christmas and New Year. Feel free to spoil me, if you've already seen it; I like to be armed against horrible surprises. Not that my expectations would be too high; clearly, Peter Jackson and I have very different ideas about Tolkien's characters, races, etc. I find his Elves especially horrible. Not to mention that Orlando Bloom really, really doesn't look youthful and fresh enough to play Legolas anymore. And don't even let me start talking about poor Elrond...

But Martin Freeman is a great Bilbo, and I'm really curious about what Benedict Cumberbatch has made of Smaug, so yeah, I will go to the cinema and give it a try.

Comments

[songfire3.livejournal.com]

Glad you had fun!

I've just come back from the cinema (The Hobbit, part II) and well - I'm seriously underwhelmed, to put it mildly. But that might just be me, almost everybody else seems to love it....

The only thing I really, really loved was Smaug, actually! (And not because of BC, I haven't forgiven him for Star Trek yet). The last 20 minutes were actually pretty good (well, I was rooting for the dragon! *lmao*).
I still can't stand Thorin (didn't like him in the book, either, so he's pretty much in character! *g*), lets not even start with the elves..(!).and the only likeable character except for Bilbo was Bard. Unfortunately he looks like Will Turner...! A bit disorienting. I kept expecting Captain Jack Sparrow to pop up from somewhere...

You don't want to know what they did to Gandalf, either...I know you *loved* the fight between Saruman and Gandalf as much as I did, so now you can "look forward" (*cough*) to a similar fight between Sauron (!!!) and Gandalf...*headdesk*

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

At least the battle between Sauron and Gandalf is canon.... unlike the stupid things with Saruman!

I unerstand your problem with BC playing Khan (because you explained it to me - I'd never have thought of that aspect), but I found him really good in the role, actually, and I rooted for Khan against the rest of Starfleet *and* the new Enterprise crew which I honestly can't stand. Sorry. I kind of could tolerate them in the first film, but I find the level of performance dropped dramatically for the second one.

I kept expecting Captain Jack Sparrow to pop up from somewhere...

Be careful what you wish for. With Peter Jackson at the steering wheel, you might get it, based on some warped kind of logic. Look at his Elves! (Though, I must admit, Thorin kinda grew on me...)

What angers me is the fact that with all the tech he has at his disposal, with the same amount (or less) effort he could also have done things right. These film directors never seem to understand that people actually like characters and events in certain books because they are what they are. Changing them might lessen the popularity.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

I haven't even watched the first Hobbit film; somehow I couldn't work up the enthusiasm for it since I was expecting it to be full of what I liked least of the Lord of the Rings films: extra scenes not present in the book, unnecessary and disappointing changes to the characters making them less interesting and/or likeable, and humour at the expense of characters that were proud and interesting in the books. All that is to say: I am unlikely to spoil you for the second film... I hope you will find enough to enjoy about it to make up for the bits I am sure will annoy you!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I actually liked the first Hobbit film a lot more than I'd expected I would - but again, my expectations were so low they nearly crashed with the tube, so I was likely to have pleasant surprises. *g*

As altariel said, the acting of Martin Freeman is the one saving grace of the film; though I kinda liked Richard Armitage, too, even if he looks way too young for Thorin. And Galadriel I found a lot better than in LOTR. And Saruman was even funny - the good kind of funny - in places.

[artemis10002000]

You should take my opinion with a grain of salt since our tastes differ greatly, but I enjoyed myself immensely this time after the first film had disappointed me.

I didn't go into the cinema expecting to see *my* Hobbit this time, so I was happy to take it as a story that stands wholly on its own, only loosely based on the books. Which was a good choice since they take far more liberties yet with the storyline than they did in the first movie. They handled the changes way better, though, no more never-ending and pointless filler fights that left me bored and it just felt more... cohesive, I guess, like a proper story rather than a story with extra stuffing here and there. I was pleasantly surprised that I liked pretty much everything about this adaption, even the Kili/Tauriel romance which I hadn't expected to like at all. It's actually one of the things I ended up liking best about the movie.

As for things which I didn't like... Well, the Legolas/Tauriel crush felt forced and thrown in there simply to provide tension, which didn't even happen since the writers forgot ten minutes in that Legolas was supposed to have a crush on her. I didn't like the design of Thranduil's palace but that's solely personal preference/having a completely different picture in my mind, there was nothing wrong with the design/CGI as such.