Thorin looks totally like a Klingon, minus the forehead ridge.
In general, I like the diversity of the dwarves. Some are Scottish and some are Irish and some are German and at least one (Dwalin) looks like a berserker from Warhammer FRPG.
Is it just me, or does Kili look a LOT like Merry when he smiles? I know one is Aidan Turner and the other is Dominic Monaghan, but they both have that impish devil-may-care grin thing going.
Also, the Great Goblin really REALLY looked like Tim Mitchell in the face. I was surprised to discover it wasn't him doing the voice.
I like how the movie took most of the songs and made them less goofy. Far Over the Misty Mountains Cold is positively haunting now. I dig the all-male sound -- it sounds like monks chanting, only much cooler.
Anyone else think the Troll scene was overwrought and lasted far too long? Also, the stone giant scene was completely unnecessary.
I like the inclusion of Azog the Defiler. I imagine he's going to show up again leading the Orc army at the end of the last movie (whoops, spoilers for a 60 year-old book!). I approve of the way Jackson and del Toro are making an effort to lay the groundwork for Lord of the Rings and make this an actual prequel and not just "this story came first, because Bilbo and Gollum and magic ring."
I understand that Benedict Cumberbatch has been cast as the voice of Smaug in the next movie. Fans of BBC's Sherlock will understand just how special this will make the Bilbo-Smaug interaction.
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Ive always liked the original troll scene, seeing it beefed up was actually fun.
ReplyDeleteThe Giants in the mountains was totally unnessecary and utterly fantastic visual spectacle, it was a smashing epic adventure film.
Thanks for sharing the song, that was really cool.
ReplyDeleteI still can't believe that Elrond wasn't spazzing about Gandalf having brought a morgul-blade into Rivendell, during the White Council.
ReplyDeleteBenedict Cumberbach is also cast as the Necromancer, which is why he got a credit in this movie - Smaug had no speaking role, and the Necromancer appeared for all of three seconds but apparently that's enough.
Yeah, I did not really get the point of the stone giants either, aside from, "Hey, we need MORE filler material so people will quit whining about making this into a trilogy!"
ReplyDeleteAll in all I rather enjoyed the movie, but Peter Jackson's castle of money had bloody well better be *awesome* after this.
The first 10 seconds of the stone giants would have filled the requirement from the book, the rest was pointless cgi filler. I always have read the songs in a drinking/marching song goofy form so i didn't like it as much.
ReplyDeleteThe troll scene had no reason to be changed from the book, it added nothing to the story.