The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Review

Oh. My. Goodness.



**Spoilers Ahead**

I went to see the DoS yesterday, and... gosh. I don't know what to say. First and foremost, I didn't write the review yesterday because all I would've been able to do was squeal about how amazing it was.

And I'm going to try not to do that today, but I'm not promising you anything ;)

Let's start with... the acting.

Oh my gosh. The acting was amazing.

Martin Freeman did a wonderful job as Bilbo, same as the first movie.

And Benedict Cumberbatch as Smaug?

His voice was so filtered that I could hardly recognize it, but gosh it was creepy. Almost as creepy as Sherlock when he's mad.

And then Evangeline Lilly as Tauriel.

She did an amazing job, I must say, especially considering the fact that I originally hated the idea of adding in her and Legolas. But now, I'm not so sure. I was quite pleased with her character.

Except for one teeny, tiny thing.

The Kili/Legolas love triangle.

I'm perfectly fine with Peter Jackson adding in Tauriel for some female representation. I mean, goodness, look at this chart.



Tolkein really could have a done a much better job with adding more female characters, which is one reason why I liked the addition of Tauriel.

But now that I've seen the movie, I've realized that even though she did get some really cool fight scenes, she was added more for the romance than anything else.

Why can't we just get an awesome female character without romance and love triangles in the background?

As Evangeline Lily herself said,

“Because The Hobbit was my favorite book as a little girl, and the Silvan Elves were my favorite characters in the book, it would be a dream come true to play one, I agreed very quickly. And then they said to me, ‘Your character’s not in the book.’ And I took great pause as a great fan of Tolkien. I kind of gulped and went, ‘Whaaaat? Everyone’s going to hate me.’

At that moment when [Boyens] said there was a love story, I agreed to the job under one condition. One condition. And they agreed to the condition, and it was in place for two years. The condition was: I will not be involved in a love triangle. (“It’s true,” Boyens confirms). Because any of you who are fans of Lost — I had it up to here with love triangles."

So now I'm going to stop ranting about the love triangle, because I really honestly did love the movie overall.

Most of the things they changed from the canon, I liked. 

I didn't mind the fact that Bard was a peasant instead of the leader of Laketown because I feel that it enforced the entire theme of the LotR trilogy- that small people can do great things. 

I liked how they began to show Bilbo's growing attachment to the Ring, something that never really happened in the book.

I honestly did love Tauriel's character, and I still think she's an awesome.

And overall, the movie was totally AMAZING.

Rating: 8.5/10

I really should be wrapping this up now, so bye, everyone!

Oh, and as a side note, all my really old posts containing nothing but pictures have been deleted. If you really want to see those pics, most of 'em are on my Pintrest page, which is linked from the sidebar.