My spoilery review for TH:DOS

[dreamflower02]

First of all, just going to the movie was a lot of fun. Our son took his dad and myself to the local theater, so it was in 2D; we didn't dress up this year, but I did wear my Bilbo's journey shirt and my hobbit feet. Here's a link to a picture of me that our son took

Comments

[baranduin]

Sounds like I better prepare myself to not expect much from the Beorn pieces, my favorite part of the book after the opening chapter at Bag End.

ETA: I like your feet!

[dreamflower02]

I did enjoy the Beorn parts we got; I just wish we'd had more!

Oh--I knitted those feet last year for the midnight first showing of AUJ. This year I unraveled the cuffs and re-knitted them to have a little more flexibility in the cast off. They are knitted "toe-up" and the hobbit toes are knitted separately.

I want to write up the pattern as a tutorial, but I'm having trouble deciphering the notes I made as I knitted them, and I may need to make a new prototype to figure it out again.

[ysilme]

I didn't know you knitted them. Even more awesome! Are you wearing shoes underneath?

[dreamflower02]

No. They are like really thick socks basically, knitted from the toe up, with the hobbit toes knitted separately and then attached. I sewed a thin slipper-sole on the bottom of them, so I can walk around in them without shoes. But they are awfully thin soles, so not to be worn for hours on end and walking around on. They are fine for just walking from the car to the movie theater, and wearing during the movie, but they wouldn't, for example work well to wear all day long walking around at a con or something.

I'm just upset...I've prepped myself too

[periantari]

and felt like all the action that the trailers showed were by and large fine

Re: I'm just upset...I've prepped myself too

[dreamflower02]

Well, it's also a matter of perspective. I've seen much worse movie versions of books, in which the only thing the movie has in common is the title

[periantari]

It's just that the bigger Tolkien picture is lost in sacrifice for 1) more money 2) better critics 3) more mindless action .

Sorry that is at least my point of view...

[shirebound]

Wheee, you look happy in that pic. :)

Martin Freeman's performance as Bilbo continues to blow me away. I have no idea if it was done on purpose, but frequently I saw expressions on his face, or ways that he moved, that seemed to echo Billy Boyd's performance as Pippin without actually imitating it. It seemed to me to really emphasize his Tookishness.

That makes me very happy.

[dreamflower02]

I was. Movie aside, it was just nice to have a night out with my family!

I noticed some of that in AUJ (especially in the scene where he's trying to psych himself up to save Thorin at the end, it reminded me of Merry and Pippin before the Black Gate in ROTK) and so this time I kind of watched for it. As I said, I don't know if he's doing it on purpose or not, but I really like it!

[claudia603]

awesome hobbit feet!

Yeah, the morgul blade thing felt so wrong. *shakes head*

And despite not enjoying this film quite as much as the first, I will still be very much looking forward to the next one!

[dreamflower02]

Thanks! As I said to Baranduin, if I can just figure out the notes I made when I was first knitting them, I want to post the pattern online. But I may have to make a new pair just to remember what I did, LOL!

"And despite not enjoying this film quite as much as the first, I will still be very much looking forward to the next one!"

Not happy

[llinos]

Lesley (Marigold) and I both disliked it for the most part. Like you, we liked pretty much all the parts with Bilbo in, especially his conversations with Smaug, but felt there were too few of these

Re: Not happy

[dreamflower02]

PJ's always had a slight problem with plot holes. (Remember in FOTR how Gandalf rode off to Isengard after telling Frodo and Sam to "meet me in Bree"? He must be pretty bad at geography if he thinks he can get to Bree before them after detouring through Isengard, LOL!)

The funny thing is, I did still enjoy it overall. I think most of the credit for that goes to Martin Freeman and Howard Shore.

I hope that the last movie will return things to the original path. I expect it probably will, but I won't be shocked if it doesn't.

BTW, I recently finished reading a long and promising AU that took a left turn into darkness. So, with such a recent experience of something worse, I guess that made me cut PJ a little slack.

It's good to hear from you! Give Marigold my love!

Re: Not happy

[llinos]

We really liked the first one, because it had more Bilbo and character interaction and especially the Gollum cave scene - but again - the plot holes! Bilbo has forgotten that today is his (not to mention Frodo's) birthday? Replies to invitations are just arriving and apparently Frodo already knows what they say before opening them... etc. etc.

These are such stupid things! After all the care they take with the special effects costumes, casting, design etc. you'd think they could just get the script right!

Re: Not happy

[dreamflower02]

PJ's great strength has never been plot or characterization. His greatness lies in visuals and imagination, and the ability to pull together the best people for the work (like Howard Shore for music; Alan Lee and John Howe for art and settings; or the perfect actors to play key roles).

But his scripts have always had problems, both in any dialogue that did not come straight from the books, and in plotting.

It's why I rarely use events from movie-verse in my fic. Props, visuals,physical appearances, yes. Events, very rare, and only if they don't contradict the book. And I sometimes like to tweak his nose a little by making fun of some of his ideas. ;)