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Desolation of Smaug
Jan. 2nd, 2014 10:41 pmI don't have an icon of Bilbo, so Frodo will have to do.
Twelve people, we saw it: me, two brothers, two sisters-in-law, three nieces, three nephews, and a girlfriend.
Very visual and action-packed, it was. But I could understand why Jackson put in so many (extra) action scenes - because they looked cool. And extra characters. And known characters that logically would have been behind the scenes got scenes... such as Thranduil and Legolas.
I had no idea that Eldest Niece was so into Orlando Bloom/Legolas. You learn something new every day...
Let's see, here's a bit of a who's-who: Orlando Bloom, Ian McKellan(*), Sylvester McCoy, Martin Freeman (he really was so very good as Bilbo), and unexpected Stephen Fry.
Oh, and apparently Benedict Cumberbatch was the voice of Smaug. I hadn't realized that. Obviously I've been avoiding the discussions... though I do now vaguely remember someone mentioning that he was Smaug. Anyway, Smaug was very well done too. The whole scene between Bilbo and Smaug... yes.
There was anargument discussion in the parking lot afterwards about the supremeness (or not) of Legolas, in which it had to be pointed out that Kili was definitely the cutest dwarf.
(*) We'd had an interesting incident yesterday where we started watching the Anthony Andrews version of The Scarlet Pimpernel, and then when Chauvelin turned up, we were all saying My Goodness, it's Ian McKellan! Looking so young and sexy! Didn't help that he was handsomer than the hero, and Eldest Niece found it rather disturbing that the only character she found attractive was the villain... and that it was Gandalf, too.
So we stopped the tape and watched the Richard E Grant version instead. I'd forgotten how much better that version was; more subtle and more witty.
Twelve people, we saw it: me, two brothers, two sisters-in-law, three nieces, three nephews, and a girlfriend.
Very visual and action-packed, it was. But I could understand why Jackson put in so many (extra) action scenes - because they looked cool. And extra characters. And known characters that logically would have been behind the scenes got scenes... such as Thranduil and Legolas.
I had no idea that Eldest Niece was so into Orlando Bloom/Legolas. You learn something new every day...
Let's see, here's a bit of a who's-who: Orlando Bloom, Ian McKellan(*), Sylvester McCoy, Martin Freeman (he really was so very good as Bilbo), and unexpected Stephen Fry.
Oh, and apparently Benedict Cumberbatch was the voice of Smaug. I hadn't realized that. Obviously I've been avoiding the discussions... though I do now vaguely remember someone mentioning that he was Smaug. Anyway, Smaug was very well done too. The whole scene between Bilbo and Smaug... yes.
There was an
(*) We'd had an interesting incident yesterday where we started watching the Anthony Andrews version of The Scarlet Pimpernel, and then when Chauvelin turned up, we were all saying My Goodness, it's Ian McKellan! Looking so young and sexy! Didn't help that he was handsomer than the hero, and Eldest Niece found it rather disturbing that the only character she found attractive was the villain... and that it was Gandalf, too.
So we stopped the tape and watched the Richard E Grant version instead. I'd forgotten how much better that version was; more subtle and more witty.
