So here are the movies that I asked about when we finished the book.

Housekeeping: Next week I will be reviewing three different Discworld books.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

“Living a quiet, respectable life in the lush hills of the Shire, Bilbo Baggins wants nothing to do with adventure. Roughly sixty years before the events of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), his comfortable world is turned upside down by a surprise visit from the wizard Gandalf the Grey and a rowdy company of thirteen uninvited Dwarves. Led by the exiled prince Thorin Oakenshield, they seek a burglar to help reclaim their stolen kingdom of Erebor. But their ancestral home inside the Lonely Mountain is now ruled by Smaug, a gargantuan, gold-hoarding dragon. Thrust into a journey beyond his wildest imagination, Bilbo must face unspeakable perils that will test not only his courage, but also the fate of all Middle-earth.”

I truly enjoyed this movie. It was a pleasure to see how Peter Jackson would do this children’s book.

For this movie, I have 5 thoughts.

Firstly, this movie is so pretty. I believe that Peter Jackson was the only one to do it right. Mainly because for the first part he’d already done a lot of the work when he was designing the Shire and Rivendell. I am convinced that they kept copies of everything and when it came to The Hobbit, they just pulled stuff out of storage. It does a great job at pulling you into Middle-earth.

Secondly, the Misty Mountain song is the thing that gets remembered from the movie. They got it right; there is magic in it, as it should be. After all, this is what makes Bilbo want to go on the adventure. It is also great because this is the part that is remembered the most; after all, it feels like almost every singer on YouTube who could successfully hit those lower notes did their rendition of the song.

Thirdly, the prologue. Full disclosure I completely forgot that we got this much backstory so early on. But it makes sense that we do see it because this is one of two shots of Smaug in this movie. But it makes the journey feel more real if you see part of the life they are fighting for.

Fourthly, the dwarves have weapons. Now, if you have never read the book, this will make no sense. In the book, the dwarves show up to Bag End with instruments, and the first mention of weapons is after the trolls. But for this movie series that revels in its fight scenes, they need to have weapons from the start.

Fifthly, the reactions of elves and dwarves: the dwarves seemed to hate the elves much more than the low-level distrust in the books. But what is more interesting is how Elrond has opinions on the dwarves’ quest. Especially when we hear that Gandalf reveals his alternate reason for supporting the dwarves on their quest.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

“After successfully crossing over (and under) the Misty Mountains, Thorin and Company must seek aid from a powerful stranger before taking on the dangers of Mirkwood Forest–without their Wizard. If they reach the human settlement of Lake-town, it will be time for the hobbit Bilbo Baggins to fulfil his contract with the dwarves. The party must complete the journey to the Lonely Mountain and burglar Baggins must seek out the Secret Door that will give them access to the hoard of the dragon Smaug. And, where has Gandalf got off to? And what is his secret business to the south?”

It is a thankless job to be the middle movie in an adaptation of one book, as it can only lay claim to neither the beginning nor the end. That being said, this was a heck of a ride.

For this movie I have 3 thoughts

Firstly, the romance between the elf and the dwarf and Legolas. This feels like the writers of the movie wanted to make more of what in the book is only a handful of chapters. The introduction of Tauriel feels a bit off. Like they thought that they needed to add a female character and the only thing to do with that is to make them a love interest with the added worry because we know what will happen to Kili in the next movie. Now onto Legolas, according to The Fellowship of the Ring we know that Legolas is King Thranduil’s son, so it works that he is here, but I also wonder who would miss him if he wasn’t there.

Secondly Smaug. Here he is the star of the movie, the one whose name is on the poster. Here is an example of a change in an adaptation that I love. The fact that there is more of him and he’s an actual threat to the dwarves. There are two changes that I like: firstly, the fact that when Smaug is taunting Bilbo, he references Thorin’s gold sickness and that he can sense Bilbo’s ring. Because of course he can feel a piece of gold with so much power. Secondly, the fact that Thorin specifically tells Bilbo to get the Arkenstone, which we now have more of a reason why Thorin is obsessed with the shiny rock. Instead of in the book, where they just send Bilbo with no specific instruction other than go get something.

Thirdly Bard. Bard is one of those characters that has a great impact in the book but very few pages dedicated to him. It makes sense that, as this adaptation is stretching everything out, we will see more of him. Especially as in the book we hear that he is a worrywart about everything, so why not warn the town about the dwarves waking the dragon?

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

“The Battle of the Five Armies is the climactic conflict in J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel The Hobbit. Dwarves, Men, and Elves initially clash over the dragon Smaug’s treasure at the Lonely Mountain, but they must quickly unite against a sudden, massive army of Goblins and Wild Wolves (Wargs)”

This movie is the movie that I both looked forward to and dreaded. I looked forward to it because I loved the movies, and I dreaded it because I knew how it would end.

For this movie I have 3 thoughts.

Firstly, the framing device. My review of this movie is going to be a lot of this has been going on for multiple movies, but I’m talking about it here. The framing device starts in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and ends here. I love the idea that we are seeing Bilbo’s memories from the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring. I am curious to see how well this matches up with that movie.

Secondly, what was Gandalf doing? In the book, we never find out why Gandalf left, only that when he heard that the path through Mirkwood dose not come out the other side and then hurried back. Like everything else, this movie makes his adventure much more dangerous. I don’t know what to think about everything coming back to Sauron. Especially because if Gandalf was dealing with something this big, he wouldn’t be able to leave that fast.

Thirdly, dragon sickness. This is one change that I like: the fact that the dragon sickness, or gold sickness, was a worry from the beginning. It seems that everyone talking to Thorin about his quest is worried about his chance of losing his mind. Something special that is seen in this movie is the added roar to his voice; this, along with Richard Armitage’s brilliant acting, makes this perfect.

Thank you for joining me for this journey; it was a joy to look back at these movies. Don’t worry, I’ll look at The Lord of the Rings next year. Anyway, until next week in the Discworld.

Happy reading to all and to all a good night.