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The Desolation of Smaug
I will try not to do spoilers, tonight. There are some things in the movie that were not in the book so I will try not to mention those or only in vague terms.
Hubby is a purist and he has read The Hobbit many times. He would have been happy if the story had been filmed as it was written. I will not repeat what he said on the way home from the movie. (OK…well he called it a travesty). I was guilty of saying things about the Harry Potter movies that I thought were absolutely wrong in earlier years so I said soothing things to hubby this time.
I guess that Peter Jackson had to make a movie to draw in people who have never read and never will read The Hobbit. If you watch the film, as I did, as an action movie with one or two things from the book added in, you will not suffer as hubby did. Hubby did not complain about the elf lady, I noticed.
We both liked The Lord of the Rings despite some changes (and I heard about every one of those, too, from hubby) and the first Hobbit film was not too bad according to hubby. My main quibble with all of the films has been TOO MANY ORCS. Sorry for yelling. Apparently orcs sell…esp. long held close ups of orcs…sigh.
I do like the actors who play the characters. I think that Martin Freeman is a lovely Bilbo. I like Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield. I also liked Luke Evans as Bard of the Dales and John Bell as his son Bain.
The barrel ride was awesome and the dragon was excellent. No, I did not like the spiders as I did not like them in Harry Potter. The action inside the mountain was lively.
The scenery is beautiful. The wood elves were arrogant, but not as scary as in the book. Beorn is there, but only for a short while.
We see so few movies that I feel satisfied that I have seen this one. I saw a preview of Ben Stiller in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty that tempted me. I love that short story and Ben would most likely do it justice. I will probably wait for the dvd, though. It was freezing in the theater and three hours turned me into an icicle. As soon as we got to the restaurant I had hot chocolate to warm me up.
I know that books from movies vary in their appeal. Usually the book is better because it can take the time to examine things. I really grouse a lot when it seems as if Hollywood completely changed the premise of a book because they think I am stupid and can not enjoy depth. My two big upsets are The Guns of Navarone and Shane. (Yes, I liked Alan Ladd as Shane. It was what they did to Marian that made me mad).
Movies that I think really did a GOOD job are Middlemarch, To Kill a Mockingbird, Far from the Madding Crowd, The Return of the Native, and Cold Comfort Farm. I also like the Christmas Carol version with Patton, I mean George C. Scott.
I just finished watching War and Peace that was made in 2007 with Clemence Poesy, Alexander Beyer and Alessio Boni. (425 minutes).
I liked the actor who plays Pierre, a lot, which is important. I liked Natasha and Sonia and that is what makes the film work. Of course, it could not cover everything, but it was a good film. It made the book come alive.
Just to make life exciting, we had an ice storm and lost our lights on Sunday morning about 6:15. Sixty hours later, we got them back and we are very happy about that. I just hope we keep them. We bought more extensions cords just in case. We have a small generator which is a blessing. And we have a fireplace.
Our three children and their families had a picture taken with all 14 of them in it and they all looked good. They made us a huge 2 x 3 foot picture and I am thrilled. They put up some of the failed shots and they are a hoot. The littlest one (17 months old) kept running out of the picture. But they persevered and the result is just magical.
Hubby took these pictures:
Diaries of the Week:
Write On! Revision and stage fright.
by SensibleShoes
http://www.dailykos.com/...
NOTE: plf515 has book talk on Wednesday mornings early