ok so let me start by saying that while i’ve seen some people saying they were disappointed by it, i actually really enjoyed it and thought it was a very good sequel to auj. but bear it mind that i enjoy most films i watch.

anyway, MAJOR spoilers under the cut

but let’s start with the things i didn’t like so much

1. while i actually really liked tauriel as a character, i felt the romance between her and kili felt forced and towards the end, cheesy. i’m sorry, PJ, but no added in romance is ever going to be up to the standards of arwen and aragorn or eowyn and faramir.

2. there was (i felt the same with auj) a bit too many orc scenes, i.e. azog and bolg talking to each other or others or being shown stalking the company. also very much non-existent in the books (unlike the white council/necromancer scenes which were pulled from tolkien’s other works) and i understand that it was to help the larger audience understand but still hmmmm

3. ok so there’s this one scene in laketown where the master is in his bedroom with the dude reminiscent of wormtongue creeping around and there’s a huge portrait of him on the wall dressed very obviously in 16th century garb. while i thought that the idea of basing laketown’s look and the costumes etc on the 16th century worked quite well for the lower classes where it wasn’t very over-the-top, i thought that the upper classes having that level of modernity was a bit far fetched, especially when they’re a tiny settlement hundreds of miles away from any other men. and if gondor is still mostly medieval/renaissance, why is laketown two hundreds years ahead? i know middle earth isn’t our world duh but still. the historical fashion nerd in me was angry.

4. what on earth kili. that whole sub-plot obout him being pierced by a morgul blade and so poisoned and unable to come to the mountain with them was vERY hmmmmmmmmmmmmm especially seeing as it was mainly just there so that tauriel could come and heal him. it did lend to some nice kili & fili feels though and thorin and kili

5. we’d already established this but beorn’s man form was hella weird. he looked like an overgrown feline werewolf. also his scene should have been longer.

ok now things i liked (where to begin?):

1. i thought all the battle scenes were great and very well choreographed. in the car on the way home my brother was saying he found them a bit cheesy and trying-to-be funny but i thought it was actually just right for it. the hobbit in itself as a book is much lighter and more humourous than lotr, and i think that reflected well in the way some scenes and some fights were played out.

2. and then for the scenes that were more like lotr, e.g. gandalf at dol guldur, i thought the dark and heavy element that is present in lotr was there too. there was a good balance between those scenes and the lighter hobbit ones.

3. talking of which. the battle between gandalf and sauron was AMAZING. very well done. it could have been cheesy but it wasn’t and it worked really well.

4. SMAUG. oh my gosh, smaug was perfect. his immensity and cunning and character were just really well done. and i dont know about you but i thought that in the trailer he looked a bit plastic-y and stiff. well, here his cgi was absolutely perfect.

5. the sheer scale of erebor was absolutely stunning too. there were some shots when i was just sitting there with my mouth hanging open. good job, weta, good job.

6. legolas looked a bit strange but like he was really hot the whole time so i didn’t worry. there was this one scene at the end when he was in laketown (another plot that i didn’t really find necessary, but hey, it gave us this) and he was fighting bolg and then bolg punched him and he got a nosebleed and felt it and like looked bolg like “bitch, you’re going down” and then he chases after him on his horse. ain’t nobody messes up legolas’ alabaster skin.

7. mirkwood was absolutely amaaaaazing, i wish i could just go there and wander round for days because WOW. what a set.

8. THRANDUIL oh my gosh perfect perfect perfect lee played him so well and he was just so in control during those scenes and i just ldhafljdhfda

9. balin my angel as usual what a sweetie and oh my gosh there was this really short scene just before bilbo goes into the hall in erebor where they’re talking together and i just ljdkhfaldfhldshlsdkfhasdlkjfnasdcmn BALIN

10. the spiders scene was great. and when bilbo named sting the entire audience just went “oooooh” and it was so cool

11. the shot when bilbo pops up out of the top of the trees that we see in the trailer is sososososoooo beautiful i just want to gif it for a thousand years

12. bain was so cute and awesome and he had a pippin-esque moment towards the end where you can tell he’s going to have to get the arrow to the top of the tower like when pippin has to light the beacon

13. and yes bard was absolutely amazing and really hot i was so pleased. i love you bard

anyway i only woke up an hour ago and i still haven’t quite collected myself properly but there’s so much more i loved too. feeling gooooood~