This week,
Was interesting.
Definitely.
Almost half of my future city things were due, my Bari Sax broke, and above all the freaking SECOND PART OF THE HOBBIT came out. As you probably deduced, I love LOTR and all things to do with it.
So…
This is a review of the movie in case you haven’t seen it. The things with spoilers will be at the end, with a lot of empty space so as to not ruin the (great) movie.

Let us begin.

This movie was spectacular! The sound was not too overpowering, but noticeable. In case you didn’t know, the hobbit films were all shot in this high frame-rate 3D sort of way. This makes for a great visual experience. I thought that the 3D was cool, and most importantly, not distracting. This movie was, in my mind, the dull part of the book. In the middle of the book, it gets pretty boring. Peter Jackson did a great job adding action to otherwise boring parts.
It starts with an amazing prologue, just PJ is good at. No real action, just talking and observing. Gandalf meets up with Thorin Oakenshield and convinces him to take back the ancient dwarf fortress Erebor.
A very nice cut happens, and you are taken twelve months into the future at the edge of Mirkwood. Due to some bad things happening in the fortress of Dol Guldur, Gandalf has to leave the group. Mirkwood looks fantastic. The 3D was used very well for some creepy spider-webs effect. Now, there are big nasty spiders. Jumping all around and causing a great deal of havoc for our little adventurers.
The ever more addicting ring comes in handy, and needless to say, they escape.
All of the animations look great. I might even be able to say they are the best I’ve ever seen. Lake town looks awesome. Erebor looks awesome. Everywhere looks awesome.
One name.
…
Smaug.
This is what this movie is about! Man, does he sound good! Benedict Cumberbatch has this smooth, deep, rumbly voice that is AWESOME! He speaks in almost modern English, but it fits perfectly. Again, the animation could be confused as a real dragon. Smaug completely takes up all of Erebor. He can move fluidly through caverns and halls.

Spoiler time.

The dwarf’s plan to kill smaug is not in the book. Neither is Legolas. But something about the additions make it better.
The plan fails, and smaug has the idea to go and destroy lake-town, as the prophecy says. The movie ends in a total cliffhanger, which I like. The last line in the whole movies is Bilbo saying, “What have I done?”

This was a great movie. Go see it. Get your grubby little hands on the disk. Add it to your collection.

And last of all, be a LOTR nerd.