The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies Review - Spoilers!

I know I'm late to the game. This is the only Tolkien movie that I did not see at midnight on release day. That has to do with the whole hospital thing and especially the no driving thing. But yesterday after church I finally got to see it in RPX 3D! I have many thoughts but mostly I loved it.

Spoilers after the poster!

Image: Wikipedia.com

I didn't get a chance to re-watch the first two movies. But over my lifetime, I've probably read The Hobbit more than a dozen times. So I remember what is suppose to happen. The Battle of the Five Armies is actually not too off the mark as far as the book goes.

I remember watching the first movie and just loving Thorin. In the book he just seemed like kind of an ass, but Richard Armitage bring so much life to the character. I was sad watching the first movie because I knew what happens.

Thorin and his craziness were spot on. The crazy eyes were especially good. Richard Armitage is an excellent actor.

The 'love' triangle between Killi, Legolas and Tauriel was stupid. Like I said, I don't remember the 2nd movie that much, but did Killi and Tauriel have that much time to 'fall in love'? I remember some jail cell banter but not much else.

But thankfully it didn't take up much time in the movie. I think part of the reason they did it was to make Killi's death all that more tragic. In the book, both Filli and Killi get one line about their death, that basically says they are dead. I think some of the other dwarves should have dead but didn't, but that's a minor thing.

I did spend a lot of the battle, which is a bulk of the movie think 'Where are the eagles? Where the heck are the eagles?" I was really hoping they wouldn't leave the eagles out and count the 2nd orc army as the 5th army. But in the end, Radagast did come with the eagles. And we get to see Beorn dive bomb into the battle while turning into a bear, which was awesome.

In the book, Gandalf goes away and then shows back up at the end. I really loved how they showed what Gandalf was up to - book purists probably didn't but I like it. I found it pretty funny to see Saruman fighting for the side of good.

We get to see the setup for several things going into Lord of the Rings which was interesting. And my favorite part was at the end. Because they actually included the sale of  'dead' Bilbo's things.

I wasn't sure they would include this because they cut out the Scouring of the Shire out of the Return of the King movie. But at the end, was a confused Bilbo and then some confused hobbits because here he was, back from the dead. After it ties everything together - going from young Bilbo to old Bilbo on the day of his 111th Birthday.

It really didn't have a lot of flaws, and it was an excellent movie. I'm happy I got to see it in the theater and I cannot wait to see all six movies in order! That will be an awesome marathon for some weekend!

Dragon Con 2014 - Friday

Paul Blackthorne (Det. Lance from Arrow) and I

This is my 2nd post about Dragon Con 2014. You can start here with the Thursday post!

I'm going to preface this post by saying that I'm a sucky runner. I've been working on Couch to 5K for a couple of years now. Chronic pain is a bitch and when I get a flare, I can't run. But I'm slowly but surely getting better. But I run inside on my treadmill because I have a five year old and my husband works 2nd shift.

I've been following Geek Girls Run on social media for a while. One of my friends, Janine, is one of the founders of the group. I had wanted to do the fun run they did last year at Dragon Con but we ended up not having enough time because we ended up in the reg line of doom.

But this year, I was determined to do the run. I cosplayed as Kaylee from Firefly because it's my best costume for running in. And I opted to go with the run/walkers. This was a big mistake. 

I was ok until we got to the park and I just started lagging behind. And the hills were so hard - mostly because I run on a treadmill. I thought I was going to pass out during one huge uphill hill.

But I made it! I was the 2nd to last but I made it. Very proud by that, even though I did it, I think, contribute to my illness later in the weekend.

I found Todd who had my bag and my jacket. Because the run was in the morning we had some time

Me and Stephen Collins

to kill before the Walk of Fame would be open. So we got some lunch and hung out in the food court doing some people watching.

We did go over to the Marriott about a half hour before the Walk of Fame open. We got in line and waited. Once the doors opened, there was a mad rush but there was plenty of room for everyone once we got in there.

Friday is one of the best days to get autographs because it's not super crowded. I got both the Hobbit Guests, and we got three of the four Arrow guests. I also met Stephen Collins who I like best as the dad from 7th Heaven. Since we don't need two autographs from each person, I usually get pictures with celebs that Todd is getting the autograph for who are doing table pictures.

The longest line we waited in on Friday was for Karl Urban. We were told one time, but he was over an hour late. He had a panel and went to lunch afterwards. Once he got there, the line moved quite quickly. He was super nice too though he did say he was a little drunk. He was even more handsome in person than he is in the movies.

After that, we went to the dealer's room. First stop was the BPAL booth to do some sniffing and to talk to Beth and Ted. It was crowded but I got some sniffing in. I got one of the Peach atmo sprays and a bottle of Coraline for Emily.

We walked around the maze that is the dealer's room. Todd found a poster from Hellboy with a bunch of signatures on it and it was half price. They had a certificate of authenticity. We already had one of the autographs on it (Doug Jones) and it looked the same so we knew it was real. It was a must buy!

After that, we got some supper and waited for it to be time for my panel. The Kaleidoscope Track was kind enough to have me as a panelist for several panels. On Friday night, the panel I was on was called The Young Nerd Life. All the panelists were parents of geeklings of varying ages and we talked about their geeky likes and dislikes as well as how it is to be a geek parent raising a geek child. It was a lot of fun!

It was getting late so we headed out to go back to my aunt and uncle's house to get some sleep. The next day was going to be a long day.

Up Next - The Very, Very Long Saturday

Happy Birthday J.R.R. Tolkien!

On this date in 1892, one of the most beloved authors of fantasy fiction was born. J.R.R. Tolkien and his books have fans of all ages that are all over the world. But I have a personal reason for being a fan of Tolkien and his books.

As a young child, I would sit on the arm my dad’s chair as he would read to me from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. It was my first taste of fantasy and I loved it. I think that was the start of my life as a geek as my love for Tolkien’s works haven’t diminished since I first heard them.

Today I'll be celebrating one of my favorite author's birth by watching the end of Fellowship of the Ring and the beginning of The Two Towers with Emily. She ended up watching part of Fellowship with me and she was fascinated by the Balrog. 

Happy Birthday J.R.R Tolkien and thank you for the gift you gave the world of Middle Earth!

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

I’m a huge Tolkien fan and have been since I was a kid. I adored the Lord of the Rings movies and I loved the first Hobbit movie. I was able to see The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug at the midnight premiere and it didn’t disappoint.

Now I’m going to let you know, I’m not a huge fan of The Hobbit as a book. I always preferred Lord of the Rings. I re-read The Hobbit after seeing the first movie, and it is really lacking in some area. Character development is a big one and a lot of things seem rushed near the end.

After the image, there will be both book and movie spoilers.

Image: http://en.wikipedia.org/

Desolation of Smaug was very good. I think what I like best about the Hobbit movies are that they try to give the dwarfs beyond Thorin some character development. Kili gets his own subplot with the new elf character, Tauriel. I like the character of Tauriel a lot but they were a little heavy handed with trying to compare her to Arwen near the end.

Beorn and Bard were awesome to see come to life, as well as the barrel ride. Bomur actually got to shine in that scene. The subtle and not so subtle hints that Thorin is starting to lose it were extremely well done as well.

Smaug was so good and that entire sequence where the dwarves and Bilbo are trying to evade him to get out of the mountain was brilliant. It was just a lot of fun to watch. I was also happy to see more of Gandalf once he left the company. That was one of the biggest things that bugged me about the book is that Gandalf goes off but in the book itself we don’t know what the heck he did.

The only issues I have with the movie is that they built up this whole subplot with Kili being poisoned and Tauriel having to save him. But Kili dies in the book during the Battle of the Five Armies. Annoying enough in the book we don’t see the death, it’s just mentioned that him and Fili had died like an afterthought. It makes me wonder if the movie will let them live.

Beyond that, the movie was great. I was hoping to see Bard against Smaug but the movie ended right before that. I’m very excited to see the 3rd movie next year!

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Image: http://www.thehobbit.com/

Since The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug comes out this week, I thought I'd share my review of the first movie from last year!

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I’ve been a fan of J.R.R. Tolkien nearly all my life. One of my earliest memories was my dad reading The Lord of the Rings to me. I would sit on the arm of his old red chair as my father brought to life the story of Frodo and the ring. When I heard that movies were going to be made, I was very excited. While there were parts of the story left out in The Lord of the Rings movies, I loved all three and saw each one several times in the theater.

Peter Jackson did a great job of bringing Middle Earth to life with The Lord of the Rings, so I was psyched to see what he could do with The Hobbit. I saw The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in 3D, in 48 fps and I was not disappointed.

The movie had stunning visuals. With the 48 fps, it almost felt like I was in the movie. The extra frames per second was a bit jumpy in several parts of the movie. But overall, I could tell the difference with the faster frame rate, which made it even more defined than just normal 3D.

With the 3D visuals, the rolling hills of the Shire were immediately striking. The battle scenes put the viewer right into the action. For example, when the wargs were chasing after the party, there were  close-ups on the warg’s face and it made me it feel as if I was the one being chased up a tree. And when the party is captured by the goblins, I felt like I was also there under the mountain surrounded by the hoards.

The Hobbit is a lighter story and has a great deal of humor in it, unlike LotR. The movie is the same, especially centered around Martin Freeman as Bilbo. His expressions alone caused me to roar with laughter as he tries to deal with the invasion of the Dwarves in his hobbit hole.

There are more laughs in the sequence when everyone is captured by the trolls and Bilbo must talk his way out of being eaten. Even during the riddle game with Gollum, the humor remains. Freeman was a perfect choice for Bilbo.

The last time I read The Hobbit was a while back, so I was a little fuzzy on the details of the story. The movie seemed to be very faithful to the book but there were obviously some scenes added to the movie, such as the Rivendell sequences that included both Galadriel and Saruman. As noted in the appendixes of the LotR stories, Saruman tries to put the breaks on Gandalf’s work. And there’s a short original scene between Galadriel and Gandalf where she supports his decisions and encourages him to continue.

There was quite a bit of foreshadowing of the events that will happen in the LotR trilogy, but it also worked well in the course of this movie.

While the journey represents the physical one that the dwarves, Bilbo and Gandalf take to the Lonely Mountain, we also see Bilbo’s  emotional journey as he finds out who he truly is inside, which is the heart of the story. Even though there are two more movies to go, Bilbo is transformed from a homebody to someone who is willing to risk his own life to save another’s. This is a story of hope and trying to find your way home.

I would highly recommend everyone to see The Hobbit: The Unexpected Journey. It is a wonderful adaption that I think really captures Tolkien’s story. I would also recommend seeing in 3D with the new 48 fps because it makes the movie so amazingly beautiful, even more so than regular 3D.