The Lord of the Rings trilogy on Blu-ray. I refuse to watch the movies until I've read the books, and I have yet to find time to do so. Luckily I plan to listen to the audiobooks soon, right after I finish listening to The Hobbit (which is my third time through the book, but the first time listening to the audiobook).
Oh, I've already seen all of The Hobbit movies! And unlike a lot of people, I absolutely adored them all. The only part I wasn't thrilled with was Tauriel, not because she's a bad character, but because I felt like Peter Jackson was submitting to the typical "we have to have a romance for the movie to be a hit!" mindset.
Honestly, though this will be a REALLY unpopular opinion... I might enjoy the movies more than the book. As this is my third time through The Hobbit, but the first time after seeing the movies, I'd forgotten how... I'm not sure, unnoticed?... most of the dwarves went. While Peter Jackson might have strayed from the feeling of the book somewhat, I really enjoyed how he and the actors gave each dwarf their own very distinct personality and how the characters were almost more developed in the movies than in the book. The book concerns itself mostly with the story of the adventure itself, while the movies show us the adventures and give us a look at the characters that we didn't have before. I still love the book dearly, but I can't pretend to hate the movies even a little.
While I understand how you feel about Tauriel (and I am female myself so I'm not detached from the situation), I kind of dislike how she just has to fall for one of the dwarves. It sort of feels like she's just the token pretty (though badass) female character that exists to fall for one of the guys in the necessary romance plot that is shoehorned into every story. I'd have been happier with her addition to the story if she'd just been there to be badass, honestly.
I agree, the dwarves of the book are rather bland. Thorin has his kingly haughtiness about him, but the other dwarves don't really have personalities aside from "get the gold!" and "maybe Bilbo isn't so bad... when he's helpful." I didn't realize how much I came to love Bofur's hat and happy attitude, Bifur's "disability" (which was done so well that I'd completely forgotten it wasn't canon), Bombur's large cheerful self, Ori's (mostly) mild temperament, etc. until that pretty much all disappeared in the book. Even Thorin doesn't seem as kingly as when Richard Armitage plays him. In the book there's really very little to differentiate between the different dwarves, and I'm not even sure all of them had distinct roles; I can't think of any instances where Nori, Oin, or Gloin speak off the top of my head - I'm sure they probably did at some point, but it wasn't memorable to me.
Apart from the shit they pulled with the elves, the Hobbit movies were good. I just felt they could have done without a few scenes that both weren't in the book and didn't contribute to the plot.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy on Blu-ray. I refuse to watch the movies until I've read the books, and I have yet to find time to do so. Luckily I plan to listen to the audiobooks soon, right after I finish listening to The Hobbit (which is my third time through the book, but the first time listening to the audiobook).
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