It was good fun and I was pleasantly surprised. I suppose this time round I went in with lower expectations, and yes - PJ loves his chase scenes too much, and I still haven't become reconciled to Azog not Bolg, but I am a lot more willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
The Dwarves comic relief bits work more naturally here - the "Chip the plates" song is canon - and really since the original (which is a children's book, after all) doesn't give too much development of their characters, there is plenty of room for individual interpretation. The range of accents (from both legitimate and assumed Scottish to vaguely English Midlands) does make them sound as if they are indeed all from the different Dwarven realms. Thorin, Fili and Kili are the obvious "hot dwarves", but the others are getting more and more attention as well. Balin charmed me, I have to admit, right from the start and I did laugh at the little bit of business with Dwalin trying to get the biscuits out of the jar.
So the big expectation now for the next one is Smaug and how they will handle him. I hope PJ can rein in his tendency to deviate wildly from the source regarding characters and events, but then again, he has a lot more leeway this time round to alter and flesh out characters as he likes.
If he sticks to the written words for the aftermath of the Battle of the Five Armies, he is going to smash our hearts to smithereens. I can't wait! :-)
Oh, and he *has* to give us Lobelia and Otho and the swiping the silverware bit, he can't leave that out!
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The Dwarves comic relief bits work more naturally here - the "Chip the plates" song is canon - and really since the original (which is a children's book, after all) doesn't give too much development of their characters, there is plenty of room for individual interpretation. The range of accents (from both legitimate and assumed Scottish to vaguely English Midlands) does make them sound as if they are indeed all from the different Dwarven realms. Thorin, Fili and Kili are the obvious "hot dwarves", but the others are getting more and more attention as well. Balin charmed me, I have to admit, right from the start and I did laugh at the little bit of business with Dwalin trying to get the biscuits out of the jar.
So the big expectation now for the next one is Smaug and how they will handle him. I hope PJ can rein in his tendency to deviate wildly from the source regarding characters and events, but then again, he has a lot more leeway this time round to alter and flesh out characters as he likes.
If he sticks to the written words for the aftermath of the Battle of the Five Armies, he is going to smash our hearts to smithereens. I can't wait! :-)
Oh, and he *has* to give us Lobelia and Otho and the swiping the silverware bit, he can't leave that out!