[Eönwë]

Ok, so I've finally got round to watching it. Some thoughts:

• Martin Freeman as Bilbo is excellent.
• All the Smaug we saw was really good.
• I didn't actually find Radagast that bad. I mean, some characteristics were a little exaggerated, but I'm at least glad he felt like a wizard, though I found his "Rhosgobel rabbits" line a bit too cheesy for my liking.
• Speaking of that, the same goes for the big "NOOOOOOO!" as well as the some goblin fight when escaping the Great Goblin. That was nice in general, but some of the ease with which they just swiped them all off (with the long pole, for example), or Gandalf's rock seemed to overdo it a bit.
• I liked how they did Gollum. It shows how he's changed now that he's lost the ring. Though seeing him lose the ring makes takes away some of the mystery. And they cut out the fish riddle, which is one of my favourite.
• For the way the extended the story, I can understand why they added Azog. I do hope Dáin kills him at the Battle of the Five Armies, though, instead of them totally taking away his glory.
• I both liked and disliked the Great Goblin. Some of the things he did, like when he recognised the swords, were good, but I disliked him at others. And the way that Gandalf killed him was not something I liked.
• I liked that orcs were actually treated as conscious beings in some cases, but the problem now is that there's too much of a contrast between the leaders and the normal orcs.
• Seeing a more lighthearted Elrond was nice.
• I was at first annoyed at the timeline change, where Gandalf still hasn't been to Dol Guldur yet, but then I realised how many other flashbacks there already were with the Dwarves. It makes reasonable sense to not have that earlier. Though they'll probably never explain how Gandalf got the key now.
• So apparently Radagast has too many mushrooms? Saruman's just accusing everyone of using too many drugs at this point. Though it looks like Longbottom Leaf is pretty potent stuff.
• I'm used to them ignoring him, but I was still sad that they didn't at least have Círdan at the White Council. I also imagined at least a few more elves, though in my mind I always did have a round table in the middle for some reason. But it makes perfect sense for them not to include additional, unfamiliar characters, especially for such an important scene.
• I also didn't get why Elrond was so opposed to the quest. And while we later saw that it was because he had been taken in by the words of Saruman, I can't see why they made it so that they had to go against him at the time when they are supposed to have trusted his counsel. It was just a pointless addition, in my opinion.
• I think they rode too much on the back of LOTR. Sometimes it was useful to use parallels, as with the Eagles, but other times, such as the one-on-one battle near the end which uses basically the same music as Aragorn's Lurtz scene was too much. As well as Kiligolas.
• I liked Gandalf leaning on the fourth wall by not remembering the Blue Wizards' names because they're not in the books they're allowed to use (at least that's what I assumed it was). I also liked how they played with some of the book dialogue. But then some of the stuff they added was ridiculous. Like Gandalf's wise speech to Galadriel. Didn't sound Gandalfy at all.
• I was happy that they managed to include some of the songs.