1. Bombur is all sorts of awesome, even if he never says a word. The barrel sequence should put that beyond all doubt. Also, he proves Gimli correct when he says in
The Two Towers: "We Dwarves are natural sprinters... very dangerous over short distances."
2. I am officially in love with Erebor's technology. What we see of it can't be in prime condition but it's still capable of working. Take that, Smaug.
3. Smaug is the best cinematic dragon of all time, hands down. THAT VOICE. And a good percentage of it isn't even effects - it's just what Benedict Cumberbatch was able to do with a microphone. He poured everything he had into bringing this dragon to life, and it shows. Let's give him all the credit not just for the voice acting but for the motion-capture as well.
4. Martin Freeman
is Bilbo. 100% of the time I forget that it's acting. He's just that believable as Mr. Baggins. It's amazing to watch him play Bilbo as the Ring begins to affect him and Smaug toys with his mind. Utterly amazing.
5. The same thing goes for Richard Armitage as Thorin. Watching Thorin begin to be affected by the gold fever/dragon sickness is heart-breakingly painful.
There And Back Again is only going to be worse in this regard. Gah.
6. If you don't love Bard and his family to bits, I'm not sure what's wrong with you. For a character who gets introduced at the last minute in the book and gets very little characterization, they've done excellently with him. He rungs rings around the Master of Laketown's spy network and helps the Dwarves even after he's argued with Thorin (and made some pretty valid points, at that).
7. Legolas was awesome. He's also strangely hilarious. The absurd look of mixed jealousy and big brother overprotectiveness as he watches Tauriel speak to Kili in the dungeons sealed it. Also, his fight with Bolg. For the first time in five movies, Legolas is injured. It's just a bit of dizziness and a nosebleed, but it's still the first time he's been injured. All he ever got in LOTR was a bit of dirt on his face. And his reaction was priceless, too: he stared at his own blood and you could just see that everything became personal for him with Bolg, like, "You do NOT make me bleed my own blood."
8. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked Tauriel. She was very much what I would picture a Sylvan Elf to be like. In fact, if they had cut out Thranduil's suggestion that Legolas likes her, made the healing scene with Kili a bit shorter, and possibly removed Kili's feverish, "Would she ever love me?" I would have absolutely no problem with her and probably would praise her despite her non-canonical status.
If you're gonna give us girls a role model character, at least don't bog her down with romantic subplots. Sheesh.
Even so, the threatened Kili-Tauriel love story wasn't really what we all feared it to be. It was actually really sweet and platonic. They expressed curiosity in each other and each other's races. She sympathized with his promise to return home safely to his mother because she has lost her own parents (not stated directly in the movie, but mentioned in various interviews).
9. NEEDS MORE FILI. I've been saying that since AUJ and I'll continue to say it. Must Kili forever overshadow his awesome older brother. (C'mon, Kili, quit hogging the spotlight...) However, Fili's endless arsenal of knives was hilarious to watch. The Elves couldn't find them all, hahaha.
And Fili finally did it. When Thorin tells the injured Kili to remain behind in Laketown, Fili protests, arguing that he'd carry Kili up the mountain himself if he had to, but that they wanted to see the halls of their fathers. Thorin tells Fili, "When you are king, then you will understand," and Fili is just like, "No, sorry, uncle. My place is with my brother," and says behind in Laketown with Kili.
*cries pathetically over Durin family feels*
Also, Bofur waking up after being drunk under the table at about that point was hilarious. XD Gotta love Bofur. Hope we get to see one of Jimmy Nesbitt's daughters splash water on him in the Extended Edition...
10. I don't have any pictures of Beorn, but he was a real One-Scene Wonder. His roar is enough to scare off Azog and his hunters. Some serious awesomeness going on there.
Also, the Necromancer vs. Gandalf. That and Smaug are worth the price of admission alone.
Gah, I wanna go see it again so badly!!!
In Pace Christi,
Elyse
