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The Hobbit
I greatly enjoyed it. I felt that the stuff added in from the appendices worked and helped to set the story in the context of the larger events going on in Middle Earth. Martin Freeman was perfectly cast as Bilbo and my favourite part of the move is watching him get all flustered, while trying to be very British and polite as he is descended on by an army of dwarves all looking for something to eat.
And they sing! They do the dish-breaking song!
I wasn't greatly sold on the endlessly collapsing walkways under the mountains, but I suspect many will love them.
The visuals of Erebor before the arrival of the dragon are virtually worth the price of admittance on their own. It's beautiful.
I think Jackson has made one change in the timeline. .In the book, if memory serves, Gandalf got the map and key that he gave to Thorin from Thrain whom he met in the dungeons of the Necromancer. In the film, it's noticeable that Thorin never asks where Gandalf met Thorin's father. As Radagast is the one to first realise the Necromancer is there, one assumes that Gandalf has not yet visited the Necromancer and that in film canon, he met Thrain somewhere else.
And they sing! They do the dish-breaking song!
I wasn't greatly sold on the endlessly collapsing walkways under the mountains, but I suspect many will love them.
The visuals of Erebor before the arrival of the dragon are virtually worth the price of admittance on their own. It's beautiful.
I think Jackson has made one change in the timeline. .In the book, if memory serves, Gandalf got the map and key that he gave to Thorin from Thrain whom he met in the dungeons of the Necromancer. In the film, it's noticeable that Thorin never asks where Gandalf met Thorin's father. As Radagast is the one to first realise the Necromancer is there, one assumes that Gandalf has not yet visited the Necromancer and that in film canon, he met Thrain somewhere else.
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1050 About this time a shadow falls on Greenwood, and men begin to call it Mirkwood.
2060 The power of Dol Guldur grows. The Wise fear that it may be Sauron taking shape again.
2063 Gandalf goes to Dol Guldur. Sauron retreats and hides in the East.
2460 Sauron returns with increased strength to Dol Guldur.
2845 Thrain the Dwarf is imprisoned in Dol Guldur; the last of the Seven Rings is taken from him.
2850 Gandalf again enters Dol Guldur, and discovers that its master is indeed Sauron, who is gathering all the Rings and seeking for news of the One, and of Isildur's Heir. He finds Thrain and receives the key of Erebor. Thrain dies in Dol Guldur.
2851 The White Council meets. Gandalf urges an attack on Dol Guldur. Saruman overrules him. [It afterwards became clear that Saruman had then begun to desire to possess the One Ring himself, and hoped that it might reveal itself, seekings its master, if Sauron were let be for a time.
2941 [The year in which The Hobbit is set] The White Council meets; Saruman agrees to an attack on Dol Guldur, since he now wishes to prevent Sauron from searching the River. Sauron having made his plans abandons Dol Guldur.
So in appendix canon the Wise have been suspicious about Dol Guldur for nearly 900 years. They have had proof that Sauron is there, and Gandalf has been urging an attack on it, for the past 90 years (and 40 years before the birth of Bilbo). The Necromancer is well known; in The Hobbit, when Gandalf explains why they can't go round the south of Mirkwood, he says "you would get into the land of the Necromancer; and even you, Bilbo, won't need me to tell you tales of that black sorcerer. I don't advise you to go anywhere near the places overlooked by his dark tower!"
And you're right, Thorin is very suspicious about Gandalf having the key; "I should like to know how Gandalf got hold of it, and why it did not come down to me, the rightful heir." Which leads into the account of Gandalf finding Thrain in the dungeons of the Necromancer.
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