great movie even with the changes made to the story

Rating: 8/10 (12 April 2014)

This movie is pretty awesome! Aside from some of the casting, and the rushed beginning of the movie, Peter Jackson delivers an action packed movie, filled with orcs, dragons, elves and spiders. Now, I usually like for a movie to keep pretty in line with the source material but most of the changes that Peter Jackson made to the story are more than acceptable to me. He has changed parts of the story to fit in with the previously made LOTR movies' storyline. However, being a huge Tolkien fan myself, I have read the books many times and there are a couple of things that I wish he had done a little better(mainly Beorn). Legolas is a welcomed return and we are introduced to the Woodland realm, home of the Silvan elves. We are also introduced to the the Woodland King, Thranduil, who is also Legolas' father and imo one of the baddest characters in the Tolkien universe.
With the changes to the story that he made, I thought that the overall casting for this movie was done very well. Benedict Cumberbash's voice is amazing for Smaug, and Luke Evans was cast well to play Jackson's version of Bard the Bowman. However, the one casting choice I didn't like was his casting for Beorn. Beorn, played by Mikael Persbrandt, for those who don't know, is a near giant man who can change into a giant bear. Now I get that with changes to a story, there will be changes to characters but this character's role is largely unchanged in Jackson's version of the story. Beorn's appearance is totally different from his description in the story only keeping the fact that he is tall and has a beard. Instead of a large man with great arms and black hair and as described in the book, he's a tall and lanky man with brown hair and with a face that resembles a comically bad lion. Orlando Bloom returns as Legolas, who many remember from the original LOTR movies and there's a new female elf, Tauriel, played by Evangeline Lilly.
Peter Jackson does an amazing job with the visuals. Middle Earth is stunningly beautiful. From the Misty Mountains, to the Lonely Mountain, the environments that take place in this movie are amazing. Each different area shown in the movie has a different feel to them giving them depth. The fortress of Dol Guldur is spooky and ominous, surrounded by dead trees and littered with broken stones, whereas the great forest of Mirkwood captures the stuffiness and claustrophobic atmosphere described in the book. The CG is done well, with the many of the orcs being completely CG. But the best part of the visuals is the dragon, Smaug. Smaug is in my opinion perfectly done. His cruelty and malevolence is perfectly captured in his appearance on the screen. His eyes, his teeth and his great stature is expertly done. There is really only word to describe Smaug in this movie; "badass".
Now aside from the casting and visual portrayal of Beorn, my only other real complaint about this movie is that the first 20 minutes of this film is rushed. Bilbo and company gets hurried along into Mirkwood glazing over the introduction and story development of Beorn's character. In fact, the movie only feels like it begins after the 20 minute mark when they enter the forest. Everything after this however, is more or less done very well. Once the company enters Mirkwood, the pacing slows down a bit and the movie really begins. You meet the fellow elves of Legolas and development of the story and character begin. The pacing goes from slow to action keeping the movie exciting.
Overall the story is done pretty well. Peter Jackson does a good job keeping to his movies' continuity making sure his version of the story fits with his previous movies. At the same time, he makes sure to keep the most important aspects from the books in his movies, packing it full of action and events to keep even the best Tolkien fans happy and excited.