The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey- Chronicles II: Creatures & Characters

Author: Daniel Falconer
Year: 2012
Genre: Non-fiction/Art/Film
Reading Level: Adult
Series: Second in the Hobbit Chronicles

Summary: A detailed look at the creatures and characters in the first Hobbit movie, with behind the scenes information on the cast, costumes and characterizations.  Also includes details on the effects, both physical and digital, and plenty of photos to go round.

Red Flags: Many color photographs of hideous, hideous creatures

My Rating:B+
Again, I am always happy to read about movie making stuff, especially when it's Tolkien related.  But.  Do I want to read approximately 500 pages about the dwarves?  Do I want to read any amount of pages about goblins?  Do I want to see huge close-ups of the Goblin King?  The answer to all of these questions is no.  No, I do not. 

I mean, it's a well made, good looking book.  The creature and character scale at the back was very cool, and I always like movie making tidbits.  But there was so much information that, really, is just not very relevant.  All the actors talked about these details and back stories they created for their dwarf characters, but none of that came across in the movie.  So why does it matter?  It just seemed kind of silly to me, and basically drove home all my issues with the movie dwarves.  

Also Andy Serkis, my goodness.  How he does go on.  And, like, the first book, this one went on and on about how brilliant Peter Jackson is.  I object to this.  

Anyway.  It's a nice book and I enjoyed pulling little factoids from it, but overall it deepened my criticisms of the movie instead of enhancing my appreciation for it.  It was interesting to realize that there were a number of crew changes from the LOTR days (which makes sense, as that was a good long while ago), and I have to wonder how the Hobbit movies would be different if it had all the same minds behind it.  Perhaps it would just be a Hobbit movie...?