I just got home from watching the second part of the Hobbit. And there are a couple of things I’d like to say about it (and I will talk spoilers, so don’t read on if you don’t want them.)
First of all, I like that Jackson split the book into three parts. I like that he’s adding in all the extra action from Tolkien’s appendices. I don’t even mind the entirely new things Jackson has added out of his own head.
But.
But.
I do object to Tauriel. Why, Jackson, why? I think it’s ridiculous when people complain that the characters in a book or film are all male. Not every thing needs to have female characters. In real life, there have been adventures where the genders are not equally mixed, so why the heck is it such a problem in fiction? Writers should be able to have whatever characters they want in their own works. For whatever reason. I grew up reading the sorts of books that didn’t have a lot of females in them. It never made me feel in any way inferior. When I reenacted scenes from my favorite films and books, I just put myself in whichever role I fancied; didn’t matter if it was boy or girl. So don’t be jamming girl elves in just for the sake of having a girl.
And if you do put in a girl elf, just make her a cool kickass character, please? I hated – hated – the whole elf/dwarf/elf love triangle Jackson is brewing. Really? I can understand Kili getting a bit star-struck at seeing Tauriel (elves are seductive creatures, and it’s maybe his first time), but would an elven woman really be equally star-struck at seeing a dwarf? Just because he’s the cute one, and “not as short as other dwarves”? And a scene later, she’s all swoony over Legolas maybe liking her, and then crushed that Legolas’ dad doesn’t find her worthy of his son, then back to drooling over the not-so-short dwarf again.
Bah. I hate love triangles at the best of times, but particularly when they are absurd.
I do want Tauriel’s clothes, though. So there’s that.
Overall I’m just a little disappointed by this installment of the Hobbit.. Even the first one, though great, couldn’t quite live up to the wondrous splendor of LOTR – and besides the Dreaded Love Triangle, this second part also had too much of a good thing. By which I mean: too much Smaug. Those scenes under the mountain went on forever. I get that Jackson needed something climatic, but golly. Tolkien’s way was so much better.
Still, though, it was good. I liked it. I just wish I could have loved it.
Out of Eden 
I can not agree with you more about Tauriel. I cringed every time she and Kili had any interaction. So unnecessary to the plot and it seemed to me that Jackson was trying too hard to make audiences like her and it seemed that we saw more of her than we did of the dwarves and Bilbo! Are we forgetting that the Hobbit is about the dwarves’ quest to save their homeland from a dragon? Why, then, are we spending so much time with this ridiculous character who is not even part of the story?! There was even too much Legolas for me, and I love him! Bah.
Tauriel’s entire plotline could have taken out of the movie without changing anything important whatsoever. It really is ridiculous. Glad I’m not the only one to see it!
Pretty much. It’s sad because I so loved getting to know the dwarves and their individual personalities in the first one. Sad that they were pretty much overpowered by CGI elves who weren’t supposed to even be in the story to begin with. At least I got a good dose of Bene-dragon at the end. But still…