@Zanne, what did you think of the movie? I was so let down by the first Hobbit movie that I haven't been able to bring myself to go see this one.
It was entertaining but it strayed from the book quite a bit. My sister made a few snarky remarks. They decided to add an original female character and she was ok but they did something stupid with her. They added a lot more orc scenes and had drama that wasn't necessary. They kept having action for the sake of having action. There were some parts involving molten metal that made me facepalm and I had to shut down my inner critic that was saying things wouldn't work that way.
The 3D stuff was interesting. The bees flying at the audience thing did nothing for me since I expected it, but it was sort of like watching real people run by at times and was pretty neat. It made the action scenes more interesting although if things moved too fast it was harder to see because of the divider in the middle of the 3D glasses.
One of the drawbacks was that I had to turn my head to clearly see some of the action in front of me instead of just being able to lean back and watch without glasses. Maybe that is just because I'm not used to the whole 3D thing yet.
The special effects and 3D stuff looked fantastic and the thing was visually appealing. They sacrificed plot for the flash and bang though.
I don't know if I would pay to do the 3D thing for this movie if I had to do it over again. I think I'd just wait for it to be out on blue ray and watch it at home, but the experience and bonding with my sister was still fun.
On a side note, we saw a real estate listing for a 5 acre plot of land with a house that is over 2,000 sq ft for sale for $55k in Los Lunas. We went and tried to look at it from the outside and it has a lot of privacy fences. My sister contacted her real estate agent to find out what is wrong with the place. If it turns out the place is ok my mother is considering buying it. My sister wants us to move out here and its out of the mountains and warmer there. Crime rate in the Los Lunas city is pretty high and there were at least 8 registered sex offenders within 10 miles of the house (some of them were only like 2 miles away). Three of them were living near elementary schools. The village has more registered sex offenders than it has police officers. But, it didn't say what most of the people were registered for and I've seen a lot of the time that guys get registered for statutory rape rather than anything involving violence.
The place itself has tall gates with barbed wire on top and seems rather secure. We suspect it was used for illegal activities. The house across the street from it was burned down.
IF it turns out to be ok we do know of a builder that could expand the house and do some upgrades and it would still cost less than buying an empty lot and having a house built.
It has a well and septic tank though. We would probably get solar panels. The place even has a workshop and barn for horses. Not sure what condition they are in though.
I sent 30 questions to the real estate agency and am waiting to hear back. It sort of looks too good to be true.