The Hobbit I always thought was a fun tale that was simple enough for me to understand. I was a child at that point so this was good for me having something that I could understand and be excited about. This leads me to believing that the best way to make The Hobbit was to preserve this childlike wonder of dwarves and creatures with swords and things fighting across Middle Earth to get to the Lonely Mountain. The first Hobbit film I thought had some problems doing this. It did not flow very well. The beginning had some pacing problems and the goblin battles while spectacular in their own way failed to amusse after I witnessed such wonders as the battle of both Helm’s Deep and Minas Tirith. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is not only a much better and sure movie than the first it’s almost on par with The Lord of the Rings. Why? Because it is fun and captures that sense of wonder and excitement. Of course some of it is serious, but when you get down to it The Hobbit was much more of a fun fairy tale than The Lord of the Rings. The fact that this is presented so well in this film is what makes it work. Heck I am trying to think of the problems with it and yet every time that I attempt to I find myself thinking of the stuff that I really liked. This is a full blooded adventure movie that has a simple premise and just enough themes running under that to keep you interested. The part that is covered of the book in this film is about from where the last one left off to Smaug breaking out of the mountain. It has the dwarves entering the kingdom of the Wood Elves and encountering Lake-Town. This is admittedly a much more interesting part of the book than the first seeing how it has a lot more character and action in it. This one unlike the first one doesn’t feel like it’s treading. The script is much more fast paced and fun with some great fantasy mixed in there. The action scenes are quite energetic. Once you have seen Evangeline Lilly as the elf Terreal I’m sure you will be sold on the entire thing. There is a moment of pure giddiness really whenever the dwarves are riding in barrels down a river as orcs attack them. The elves are at this time attacking the orcs. It’s just fun.Also interesting was the themes of the politics of Middle Earth. See the third act of The Hobbit (spoilers) has a large war with five armies ready to fight each other. These really begin to arise much more when the dwarves enter Lake-town. It’s corrupt leader eventually welcomes them,but some of the dwarves soon become blind of the danger that the dragon Smaug could cause. The things that are set up are really good. If there is a flaw with all of this it is the fact that much of these themes outshine the whole let’s get the gold story. The side-story actually kind of does this as well featuring Gandalf going to find whether or not the impending return of Sauron has begun. There are moments or atmosphere and battle between Gandalf and the Orcs as well as darker powers that really lead this to work. It could feel bloated but, it’s not and I want to see what happens eventually. I already mentioned Evangeline Lilly as Terreal, but there is quite a bit of talent on the table here. Martin Freeman is terrific as Bilbo and you can really buy the kind of uneasy hobbit stuck in way over his head. I know all the critics have said this,but also Richard Armitage really brings the character of Thorin Oakenshield to life here. Oh yeah and Legolas (Orlando Bloom) is back so that’s always a plus. Ian Mclennan is rally on full Gandalf is awesome mode. You know like the Balrog scene at the beginning of Two Towers like that. I was so happy to find myself so engrossed by this entire fantasy world created. Now while it is really worth mentioning the incredible makeup and camera work that can be found here, the real attraction is Smaug. Yes okay Sherlock is Smaug, Watson is Bilbo. Anyway I am really impressed by the work on him. The visual effects teams really had a difficult job here creating a living breathing dragon,and they really pulled it off. He is believable leading you to see the scale of him, but he’s also intelligent enough to have you wondering what he will do. The scene between Bilbo and him is incredible by itself, but whenever he starts to fight the dwarves we really get the grand sweeping adventure that we want. So let me say this. Watch this. Even with a running time of 161 minutes and a whole lot of subplots this is really worth the time. A fun and, complex action epic that you will not see the likes of anywhere. I give The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug a 9 out of 10
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December 2017
CategoriesAuthorHello welcome to FilmAnalyst. My name is Stephen Tronicek, and I really like movies. This is a way to get my opinions out to people. Thank you for visiting. |