The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (review)
***Disclaimer: I’m a Tolkien nerd who read the books *long* before PJ ever thought of making the movies. But I’m *not* a purist who moans about every little deviation from the book. ***
I saw DoS yesterday (in 3D IMAX!).
It was a fun ride, and I was on the edge of my seat for most of it.
But the ending was WAY too abrupt though, it was like ‘What…!? WTF PJ, why did you end it like THAT, I want Part 3 NOW, g*damitt!’
I almost blurted out “What the f*ck!?” in the theatre!
On the whole, I enjoyed it and am ready to go back again.
But after having time to think about it, I have mixed feelings.
I’ve had misgivings about making The Hobbit into 3 movies. In this movie I really noticed just how padded the story is, and that it would probably have worked better as TWO movies.
Spoilers to follow.
[Spoiler (click to open)]
What I liked:
*Thorin and Gandalf flashback to their first meeting in Bree.
*Martin Freeman - continues to be perfect as Bilbo
*Richard Armitage/Thorin.
* Bilbo being accepted as just another one of the company of dwarves.
*Mirkwood and the creepy Spiders *shudder*
*Beorn
*Thranduil & Thorin
* Balin had some great scenes
*Legolas & Gloin and the picture of baby Gimli.
* Kili with the stone his mother gave him.
*seeing what Gandalf was doing when he was away from the company
*Bard and Laketown
*Erebor. OMG. The few brief glimpses we got in AUJ were beautiful, and I was so looking forward to seeing more. And it was WONDERFUL! Even after years of neglect, it was magnificent to see the glory of the Dwarves. Wow!
*Thorin and Balin’s reactions to entering Erebor again… *sobs*
*SMAUG. Holy crap, SMAUG the stupendous! Great job with the Bilbo & Smaug scenes.
*seeing the beginnings of Thorin’s gold sickness.
Didn’t like:
*The Ending: geez, it was like they just turned off the film, and tacked on the credits. Way too abrupt.
*ENDLESS fight/chase sequences
-the barrell/river escape chase. Went on way too long, too many orcs, too many elves
-Smaug chasing the dwarves all over Erebor. While it was cool to see more of Smaug, they dragged this out to the point of absurdity. And while seeing more of Erebor (and the lighting of the forges) was awesome, I couldn’t tell what the heck was going on, and the whole thing with the golden statue was out of left field and a bit silly.
I really don’t like the recent trend of long, overly drawn out action sequences. Just cause you can do it all in CGI now and do lots of cool stuff doesn’t mean you *should*. Less is more, folks.
*Too many orcs. Ok, I get that they need to be kept in the plotline so having them all show up in part 3 doesn’t seem weird, but they didn’t need to be *everywhere*.
*Not enough character development. All those action/chase sequences ate up a lot of screen time. I was really hoping for more little moments that gave each of the 13 dwarves a chance to have some meaningful *lines*.
What I was iffy about:
*Smaug calling Thorin “Oakenshield”…. Uhm, what…? Thorin got the name long after he left Erebor, during the battle at the Moria gates. If Smaug’s been sealed inside the mountain all this time, how did he know that name?
*The added material - The Gandalf stuff made sense since it is in the appendices, and Tolkien hadn’t developed all the Middle Earth mythology when he wrote The Hobbit. But even the Gol Goldur stuff seemed drawn out (too many damn orcs) and a bit boring.
*Tauriel. I really don’t mind an original character, or having her be smitten with Kili. But did they really have to have the only female character involved in a *high-school-ish* romance?
* Not even MENTIONING Kili’s mother’s name: DIS. She’s a Dwarf Princess, daughter of Thrain, sister of Thorin. How about just a teeny tiny flashback…please!?!?
*Splitting up the company - not sure where there going with this. Does this mean that the movie might have different fates for some of the characters than in the book??
*Legolas - it makes sense to have him in it because he’s Thranduil’s son. But he’s in it too much, and turns up everywhere, like the damn orcs.
*Not enough Bilbo. For example, they brought in the elves too quick after Bilbo rescues most of the company from the spiders. Should have given him more time with the group (and more of the credit for their escape).
Other things:
*you know you’ve been watching too much Game of Thrones when you see the scene with Smaug being covered in molten gold, and this pops into your head: “Fire cannot kill the dragon…”
*I was *really* expecting Bilbo to have the Arkenstone in his pocket by the end of the movie. Guess that’s next time…
-I caught PJ’s cameo at the beginning in Bree, but apparently I missed Stephen Colbert’s (in Laketown??).
I saw DoS yesterday (in 3D IMAX!).
It was a fun ride, and I was on the edge of my seat for most of it.
But the ending was WAY too abrupt though, it was like ‘What…!? WTF PJ, why did you end it like THAT, I want Part 3 NOW, g*damitt!’
I almost blurted out “What the f*ck!?” in the theatre!
On the whole, I enjoyed it and am ready to go back again.
But after having time to think about it, I have mixed feelings.
I’ve had misgivings about making The Hobbit into 3 movies. In this movie I really noticed just how padded the story is, and that it would probably have worked better as TWO movies.
Spoilers to follow.
[Spoiler (click to open)]
What I liked:
*Thorin and Gandalf flashback to their first meeting in Bree.
*Martin Freeman - continues to be perfect as Bilbo
*Richard Armitage/Thorin.
* Bilbo being accepted as just another one of the company of dwarves.
*Mirkwood and the creepy Spiders *shudder*
*Beorn
*Thranduil & Thorin
* Balin had some great scenes
*Legolas & Gloin and the picture of baby Gimli.
* Kili with the stone his mother gave him.
*seeing what Gandalf was doing when he was away from the company
*Bard and Laketown
*Erebor. OMG. The few brief glimpses we got in AUJ were beautiful, and I was so looking forward to seeing more. And it was WONDERFUL! Even after years of neglect, it was magnificent to see the glory of the Dwarves. Wow!
*Thorin and Balin’s reactions to entering Erebor again… *sobs*
*SMAUG. Holy crap, SMAUG the stupendous! Great job with the Bilbo & Smaug scenes.
*seeing the beginnings of Thorin’s gold sickness.
Didn’t like:
*The Ending: geez, it was like they just turned off the film, and tacked on the credits. Way too abrupt.
*ENDLESS fight/chase sequences
-the barrell/river escape chase. Went on way too long, too many orcs, too many elves
-Smaug chasing the dwarves all over Erebor. While it was cool to see more of Smaug, they dragged this out to the point of absurdity. And while seeing more of Erebor (and the lighting of the forges) was awesome, I couldn’t tell what the heck was going on, and the whole thing with the golden statue was out of left field and a bit silly.
I really don’t like the recent trend of long, overly drawn out action sequences. Just cause you can do it all in CGI now and do lots of cool stuff doesn’t mean you *should*. Less is more, folks.
*Too many orcs. Ok, I get that they need to be kept in the plotline so having them all show up in part 3 doesn’t seem weird, but they didn’t need to be *everywhere*.
*Not enough character development. All those action/chase sequences ate up a lot of screen time. I was really hoping for more little moments that gave each of the 13 dwarves a chance to have some meaningful *lines*.
What I was iffy about:
*Smaug calling Thorin “Oakenshield”…. Uhm, what…? Thorin got the name long after he left Erebor, during the battle at the Moria gates. If Smaug’s been sealed inside the mountain all this time, how did he know that name?
*The added material - The Gandalf stuff made sense since it is in the appendices, and Tolkien hadn’t developed all the Middle Earth mythology when he wrote The Hobbit. But even the Gol Goldur stuff seemed drawn out (too many damn orcs) and a bit boring.
*Tauriel. I really don’t mind an original character, or having her be smitten with Kili. But did they really have to have the only female character involved in a *high-school-ish* romance?
* Not even MENTIONING Kili’s mother’s name: DIS. She’s a Dwarf Princess, daughter of Thrain, sister of Thorin. How about just a teeny tiny flashback…please!?!?
*Splitting up the company - not sure where there going with this. Does this mean that the movie might have different fates for some of the characters than in the book??
*Legolas - it makes sense to have him in it because he’s Thranduil’s son. But he’s in it too much, and turns up everywhere, like the damn orcs.
*Not enough Bilbo. For example, they brought in the elves too quick after Bilbo rescues most of the company from the spiders. Should have given him more time with the group (and more of the credit for their escape).
Other things:
*you know you’ve been watching too much Game of Thrones when you see the scene with Smaug being covered in molten gold, and this pops into your head: “Fire cannot kill the dragon…”
*I was *really* expecting Bilbo to have the Arkenstone in his pocket by the end of the movie. Guess that’s next time…
-I caught PJ’s cameo at the beginning in Bree, but apparently I missed Stephen Colbert’s (in Laketown??).