The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is unfortunately still not up to the par of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The good news is that it is a lot better film than the first one.
My rating is somewhat biased as the film is really not as good as some other 8/10 ones of this year, but to be frank and honest I'm happy about giving it some extra merit. Its my type of thing. I love the LOTR movies and would in fact class them in second place, as one long movie, right behind the good ol Goonies in my list of favourite movies ever.
Continuiing my frankness and honesty, the movie has some problems. Its probably the worst edited Peter Jackson film I've yet seen and is still too bloated. The editing, Im sure, comes down to the fact that it would have started life as the ending film in a two part series, and was then hastily re-cut into a middle of three part series. Its most evident towards the end where Smaug and the Dwarves are doing their thing, and the people back in Lake Town are doing their own thing. For some reason the editing keeps cutting back and forth between these two very removed points of action and it spoils the single best part of the movie: the dragon!
SMAUG, Wow! He is perfect. The style of him, the way he moves, the way he talks, the way he breathes fire, the way he sleeps under his gold, the way he smiles, all of it is perfect. And if there was one thing to get right in this movie it was Smaug. Thats where I get disappointed, because I can see in the first movie and in this one what the important parts of the story were which received the time and attention to detail they needed: The Trolls, The Riddles in The Dark, The Dwarven banter, Bilbo, Gandalf, The Ring, Smaug, Lake Town, The Elves, Mirkwood, are all LOTR qualtiy or better. There is just so much other crap stuck in between these moments that it detracts from them and makes the two movies feel flatter, less emotional, more plastic.
With the LOTR there was too much source material and so the writers and PJ had to trim down the fat and make it as good as it could be, which was near perfect. With the Hobbit they intentionally went in and added fat which is just plain disappointing, obvious and quality detracting. I really cant wait until a Fan Edit is made of the three films cut down to one or two combining the key moments and getting rid of the unnecessary stuff, but ultimately wish the series was one stellar 3 hour movie, or maybe two 2 hour movies. Not three 3 hour ones, its almost silly.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is a bit bloated and its badly edited as a result of this, but at its core its a funny, beautiful, dark, impressive, action adventure fantasy movie of the type that rarely gets greenlit. For that I love it and will watch it over and over. Ill grumble at the stupid scenes and the bad editing (or maybe Ill do my own Fan Edit), but I'll also suck my breath in awe at other times. I saw this film in a packed cinema in HFR 3D and recommend you do the same. Its that kind of movie. And in that setting you can forgive the bad parts and just enjoy the ride, which is one hell of an adventure!
SCORE: 8/10
IMDB Info for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
My rating is somewhat biased as the film is really not as good as some other 8/10 ones of this year, but to be frank and honest I'm happy about giving it some extra merit. Its my type of thing. I love the LOTR movies and would in fact class them in second place, as one long movie, right behind the good ol Goonies in my list of favourite movies ever.
Continuiing my frankness and honesty, the movie has some problems. Its probably the worst edited Peter Jackson film I've yet seen and is still too bloated. The editing, Im sure, comes down to the fact that it would have started life as the ending film in a two part series, and was then hastily re-cut into a middle of three part series. Its most evident towards the end where Smaug and the Dwarves are doing their thing, and the people back in Lake Town are doing their own thing. For some reason the editing keeps cutting back and forth between these two very removed points of action and it spoils the single best part of the movie: the dragon!
SMAUG, Wow! He is perfect. The style of him, the way he moves, the way he talks, the way he breathes fire, the way he sleeps under his gold, the way he smiles, all of it is perfect. And if there was one thing to get right in this movie it was Smaug. Thats where I get disappointed, because I can see in the first movie and in this one what the important parts of the story were which received the time and attention to detail they needed: The Trolls, The Riddles in The Dark, The Dwarven banter, Bilbo, Gandalf, The Ring, Smaug, Lake Town, The Elves, Mirkwood, are all LOTR qualtiy or better. There is just so much other crap stuck in between these moments that it detracts from them and makes the two movies feel flatter, less emotional, more plastic.
With the LOTR there was too much source material and so the writers and PJ had to trim down the fat and make it as good as it could be, which was near perfect. With the Hobbit they intentionally went in and added fat which is just plain disappointing, obvious and quality detracting. I really cant wait until a Fan Edit is made of the three films cut down to one or two combining the key moments and getting rid of the unnecessary stuff, but ultimately wish the series was one stellar 3 hour movie, or maybe two 2 hour movies. Not three 3 hour ones, its almost silly.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is a bit bloated and its badly edited as a result of this, but at its core its a funny, beautiful, dark, impressive, action adventure fantasy movie of the type that rarely gets greenlit. For that I love it and will watch it over and over. Ill grumble at the stupid scenes and the bad editing (or maybe Ill do my own Fan Edit), but I'll also suck my breath in awe at other times. I saw this film in a packed cinema in HFR 3D and recommend you do the same. Its that kind of movie. And in that setting you can forgive the bad parts and just enjoy the ride, which is one hell of an adventure!
SCORE: 8/10
IMDB Info for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
