The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Posted by Itheliving 11 years, 10 months ago to Movies
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smug / Rated PG-13 for violence including impaling and decapitations often to the same Orcs who deserved it.
Director Peter Jackson has returned with another long installment of his ongoing, never ending, here comes another one, will this stuff ever end, chapter in the saga of Middle Earth and the odd goings on therein. Having experienced the entire Lord of the Rings series (2001 to 2003) I suspected I was in for more of the same. I was right.
Once again we return to a land of Hobbits (short people with big hairy feet) Dwarves, Elves, Orcs, little bald guys and ugly monsters. Once again the Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves and other good creatures are being preyed upon by Orcs, Dragons, ugly snarling wolf like creatures, giant spiders and various other evil beings too numerous to mention. The good group is always on some type of quest to do good and stop evil. The evil group is out to do bad to the good group and bring darkness to all. They also want to control all cable and satellite programming so only Honey Boo Boo shows can be seen. She is their favorite.
Not having seen the 1st Hobbit film known as The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) I sat through it the night before viewing the new one. See title above. Story is, one of the Hobbits, known as Bilbo Baggins, has decided to go on an adventure. He sets off with a few Dwarves to travel to the Lonely Mountain, so called because it is lonely. A big ugly dragon named Smaug has attacked and torched and taken over their mountain kingdom so he could have all the gold and take a nap. The Dwarves do not like him. So off they go with Gandalf the Wizard and Bilbo to slay the dragon and regain their territory. They run into trouble.
The 1st Hobbit film and the new one are a continuing story which will be concluded next year…..same time, same place. They travel for a while then fight their enemies, all the time escaping from sure death just in the nick of time by being saved or lucking out. Take you pick. The films consist of a series of set pieces that look a lot like the ones from the Lord of the Rings series except that a different set of things occur which resemble all the things which occurred in the LOTR series.
The new film is terrific to watch as far as special efx go. The set pieces are exciting, well directed and beautifully staged and designed. The only problem is that like the 1st Hobbit film this one runs a very long 2 hours and 40 minutes. Most of the scenes, while exciting, seem stretched out to the max. You get the idea that Jackson has filmed a lot of material and can’t stand the idea of seeing anything left on the cutting room floor. While above average, fans of the books and fantasy films in general will be happier to sit through these long, long films than those of us who would gladly sacrifice a little more to the floor.
Rated 3.0 out of 4.0 reasons, there is only one film to go. Of course there is always The Silmarillion which was a conglomeration of ideas that J.R.R. Tolkien’s son assembled and published as a novel in 1977 after JRRT’s death. They will probably rework this material into at least 6 more films.
Director Peter Jackson has returned with another long installment of his ongoing, never ending, here comes another one, will this stuff ever end, chapter in the saga of Middle Earth and the odd goings on therein. Having experienced the entire Lord of the Rings series (2001 to 2003) I suspected I was in for more of the same. I was right.
Once again we return to a land of Hobbits (short people with big hairy feet) Dwarves, Elves, Orcs, little bald guys and ugly monsters. Once again the Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves and other good creatures are being preyed upon by Orcs, Dragons, ugly snarling wolf like creatures, giant spiders and various other evil beings too numerous to mention. The good group is always on some type of quest to do good and stop evil. The evil group is out to do bad to the good group and bring darkness to all. They also want to control all cable and satellite programming so only Honey Boo Boo shows can be seen. She is their favorite.
Not having seen the 1st Hobbit film known as The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) I sat through it the night before viewing the new one. See title above. Story is, one of the Hobbits, known as Bilbo Baggins, has decided to go on an adventure. He sets off with a few Dwarves to travel to the Lonely Mountain, so called because it is lonely. A big ugly dragon named Smaug has attacked and torched and taken over their mountain kingdom so he could have all the gold and take a nap. The Dwarves do not like him. So off they go with Gandalf the Wizard and Bilbo to slay the dragon and regain their territory. They run into trouble.
The 1st Hobbit film and the new one are a continuing story which will be concluded next year…..same time, same place. They travel for a while then fight their enemies, all the time escaping from sure death just in the nick of time by being saved or lucking out. Take you pick. The films consist of a series of set pieces that look a lot like the ones from the Lord of the Rings series except that a different set of things occur which resemble all the things which occurred in the LOTR series.
The new film is terrific to watch as far as special efx go. The set pieces are exciting, well directed and beautifully staged and designed. The only problem is that like the 1st Hobbit film this one runs a very long 2 hours and 40 minutes. Most of the scenes, while exciting, seem stretched out to the max. You get the idea that Jackson has filmed a lot of material and can’t stand the idea of seeing anything left on the cutting room floor. While above average, fans of the books and fantasy films in general will be happier to sit through these long, long films than those of us who would gladly sacrifice a little more to the floor.
Rated 3.0 out of 4.0 reasons, there is only one film to go. Of course there is always The Silmarillion which was a conglomeration of ideas that J.R.R. Tolkien’s son assembled and published as a novel in 1977 after JRRT’s death. They will probably rework this material into at least 6 more films.
It so happens that my wife owns all of the movie versions of "Pride and Prejudice". (I finally read the book last year.) All of them are different, even as they necessarily portray the same scenes with the same dialog. With "The Hobbit", you do not get that. You just get more of the same.
Also, as for Peter L. Jackson, some Objectivists call him a second-hander because of the way he took Ralph Bakshi's "Lord of the Rings" animation and made it live action scene for scene, word for word. It is as if he rebuilt "Falling Water" with sheetrock, laminate, and foamcore.
On the other hand, I was impressed with LOTR, I admit. Most of all, I found it inspiring that so many of the actual creators in the team had little or no prior experience at that level. It just shows what "ordinary" people can achieve.
You know, on Apollo 17, on the moon, astronaut Eugene Cernan is all agog: Look at the Earth! Look at the Earth! Replied Harrison Schmitt, "Seen one, you've see them all." Same here.