{"id":2276,"date":"2013-12-16T17:00:26","date_gmt":"2013-12-17T00:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/?p=2276"},"modified":"2013-12-16T16:09:23","modified_gmt":"2013-12-16T23:09:23","slug":"the-hobbit-the-desolation-of-smaug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/2013\/12\/16\/the-hobbit-the-desolation-of-smaug\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"hobbit2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Directed by: Peter Jackson
\nStarring: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellan, Richard Armitage, Evangeline Lilly, Luke Evans
\nRated: PG-13 for extended sequences of intense fantasy action violence, and frightening images<\/p>\n

Peter Jackson continues his epic prequel trilogy with the new film \u201cThe Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.\u201d As in the previous installment, \u201cAn Unexpected Journey,\u201d the story found in the book \u201cThe Hobbit\u201d is used as a framework, and events alluded to but not described there are filled in using the author\u2019s other works. Unfortunately, as he did in his \u201cLord of the Rings\u201d trilogy, Jackson has given us a second installment with a number of things he and his partners made up rather than sticking to the source material. There\u2019s still a lot to love, but Tolkien purists may well be better off staying home.<\/p>\n

This middle installment moves the story along, but (of course) ends on a cliffhanger. The company of dwarves-plus-one-hobbit must make their way from the mountains they just escaped in the previous film through the dangerous Mirkwood forest, and from there to Erebor, the Lonely Mountain which was once the Dwarves\u2019 home. Bilbo (Martin Freeman) is much more adventurous and practical in this installment \u2013 and braver too, which serves him well when he comes face to face with the enormous dragon Smaug.<\/p>\n

The film is packed wall-to-wall with battles and other action sequences \u2013 to the point that it starts to feel like Jackson\u2019s padding to fill out the two-and-three-quarter-hours long runtime. The fight choreography and effects are spectacular as usual, but one can only watch dwarves fighting orcs so many times before it starts to get dull, with or without the addition of some elves.<\/p>\n

Fans of Legolas (Orlando Bloom) will be pleased to see him in this film \u2013 his father, Thranduil (Lee Pace), is king of the wood elves living at the edge of Mirkwood. Along with Legolas we meet Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly), an elf maiden created out of whole cloth to offer a love interest to not only Legolas but to one of the younger dwarves. It\u2019s frustrating to see the soap opera theme of forbidden love wedged into a tale which otherwise is a straightforward adventure story, and for purists, every line she has will be nails on a chalkboard.<\/p>\n

That aside, the film is fantastic. The special effects, especially those used to create Smaug, look amazing, even in the high-frame-rate 3D projection. His design brilliantly combines his forelegs with his wings, enabling him to move well both on the ground and in the air. He\u2019s full of interesting details (for example, his enormous eyes have a nictitating membrane!), and his voice (Benedict Cumberbatch with some voice modulation) is wonderfully deep and slithery.<\/p>\n

The acting, as in Jackson\u2019s other Tolkien adaptations is by and large very good. Freeman continues to deliver as Bilbo, showing us how the hobbit gradually changes from a homebody to an adventurer. Ian McKellan is wonderful as ever in Gandalf\u2019s shoes, as are the other actors. Lee Pace is fantastic as Thranduil, who is hard and inflexible as the trees his subjects inhabit.<\/p>\n

If you enjoyed the first installment and aren\u2019t a die-hard Tolkien purist, \u201cThe Desolation of Smaug\u201d is definitely worth seeing. It\u2019s not as strong a film on its own as the first \u201cThe Hobbit\u201d installment was, and I\u2019d recommend watching that one before heading out to see this. If you were livid about the elves at Helm\u2019s Deep in Jackson\u2019s \u201cThe Two Towers,\u201d you may want to stay home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peter Jackson continues his epic prequel trilogy with the new film \u201cThe Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.\u201d As in the previous installment, \u201cAn Unexpected Journey,\u201d the story found in the book \u201cThe Hobbit\u201d is used as a framework, and events alluded to but not described there are filled in using the author\u2019s other works. Unfortunately, as he did in his \u201cLord of the Rings\u201d trilogy, Jackson has given us a second installment with a number of things he and his partners made up rather than sticking to the source material. There\u2019s still a lot to love, but Tolkien purists may well be better off staying home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[57,86],"class_list":["post-2276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-rated-pg-13","tag-tolkien"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/hobbit2.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2oSX4-AI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2276"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2278,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2276\/revisions\/2278"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}