good evening people! today I finally saw the Hobbit with a few of my family members and we all really enjoyed it so I thought I would talk about it because I'll be honest here... I really didn't enjoy the first part, I just felt it was very slow/long however there were some great scenes involved but none of them compare to the genius CGI and actions scenes used in the second part of the Hobbit.
What's brilliant is that it gets straight into it, there are no new characters to introduce as such so there was no need to spend 45 minutes introducing them, thank god for that! although it did take a while to finally get a good look at Smaug but... totally worth it in my opinion! you get a high dose of awesome fighting scenes with the dwarves and Legolas who was actually written into the film and I'm really glad the did that along with Tauriel who is the awesome heroine of the film who was again not in the books written by J R R Tolkien so that was really interesting plus it allowed a relationship to flourish between Tauriel and Kili which is really nice despite the rough chemistry between the Elves and Dwarves, besides who doesn't love a nice bit of romance.
As I said the film carries on directly from the first but... It doesn't explain how they got off that very high rock which the eagles left them on, apparently that have better things to do but I'm willing to let that slide. The Dwarves are still being pursued by the fierce Azog (who is played by the actor who portrays Slade in Arrow... Just saying!) After a quick escape and the introduction of a character who I hope will reappear in the final part, I think you know who I'm on about... yeah the giant Bear! Beorn is a skin-changer who takes the form of a large malicious bear that we sadly don't get to see in action against the Orc's but I've got my fingers crossed that he has a role in the upcoming battle that was greatly teased throughout the film. The team face a great deal of challenges such as Gandalf leaving the pack, Giant spiders which is brilliant spine tingling scene that displays the true nature of Bilbo whilst under the rings trance and like most creatures in the franchise they looked brilliant, they were detailed, freaky and captivated superbly. The final challenge they confronted before the mountain introduced us to the race of elves that abandoned the dwarves after Smaug reigned destruction, this represented Thorin as a character who holds grudges there is no doubt that we will see them cross paths once again and I think for Thorin it would be a sign of weakness to accept help from his betrayers so he is a very proud character who's personality changes from time to time, first he's a friend then he's a greedy angry dwarf who only thinks about the mission at hand not about his friends. from that point its all about Smaug and Thorins precious Arkenstone, the group fight to find the hidden door and at last reclaim their homeland, obviously its not as simple as that, we finally get to see why Bilbo was brought on this journey... Don't wake the dragon, you had one job Bilbo, one job!
there are some fantastic scenes that made the film quite memorable and that goes special award goes to the barrel scene which was awesome, whilst the dwarves race down a river in barrels they are pursued by the murderous Orcs who are then hunted down by the fantastic Elvish double act who display immense fighting skills along with awesome finishing shots leaving Orcs headless or at one point an arrow through the skull attaching 2 Orcs together, it was insane!! The whole scene was just wonderful and visually stunning despite a few camera changes that were very recognisable, it was as though they attached my £50 Samsung to the front of a water ride, this affect just killed it, it looked out of place but nonetheless the scene was stunning with over the top over kills and their use of flawless CG to create the fun and insanely enjoyable scene.
How could i leave this without talking about Smaug! I have a mixed opinion about it. Benedict did an amazing job capturing and voicing Smaug and the final outcome was awesome, I've said it before and ill say it again I love dragons! Smaug could possibly be the best dragon I've seen on screen mainly due to the overwhelming amount of detail used, the use of motion capture managed to replicate genuine emotions that made Smaug more than just a dragon but an evil seemingly intelligent creature with a personality although gold blinds him. He looked and sounded menacing, he was HUGE, powerful and again very detailed with flexing muscles and lizard like skin that crinkled more so on the neck, similar to the affects used to bring the Lizard alive in Spiderman, for me the unbelievable detail finalized a more realistic foe and he deserved it, imagine the response if the villain teased and built up turn out to be rubbish, I would go mad!
Now... Here is where I had a problem with the stupendous Smaug
how hard could it be to take down a small group of dwarves that have no useful weapons, don't get me wrong it was an awesome scene but Smaug has:
a tail
fire
claws
a powerful jaw and a huge body
what was so hard! Obviously I am rooting for the heroes but Smaug didn't even try, there were perfect opportunities to squash, burn and eat the intruders... Why did he not go for them or succeed he's a big ass dragon how could you fail. That was a tad annoying but again it was an amazing scene that everyone had been waiting for, I enjoyed it even though they kept cutting to Gandalf which in itself was interesting because he encounters Sauron and the way they do it is very cool plus its a key scene that sets up the lord of the rings however I want to see Smaug, sorry Gandalf but I've been waiting a year to see him.
The cast were good, I'm a big fan of Martin Freeman so it was great to see him in action again, I love Ian Mckellen so again it was great to see him wear the beard and hat again. There were a few new characters that were developed throughout the film like Bard played by Luke Evans and he was really interesting, he's not your average person there are a few mysteries about him which slowly unravel so its safe to saw he will have a large part in the epic conclusion. I wont dwell on Legolas and Tauriel but again they were brilliant, I don't know why they were written in however I'm very glad they did and its great to see a familiar face especially against Gimli's father, that was quite fun to see. Like most of the Orc's they are barbaric and evil but they are awesome, a lot of them were CGI this time which was a shame because the Lord of the rings executed the Orcs perfectly with just make up however they still looked great especially with their Wargs, I'm a big fan of the Wargs! I really like Azog and his son they are both very cool, dangerous and visually brilliant, we didn't see Azog fight in this but I'm hoping they save that for the finale in a final duel between Okenshield and Azog they certainly have unfinished business.
I'm not quite sure why they made this into 3 films I guess there is a lot to fit in but... the ending will definitely annoy you!
overall the film was great, a big improvement on the first instalment I think and its got me ready for the final part. I saw a few issues here and there which i noticed but nothing to cry about, I'm really happy this one involved less walking and more running supported by awesomeness because I really wanted this one to be exciting, fun and more enjoyable honestly my expectations were blown through the roof, I had my doubts and my concerns in my head but I was wrong about it. I give it a good 7.5/10 again the length of the films have always been an issue in my eyes however the cast is brilliant and the effects are flawless. I'm now very excited for the conclusion that will fly into our cinemas next Christmas.
thanks for reading, hope you have all enjoyed your Christmas holiday and new year! Then its back to college on Monday... Woo...hoo
I hope you enjoyed!
until next time :)
No comments:
Post a Comment