I hate to
have to compare Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit” films to the Star Wars prequels,
but it can’t be helped when they have so much in common like an overabundance
of CGI, relatively flat characters, and terrible scripts. That and the fact that the Hobbit films are
in fact prequels to the superior “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.
“The Hobbit:
The Desolation of Smaug” the second of three films following the adventures of
Bilbo Baggins, the wizard Gandalf and a company of dwarves continue on their
journey to Erebor where they must enter the Lonely Mountain in an attempt to destroy
the dragon Smaug and return the dwarf king Thorin to his former glory.
Their path
takes them though Mirkwood where they encounter wood elves and a familiar face
in Orlando Bloom, reprising his role as Legolas, the filmmakers did their best
to make him look the same as he did over ten years ago, and they did for the
most part. Along with Legolas we meet
the character created for the screen and who is not in the books the elf
Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) who somehow has a star-crossed romance brewing with
one of the dwarves. In case you miss it,
they actually have a conversation about stars.
So far her addition to the film version seems to only serve the purpose
of a love triangle between her Legolas and Kili (Aidan Turner). While on their quest through the woods, Gandalf
is separated from them and is looking for a greater evil that is slowly growing
in power.
When the
star or the film’s title appears in the best CG rendering of a dragon that has ever been on screen, the beauty of the
look of Smaug is slightly off set by the fact that he talks about as much as a James
Bond villain. Constantly threatening and
explaining his plans before he decides to carry them out. There is a decent action scene between Smaug
and our band of heroes, and that leads to the positive portions of the
film. The pacing is a step up from the
first installment, and the action scenes are entertaining but border on the absurd
as when the dwarves escape an army of Orcs down a river in barrels. The other encouraging moments all involve the
character of Bard (Luke Evans) who is a man from Laketown which would be the
first town to be destroyed if Smaug is awaken.
If Lilly’s character is supposed to fill the Liv Tyler-Arwen role from
the Lord of the Rings films, then Evans is clearly meant to mirror Viggo
Mortensen’s-Aragon character in this series as he has something to fight for
and a destiny that needs to be fulfilled.
Again there
is much that have improved on this second installment of Hobbit films, and it
looks as though we will get all the pay offs and a huge battle or three in the
next and last film in this trilogy.
However the script and editing problems of this film just scream out “Hey,
you only need to wait six months to see a better version of me on Blu-Ray, but
I’ll take your money now!”
--Robert L.
Castillo
No comments:
Post a Comment