The Hobbit, the Desolation of Smaug
Dec. 23rd, 2013 02:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shapinglightNo one much is about, but I went to see this last night, so some brief thoughts behind cut.
For those of you who loved it, btw, I didn't. Just in case you don't want your squee spoiled.
Spoilers
Weird. Last year, most of my flist seemed agreed that the first Hobbit movie was bad, whereas when I went to see it, I enjoyed it a lot. Okay, the story was padded out from the book, but the padding was all stuff that was going on elsewhere at the time of the story (for which see the chronology in the LotR appendices). It was a shock to me, therefore, to watch the extended version of the first movie on DVD the other week, and encounter some of the original material stuck in the film, mostly (IMO) for no reason. I didn't see that most of it was necessary, and some of it I found quite cringeworthy.
Well, there are large chunks of original material in the second movie, (which had much better reviews, so I was expecting to like more, not less) pretty much all of which I disliked and thought unnecessary. The only chunk of such material I did like was the extended fight between the dwarves and Smaug inside the Lonely Mountain. I could see the reason for it (Thorin needed some payback, plus it was more dramatic). Even so, that came so late in the film that I'd had enough by then and when they faded to black, all I could think was, "Oh, thank f**k!"
As for the stuff I didn't like - it pretty much all revolved around Legolas and this bloody Mrs Perfect Mary Sue elf woman. Okay, I get that there's a gender imbalance in the story (to put it mildly), but, IMO, that is not redressed by inventing one uber-awesome female character, who is good at everything (beautiful, clever, can go all glow-y when required, and such an ace elf warrior that she's captain of the king's guard, etc, etc) and having random people be in love with her. Therefore, I hated the (not in the book) Fili has to be left in Laketown just so Mrs Perfect can do her elf-y mojo on him sub-plot. Nor did I like the random orc fights breaking out all over the place, or the way the barrel ride down the river looked like a computer game. Or the surfeit of Legolas (and is it just me, or is Orlando Bloom looking sort of...chubby?).
Annoying Mrs Perfect and too much Legolas apart, though, the elves didn't annoy me nearly as much as usual in this film - mainly because King Thranduil was a complete git, and quite camp. Since elves are usually not allowed to be much less than perfect I appreciated that no end. He was great. More of him, please, plus a back story for that elk he rides around on. IMO Thranduil's such a git the elk probably only tolerates him because he's holding its children hostage.
The extra Gandalf stuff I didn't mind. That was in the chronology. And I don't really mind the stuff that was changed in Laketown (great set, I thought, loved all the ice on the lake), except for Bard's children, who looked like they'd escaped from a Heidi film. I'd like them to have been scruffier.
So anyway, I feel they rushed over stuff I'd like to have seen a bit more of (the journey through Mirkwood, for instance), in order to ram Mrs Perfect Elf Lady down our throats, and that made me grumpy. Not to mention, all the original dialogue written for the scenes she was in was teeth-grittingly bad.
I honestly can't imagine how this film could be padded out even more than it was. Surely there can't be a director's cut, can there?
Anyway, nice dragon, shame about the Mary Sue.
For those of you who loved it, btw, I didn't. Just in case you don't want your squee spoiled.
Spoilers
Weird. Last year, most of my flist seemed agreed that the first Hobbit movie was bad, whereas when I went to see it, I enjoyed it a lot. Okay, the story was padded out from the book, but the padding was all stuff that was going on elsewhere at the time of the story (for which see the chronology in the LotR appendices). It was a shock to me, therefore, to watch the extended version of the first movie on DVD the other week, and encounter some of the original material stuck in the film, mostly (IMO) for no reason. I didn't see that most of it was necessary, and some of it I found quite cringeworthy.
Well, there are large chunks of original material in the second movie, (which had much better reviews, so I was expecting to like more, not less) pretty much all of which I disliked and thought unnecessary. The only chunk of such material I did like was the extended fight between the dwarves and Smaug inside the Lonely Mountain. I could see the reason for it (Thorin needed some payback, plus it was more dramatic). Even so, that came so late in the film that I'd had enough by then and when they faded to black, all I could think was, "Oh, thank f**k!"
As for the stuff I didn't like - it pretty much all revolved around Legolas and this bloody Mrs Perfect Mary Sue elf woman. Okay, I get that there's a gender imbalance in the story (to put it mildly), but, IMO, that is not redressed by inventing one uber-awesome female character, who is good at everything (beautiful, clever, can go all glow-y when required, and such an ace elf warrior that she's captain of the king's guard, etc, etc) and having random people be in love with her. Therefore, I hated the (not in the book) Fili has to be left in Laketown just so Mrs Perfect can do her elf-y mojo on him sub-plot. Nor did I like the random orc fights breaking out all over the place, or the way the barrel ride down the river looked like a computer game. Or the surfeit of Legolas (and is it just me, or is Orlando Bloom looking sort of...chubby?).
Annoying Mrs Perfect and too much Legolas apart, though, the elves didn't annoy me nearly as much as usual in this film - mainly because King Thranduil was a complete git, and quite camp. Since elves are usually not allowed to be much less than perfect I appreciated that no end. He was great. More of him, please, plus a back story for that elk he rides around on. IMO Thranduil's such a git the elk probably only tolerates him because he's holding its children hostage.
The extra Gandalf stuff I didn't mind. That was in the chronology. And I don't really mind the stuff that was changed in Laketown (great set, I thought, loved all the ice on the lake), except for Bard's children, who looked like they'd escaped from a Heidi film. I'd like them to have been scruffier.
So anyway, I feel they rushed over stuff I'd like to have seen a bit more of (the journey through Mirkwood, for instance), in order to ram Mrs Perfect Elf Lady down our throats, and that made me grumpy. Not to mention, all the original dialogue written for the scenes she was in was teeth-grittingly bad.
I honestly can't imagine how this film could be padded out even more than it was. Surely there can't be a director's cut, can there?
Anyway, nice dragon, shame about the Mary Sue.