The Desolation of Smaug
I saw The Hobbit Part 2 (The Desolation of Smaug) yesterday. Some thoughts by way of a review...
Just a note to start with to say that I very very much enjoyed it, so while som of these comments are about divergences from the book, don't take that as a sign that I don't love it :)
1) Peter Jackson returns as carrot-crunching guy from Bree :)
2) Loved Thorin and Gandalf scene at the beginning.
And now, in no particular order...
3) Weirdly, for a film series that is doing a lot to expand on an original novel, they left out rather a lot that happens in the book and/or changed hw particular events happened!
4) Dwarf characterisation was patchy. Kili, (especially) Fili, Bofur, Bombur, Gloin, Balin and Dwalin made an impression, but the others barely had a line or any real screentime. Except for Thorin, obviously!
5) Still hopelessly in love with Thorin!
6) I always had a bit of a crush on Beorn in the book, but I wasn’t feeling that here. Still, I liked him. He was never going to hurt the mouse, I don’t know why they played that for suspense!
7) I do wish they hadn’t changed the meeting with Beorn though. I’m rather fond of Gandalf’s dodgy plan in the book to introduce them two at a time to Beorn and hope he doesn’t notice the total number of dwarves rising :) Also a shame that we go straight into the dwarves being pursued by orcs again (which necessitates running into Beorn’s place suddenly), when we don’t get to see how they got from the eagles’ dropping-off station to there. And also, in my head Beorn’s place is much much bigger.
8) I liked Stephen Fry as the Master of Laketown, but it was occasionally jarring because he just seems so familiar as Stephen Fry :)
9) Legolas was in it more than I thought he would be. Nice to see him again. I liked his fight against Bolg especially.
10) I actually thought Tauriel was fine - quite a convincing inserted character for the most part.
11) But I’m not sure about the potential for elf-on-dwarf action...
12) ... but then again my self-insert she-elf character would be happy to make a play for Thorin :)
13) I like Thranduil - he’s pleasantly haughty and aloof. Just how he should be, I think.
14) Where did those orcs get that morgul blade from then? I got the impression from LOTR that they were rare. But nice reference to athelas.
15) They managed to make Mirkwood look really really small. How did they manage that? I suppose (hope) some of what’s missing will make it to the extended version. But really, they were only running around for a couple of minutes and then the spider thing happened so quickly and then they were in Thranduil’s realm, and then the river and that was it. Surely the bit with Bombur drinking from the river was filmed but just never made it to the final cut? But the spider episode should show Bilbo being clever and giving the spiders the run around (and being the hero without elf intervention - the dwarves’ stand against the spiders is such a good scene in the book!). And it’s a shame that the elves don’t get to dance and sing and be merry and lead the dwarves away from their path.
16) But I loved the bit where Bilbo climbed the tree and looked out towards Erebor, even if it did come a bit too early in the narrative.
17) I like the way they developed Bard. I think they got him spot on. Well, to be fair, he’s hardly in the book, but giving him more of a role now works fine and will give him more context when he kills Smaug. And he’s pleasingly noble and good. A bit like Aragorn but less so - though I do hope he undergoes a bit of an Aragorn-like transformation in film 3.
18) They changed the bit where Bilbo finds the door into the mountain too. I don’t get why they changed that - they could have done the version from the book in the same amount of time and with only a slightly larger amount of rocky background. But I did love the little moment between Bilbo and Thorin and then Thorin’s entrance into the mountain.
19) They also made it so that the dwarves fight Smaug, whereas in the book they just go and play with the treasure after he’s left... OK, fair enough, I think Tolkien just got bored with action sequences and forgot to write that. Plus, giant gold statue was nice, and the look on Smaug’s face was priceless.
20) I had no idea they were going to end with a cliffhanger. I really thought Smaug would die at the end and that would be the big climax before the end of the film. I guess they’re saving it for film 3 then.
21) OK, those are my initial thoughts. It strikes me that since there were originally going to be two films rather than three, there should be an obvious giant climactic moment somewhere in the middle that was originally planned to be the end of the first film... I can’t think what it was though...
22) Wait, I forgot to say - not much happened at Dol Guldur, did it? I thought there would be big battle sequences, and that Gandalf would play the Galadriel card, and that others would get involved in the fight (including possibly Elrond, Saruman, Radagast and Beorn). With so little Dol Guldur action, why did Lego bring out two Dol Guldur sets (one of them the biggest set they’ve released this year)? Hmm, it’s a puzzle. Is something missing? It reminds me a bit of the rebranded ‘preview’ set they brought out last year (i.e. the Mirkwood spiders set, which presumably indicates that that episode was intended as part of the first film when it was envisioned as a two film set).
Just a note to start with to say that I very very much enjoyed it, so while som of these comments are about divergences from the book, don't take that as a sign that I don't love it :)
1) Peter Jackson returns as carrot-crunching guy from Bree :)
2) Loved Thorin and Gandalf scene at the beginning.
And now, in no particular order...
3) Weirdly, for a film series that is doing a lot to expand on an original novel, they left out rather a lot that happens in the book and/or changed hw particular events happened!
4) Dwarf characterisation was patchy. Kili, (especially) Fili, Bofur, Bombur, Gloin, Balin and Dwalin made an impression, but the others barely had a line or any real screentime. Except for Thorin, obviously!
5) Still hopelessly in love with Thorin!
6) I always had a bit of a crush on Beorn in the book, but I wasn’t feeling that here. Still, I liked him. He was never going to hurt the mouse, I don’t know why they played that for suspense!
7) I do wish they hadn’t changed the meeting with Beorn though. I’m rather fond of Gandalf’s dodgy plan in the book to introduce them two at a time to Beorn and hope he doesn’t notice the total number of dwarves rising :) Also a shame that we go straight into the dwarves being pursued by orcs again (which necessitates running into Beorn’s place suddenly), when we don’t get to see how they got from the eagles’ dropping-off station to there. And also, in my head Beorn’s place is much much bigger.
8) I liked Stephen Fry as the Master of Laketown, but it was occasionally jarring because he just seems so familiar as Stephen Fry :)
9) Legolas was in it more than I thought he would be. Nice to see him again. I liked his fight against Bolg especially.
10) I actually thought Tauriel was fine - quite a convincing inserted character for the most part.
11) But I’m not sure about the potential for elf-on-dwarf action...
12) ... but then again my self-insert she-elf character would be happy to make a play for Thorin :)
13) I like Thranduil - he’s pleasantly haughty and aloof. Just how he should be, I think.
14) Where did those orcs get that morgul blade from then? I got the impression from LOTR that they were rare. But nice reference to athelas.
15) They managed to make Mirkwood look really really small. How did they manage that? I suppose (hope) some of what’s missing will make it to the extended version. But really, they were only running around for a couple of minutes and then the spider thing happened so quickly and then they were in Thranduil’s realm, and then the river and that was it. Surely the bit with Bombur drinking from the river was filmed but just never made it to the final cut? But the spider episode should show Bilbo being clever and giving the spiders the run around (and being the hero without elf intervention - the dwarves’ stand against the spiders is such a good scene in the book!). And it’s a shame that the elves don’t get to dance and sing and be merry and lead the dwarves away from their path.
16) But I loved the bit where Bilbo climbed the tree and looked out towards Erebor, even if it did come a bit too early in the narrative.
17) I like the way they developed Bard. I think they got him spot on. Well, to be fair, he’s hardly in the book, but giving him more of a role now works fine and will give him more context when he kills Smaug. And he’s pleasingly noble and good. A bit like Aragorn but less so - though I do hope he undergoes a bit of an Aragorn-like transformation in film 3.
18) They changed the bit where Bilbo finds the door into the mountain too. I don’t get why they changed that - they could have done the version from the book in the same amount of time and with only a slightly larger amount of rocky background. But I did love the little moment between Bilbo and Thorin and then Thorin’s entrance into the mountain.
19) They also made it so that the dwarves fight Smaug, whereas in the book they just go and play with the treasure after he’s left... OK, fair enough, I think Tolkien just got bored with action sequences and forgot to write that. Plus, giant gold statue was nice, and the look on Smaug’s face was priceless.
20) I had no idea they were going to end with a cliffhanger. I really thought Smaug would die at the end and that would be the big climax before the end of the film. I guess they’re saving it for film 3 then.
21) OK, those are my initial thoughts. It strikes me that since there were originally going to be two films rather than three, there should be an obvious giant climactic moment somewhere in the middle that was originally planned to be the end of the first film... I can’t think what it was though...
22) Wait, I forgot to say - not much happened at Dol Guldur, did it? I thought there would be big battle sequences, and that Gandalf would play the Galadriel card, and that others would get involved in the fight (including possibly Elrond, Saruman, Radagast and Beorn). With so little Dol Guldur action, why did Lego bring out two Dol Guldur sets (one of them the biggest set they’ve released this year)? Hmm, it’s a puzzle. Is something missing? It reminds me a bit of the rebranded ‘preview’ set they brought out last year (i.e. the Mirkwood spiders set, which presumably indicates that that episode was intended as part of the first film when it was envisioned as a two film set).