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Edited by Roose Bolton:
12/30/2013 10:50:29 PM
22
Desolation Of Smaug confessions.
So I finally got round to seeing the new Hobbit film today. And I have something to confess...
I preferred An Unexpected Journey. Yup, that's right. The first film was leagues ahead of Desolation. Here's why I didn't enjoy DoS that much:
-Poor pacing. I know everyone was pissed at the first film how they spent too much time in the Shire, but at least when they depart the movie picks up a bit. DoS was all over the place. Two and a half hours in and we finally see Smaug, the barrel scene was drawn out, the whole elaborate, complex plan to cover Smaug in, uh, gold? Yeah that was weird. It just was not properly paced at all.
-I did not care for Laketown/Esgaroth. I understand it was canonical, but it was so poorly done I didn't enjoy any of the scenes at all. The vibe was completely differing to the rest of the movie it was actually kind of jarring. It felt Georgian rather than Medieval. I didn't particularly care for Bard or his backstory either. He just felt complimentary.
-Legolas/Tauriel. I had no idea what Jackson/whoever was behind this idea was thinking. They aren't in the book, and in the movie they're just cheap rectifying plot devices for the characters. Oh, Orcs are on our tail? Legolas will eliminate them like some hyper lethal super soldier. Kili's dying? No worries, Tauriel's here to save the day. They were unnecessary, excess characters that didn't enhance the movie at all.
-Thorin's still a dick. We get it. He was pissed at losing his home. I understand that he's going to be a little grouchy. But I thought we had gotten over this in the first film after Bilbo saved him. Nothing's changed in the sequel. I thought he was going to be the Dwarf iteration of Aragorn but it turns out he's just the jock of Erebor. Nothing is likeable about him at all. "lol f*ck Bilbo even though he saved my ass" "muh jewel" "muh army"
I still enjoyed it as a popcorn flick, but I expected better. Especially after JeremyJahns hyped it up to be the immaculate bloody conception.
TL;DR: Unexpected Journey was IMO, better than Desolation Of Smaug.
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Thorin seemed like he was corrupted by his "need" for the arkenstone very much like bilbo is with the ring. Not sure if that's how it is in the book, but i don't think this is still a case of thorin not accepting bilbo. He clearly very much has. for instance, he even praised him once or twice and generally seemed glad he was around. When it came to the arkenstone, he very much changed for pretty much one scene but was then immediately back to his old self when smaug attacked. I've a feeling we'll see more of this side of him in the third film, but what you have described him as just isn't the case as I see it. As for the rest of the film, it had some problems, but I very much enjoyed it overall. and hey, considering their options, attempting to drown smaug in molten gold probably wasn't the worst idea, and it's not like they could choose what metal was in the furnace before they got there, they used what they could.
