The Desolation Of Smaug - I’ve Finally Seen It!

Unfortunately I was unable to go see this earlier in the month as more pressing concerns took precedence (work, Xmas pressies and moving house). So with a little sweet talking we managed to convince my mother in law to supervise the offspring whilst SWMBO and myself went for a quick adventure into the city. 

On arrival we purchased two tickets for the 1pm 2D showing (3D doesn’t agree with SWMBO) and filtered into the large darkened room. The reel started rolling and after 30 minutes for adverts (the tickets were £9 each, why do they need so many adverts?) the familiar music started.

So what did I think? I'm sure many of you have seen it by now, in fact lets be honest I really don’t think anyone reading this blog will be unfamiliar with the story so I won’t be giving anything away if I repeat any of the story. This picks up from where the last film finished, in fact it pretty much carries on immediately with the story. I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it, the imagery was awesome, the pace was spot on, the acting was….err…… not that great actually. Or am I doing a disservice to the actors when its probably not their fault. I think my main gripe is that there were many occasions where the actors looked like they were acting. I don’t want to know I'm watching a film and unfortunately I felt like I was all the way through. I wanted to be caught up in the tale and it simply wasn’t the case.

Martin Freeman didn't have many lines this time and as such seemed to be reacting to everyone else, there were quite a few obvious pauses after a line was delivered where there was no dialogue. A few of the dwarves had lines that were clunky and badly delivered, they looked like there were acting. Now this sounds like I'm picking at technicalities however after four forays into the lands of Middle Earth where I have been dragged in as soon as the movies started I'm sad to say that I felt like I was on the outside on this one. Now don’t get me wrong I enjoyed the film, I’ll be getting the DVD and watch it through many times, it may even grow on me however that first experience was not the one I wanted.

I also felt that the inclusion of Legolas was a little bit forced, much like the first Hobbit film using Elijah Wood and Ian Holm, it is noticeable that Orlando Bloom has aged. I did like the interplay with Legolas and Thranduil and I was concerned that the creation of Tauriel would feel wrong however I liked her character, she seemed natural.

On a positive note the film does not let up, the pace is constant with many action scenes and it seems that this time seeing it in 2D does not mean you miss out on the panorama shots that would look better in 3D HFR.

So all in all a good experience, a few niggles but overall I’m happy. Middle parts of a trilogy are always problematic, they don’t often seem like stories in their own right. The Two Towers works on its own, this struggles a little however I shall see it again and may change my mind.