Hobbit II - The Desolation of Smaug

[wiseheart]

I've just seen the second film. I'm planning to write a longer review over at edhellondawards, so only a few impressions for now.

Spoliers behind the cut, just in case.

1. NOT ENOUGH BILBO
2. Not enough Thorin, either.
3. No character development re: individual Dwarves
4. Too many sodding Orcs - what were they doing in these films anyway?
5. Too much gratutious fighting, just for fighting's sake.
6. Too many stupid Elven stunts.
7. Too much Legolas - the film could have done without him much better. He's still the cardboard caricature he was in the LOTR trilogy.
8. BLOODY FABULOUS DRAGON! I know male CGI geeks are whining all over the internet about the dragon being not convincing enough - well, too bad for them. I loved it!
9. Brand and the stupid arrow catapult. Somebody shoot me with it, please!
10. Against my expectations, I actually liked Thranduil. His crown and his dressing grown with the floral(???) pattern (yes, I know it was meant to be a robe, but it did look like a woman's dressing gown) were stupid, but the actor did a very decent job.
11. Thranduil's caves looked idiotic.
12. The Dwarves successfully destroyed Erebor from within - I won't say anything else about the whole idiotic plot twist concerning it.
13. Gandalf in a bird cage? Since when were he and Sauron indulging in BDSM practices?
14. The tombs of the Ringwrights? WTF, the whole trick with them was the not dying part... sort of.
15. Elf/Dwarf/Elf love triangle. Bleh.
16. KICK-ASS TAURIEL, though. Loved her.
17. BEORN. Sort of liked him, too. His halls were poorly done, though.
18. Laketown. Hated it. I know it's fanfiction, but not my interpretation. I prefer my Lakemen decent, save for the Master.

All in all, I'm perhaps the only one who liked the first film better. That, at least had a fleeting likeness to the book that I've loved for the better part of my life.

Comments

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

I meant to write a post after seeing it, but never got that far, so here are some random thoughts.

The first one was much better. There were a few bits of the 2nd on I liked (Bard's daughters hiding under the table while everyone was fighting - so sensible), but mostly it was a disappointment.

The whole kill Smaug with molten gold seemed to be totally stupid, and just an excuse for more silliness. Evil Thranduil and the whole Legolas/Tauriel stuff just seemed totally off.

The whole timeline being compressed like crazy did not work for me. It makes ME feel far too small - everywhere is on top of everywhere else.

The ice on the lake was wrong and laketown seemed far too low to the water. Totally agree about disappointment at everyone there being evil/corrupt.

And mostly it felt far too long - too many repetitive action sequences, too many orcs, too many plot holes.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Tolkien based Laketown on archaeological founds - apparently, settlements built on wooden pillars in the middle of the water did exist once. And he did his research without the internet and all the resources people have today. PJ should have followed suit.

As someone said on the Axe&Bow list, the whole gold statue thing was utterly ridiculous, but gilded!Smaug looked very pretty. *g*