(Spoilers)
“My Precious” – this was about the extent of my Lord of the Rings knowledge up until tonight. I will set the scene for you, I am not the biggest fan of fantasy films, of course there are some exceptions such as Stardust. I have never seen any of the films in this series before and to be honest I didn’t really have much desire to see them either. However tonight I thought I would give it a go as some of my mates were going along to see it and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. So a few of my mates gave me a quick synopsis of the first Hobbit movie, this set me up perfectly and then I was able to sit back, relax and take it all in!
I was surprised as to how much I enjoyed this film. Of course there were a lot of place names/names of people that I had no idea what they were in reference to however, despite this I was able to follow the plot very easily (my mates synopsis of the first helped this as well!). This film really did have everything you want in a blockbuster, great action sequences, fantastic characters and the right amount of humor. There were so many brilliant characters in this movie, the dwarfs, the elves and of course Bilbo himself! The interaction between all these characters was great and I really enjoyed so many of the scenes where they all came together.
My two favourite scenes had to be the fight against the spiders in the forest and the escape in the barrels. Both of these scenes had unreal action in them and also featured comedic elements, particularly the barrel scene – one part of this scene actually had me in tears of laughter! The combat in all the scenes was so so good! Between the elves with their bow and arrows and the more slapstick approach from the dwarfs you really did get the best of both worlds.
Now I have to make the point that this film is very long, when I thought that things were coming to an end it was probably more about somewhere in the middle of the film. I don’t think this is a problem however I think it would be useful for movie goers to know this before going in, make sure you are sitting comfortably because you will be sitting for a while. The end sequence features the dragon Smaug, voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch. At first it took me a bit of time to get past the whole idea of a talking dragon but after I was used to it I didn’t mind so much. However I think this whole sequence was maybe just a bit too long, and maybe some more time could have been devoted to other scenes in the movie instead, although the action here like the rest of the film is bezzer.
The film ends abruptly, as I had forgotten that this trilogy is based on one book! This of course just makes you want to know what is going to happen! I honestly can’t wait to see the next one! The fate of so many characters is hanging in the balance and that is most definitely one of The Hobbits strengths, it has so many likeable characters. I especially loved Bilbo, he is just such an unlikely hero and that was refreshing to see!
BIGGEST FLAW – Maybe just a bit, a tiny bit too long
BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT – There were a lot, but for me its Bilbo!
This really is the last thing I need though, being introduced to another movie franchise with many more movies to explore, the fact that I have just recently began the Star Wars series too means my movie watch list has just sky rocketed. However I am pretty certain that I have some quality viewing ahead of me! Go see Desolation of Smaug, even if you aren’t a fan of this type of films usually – I would be surprised if you didn’t like it!
Rating – 8.5/10
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