The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug directed by Peter Jackson Genres: Epic Fantasy Format: Cinema release Starring: Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Ian McKellan Length: 2 hours 49 minutes The Desolation of Smaug is the second in Peter Jackson’s trilogy based on J.R.R Tolkien’s The Hobbit and stars Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage and Ian McKellen and continues the story of our party of dwarves accompanied by Bilbo the titular hobbit and Gandalf. It follows them through Mirkwood and their encounter with Thranduil’s woodland elves and finally to the goal of their quest, the Lonely Mountain. However, they still have a lot of work to do before they can reclaim their homeland and all the gold it contains. Check back at a theatre near you Christmas 2014 to find out what happens. There are spoilers here so please check back after the cut
This afternoon I saw The Hobbit and it’s really been bugging the heck out of me why Peter Jackson is padding out The Hobbit so much with the additional material. The whole Hobbit narrative – Bilbo’s adventure There and Back Again, which is a sweet adventure tale in which the threats Bilbo faces are mainly physical (goblins, orcs, spiders all try to kill and/or eat him) and how his character develops – really jarred for me with the whole Necromancer, Morgul blade metaphysical menace. But now I think I get it. Peter Jackson isn’t making another trilogy. He’s doing the next three movies in a six-movie set, which just happen to be set before the original Lord of the Rings trilogy. It appears he is aiming for a cohesive narrative throughout the three Hobbit movies and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I will reserve judgement until the last movie to say if he is any more successful than George Lucas with his dreadful prequels to the Star Wars movies. Just please no more 10 minute chase scenes of Radagast the Brown in a sled pulled by freaking BUNNIES!!! Aarrgh. One thing that did really detract from the movie was…
What a surprise; Peter Jackson announced today on his Facebook page that The Hobbit movie is officially being split into three parts rather than the two previously announced. Now, I adored Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, and am very much looking forward to The Hobbit. He commented at ComiCon that these are movies made by fans for fans, and it’s clear to see that this is the case. Given the relative lengths of the books The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, I have some concerns that to stretch The Hobbit to three movies there may be a lot of filler required and that the decision to switch from two two three is primarily financially based. On the other hand, I have tremendous faith in Peter Jackson and his team, and trust him when he says that he will be expanding The Hobbit universe to include material from other works of Tolkien as well as new material. I have been impressed in the trailer that they have managed to give each of the thirteen dwarves a unique look and personality. That is something that I’m sure extending the film will only help. I understand that some of the…