The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug Movie Review - More Action!

After waiting for one year, continuing the fantasy fiction story The Hobbit by JR Tolkien which was filmed into a trilogy, right at the end of 2013 the second part of the trilogy was finally released on the big screen.

In The Hobbit: Unexpected Journey, we are told about Bilbo Baggins' meeting with Gandalf The Gray and the dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield and how Bilbo got to have The One Ring which is Sauron's ring. And of course the story will continue in this second film through The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug.

After escaping from the Orcs' pursuit, Bilbo and the dwarves continued on their way to Erebor. Trouble after problem haunts their journey starting when they enter the Mirkwood Forest which is a shortcut to Erebor, meeting the fairies, Legolas, Tauriel, and Thranduil the king of the fairies, as well as the orcs back and still chasing their tracks along the way. Will these dwarves and Bilbo succeed in achieving their goal — Erebor — and finding a way to be able to reclaim the dwarves' kingdom from the power of the terrible dragon Smaug?

Offer More Action!
Maybe there are some of you who think the first part of The Hobbit trilogy seems boring and too wordy. But not for The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug.

Still offering beautiful visualization and CG quality and supported by impressive filming locations, The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug presents a variety of conflicts supported by fighting action and scuffles, especially with Orcs who have more proportions compared to the first film. . This time, even though the role of the elves is dominated by Legolas and Tauriel, the battle scenes presented are still packaged in an interesting, entertaining way to make you hold your breath while watching it.

Unfortunately, this larger portion of the battle scene must be balanced with the smaller portion of the dialogue, the introduction of characters that tend to be perfunctory and unbalanced with one another, as well as an up and down plot. If you didn't read the original book or at least followed the first film of The Hobbit trilogy, you will likely run into confusion about what happened before because of the lack of depth in these three aspects in the film. Even so, the storyline and the interactions of the characters on offer are still able to make curiosity about what will happen next.

The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug film offers what has not been presented in the first film and the results can be said to satisfy the desires of those who have been waiting for the film adaptation of JR Tolkien's work. If you intend to watch this one film, be sure to watch it in 3D or IMAX format to enjoy the excitement that is present in The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug to the fullest!

Why is The Hobbit Movie Quality Lower than LOTR?

The title above was inspired by a conversation I just saw on the FB timeline between a friend and friend discussing the film The Hobbit . My FB friends asked me what made The Hobbit film of lower quality than LOTR even though they both made many changes, additions and subtractions so that they experienced differences with the book version. My friend's answer? “The point is fan fiction . If it stands alone it is fine, but if it is considered as an adaptation of a book, it will be destroyed. " 

I know what he means. Explaining at length must be tired. The reason is, although it can still give a similar nuance to LOTR, audiences around the world seem to agree on one thing: even for movie lovers, LOTR is far above The Hobbit's quality . If we want to be kind, we might argue that The Hobbit's quality is lowis because of the audience's high expectations because they have experienced extraordinary cinematic experiences with the LOTR trilogy. But if that's all, I don't think I can explain why I yawned several times while watching the three films, it's really different from when I watched the LOTR trilogy (even though I got excited because Peter Jackson killed Haldir. Until now, I am still more able to decipher it. tears watching Haldir slashed from behind in Helm's Deep instead of GoT's Red Wedding scene ). Even Legolas, whose appearance I always look forward to on LOTR, made me pat my forehead several times in The Hobbit, especially when he saw him transform into Mario Bros. and float up the collapsed rocks while spitting physics right in front of him (when I looked at the scene, I made my own sound effects: "tuing" "tuing" "tuing" every time he jumped).

Here are some reasons that I can collect, reading results from various sources:

Peter Jackson's level of commitment is much different

If you look at the various behind-the-scenes articles and videos on LOTR, you will see the incredible level of commitment that Peter Jackson demonstrated in his project. At LOTR, Peter Jackson takes a great commitment to detail, including commissioning people to make wigs and chain mails by hand, designing different armor details for orcs of different "ranks", and applying as many camera effects as possible. and the practical effect instead of CGI (the scene of Gandalf talking to Frodo, for example, is done using a trick of perspective and tricked property that makes Gandalf appear much superior to Frodo).

The result? Amazing, it is, but it is a giant, grueling project, and it's understandable that Peter Jackson wanted to take a break from working on such a film. He even refused when he was offered to work on this film, and when he finally accepted, he himself admitted that making The Hobbit was a tiring process, as Jackson and several actors revealed in the appendix interview and bonus feature on the DVD version of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Extended Blue Ray:

“For a long time I thought that going back to the amazing experience of Lord of the Rings would be a good idea. But, ultimately, I've come around, because films are stressful and hard to make… if somebody came up to me and said, 'You know, we can carry on pre-production for another six weeks,' I would just say, 'No, no, hell no, let's just start shooting.' ”- Peter Jackson

"I asked Peter Jackson if he was going to do The Hobbit and he said, 'No, I'm not interested in doing that.'" -Elijah Wood.

"[This movie] made me feel like I should stop acting." -Sir Ian McKellen

This tiring filmmaking process is also what likely makes the editing process less smooth (for those of you with sharp eyes, you may find that this film editing is still a bit rough in some parts). This low level of commitment also brings me to the second point….

Peter Jackson had no intention of directing The Hobbit

Peter Jackson, as I explained above, did not intend to work on The Hobbit anymore because he realized that the level of commitment required was very large and tiring. Jackson is only willing to be a producer. The Hobbit will actually be directed by Guillermo del Toro, who is already famous for his signature fantasy fiction film projects, such as Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy . Del Toro has even spent about two years preparing for this film, and just like Peter Jackson when working on LOTR, Del Toro also intends to use as many practical effects as possible.Instead of CGI, it creates detailed character, armor and costumes like Jackson did, plus pouring creative ideas and concepts that are relatively out of the box . For example, for Smaug, Del Toro imagined something with a head like this:

Unfortunately, New Line Cinema for some reason always procrastinated accepting the concept presented by Del Toro, so he decided to resign. New Line Cinema, who did not want to lose, appointed Peter Jackson to take over the task of directing the film. Because the money spent was too much, Jackson took the task. The reaction? Well, please go back to the first point.

Too much CGI = too smooth = not necessarily good

" The Hobbit mostly plays CGI" is a complaint that is often heard from those who are not satisfied with this film. Although CGI allows filmmakers to produce films with a "perfect" appearance, the perfection ends up being artificial. Maybe that is also why The Hobbit's advantage over LOTR is so unequal even though The Hobbit costs more because of its effect (although maybe we also have to consider various factors such as inflation, the popularity of films in markets outside America, as well as the slop marketing in the promotion of the film The Hobbit ).

Take Rivendell for example. Who among us was not blown away when we saw Rivendell for the first time on LOTR? Rivendell was created using miniatures, so that even though it is refined with CGI, we can still see the combined impression of real buildings and living paintings, if you want to say that. It made Rivendell very memorable; fantasy locations brought to the real world, seem magical but with a speck of realism that makes us forget that they are special effects. However, by comparison, you'll probably find that The Hobbit's Rivendell is "smoother," and that's not without reason. The Hobbit's special effects team deliberately got rid of the Rivendell miniatureand do most of the set in CGI. I don't know about you, but seeing Rivendell in The Hobbit didn't give off the same wow impression as seeing Rivendell on LOTR, and up until now though I've been re-watching the LOTR trilogy a lot. It feels too artificial.

And don't let me discuss the face of Legolas' brother. Indeed, Orlando Bloom was older when playing in The Hobbit than in LOTR when he was still cynical so that his face had to be changed, including with effects, but does it have to be too much like a Terminator cyborg?

And of course, I know fantasy fiction films with fantastic characters will make us see a lot of various stunts that can only be achieved with special effects, but that's not the case too:

So on the one hand, the use of effects allows filmmakers to provide us with a rich cinematic experience. On the other hand, the combination of excess effect, less tidy editing and more reckless work than its predecessor made The Hobbit draw criticism, including from Viggo Mortensen himself.

Source : https://parkview-modelhouse.com/