“Great” Scott’s Pretty Darned Great The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Review…of Greatness

“Great” Scott’s Pretty Darned Great The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Review…of Greatness

Title

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

IMDB Page

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1170358/?ref_=nv_sr_1

One-Sentence Summary

Reluctant hero Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) continues to lead a band of dwarves to reclaim their mountain home from Smaug, the dragon (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch).

What’s Great About It

This movie was just fun to watch.  The “barrels” scene (I won’t ruin it by saying more for the uninitiated.) was a high point. While this movie isn’t going to win any awards for great acting, it has enough of everything to keep a non-Tolkien reader interested and entertained.

What’s Not-So-Great About It

You definitely need to see the first Hobbit movie to get into this one, and you better be ready for two more if you commit to this one.  Also, most of the dwarf characters are pretty interchangeable.  There are a few that stand out, but not so much that I didn’t call them anything more than “the tall one,” “the old one,” or “the fat one.”  I’m sure Tolkien purists are picking up their prop Elven swords to come find me after a comment like that.  Finally, if you’re not a dragons/elves/dwarves movie type of person, this movie won’t convert you.

Rating

GGGg (3.5 Gs)

Explanation

I will start this explanation by saying that I haven’t read any of the Tolkien books.  I am, however, a fan of RPG video games of the knights-and-dragons persuasion, so I’m about in the middle of the field on these types of movies.  I reluctantly went to see the first Lord of the Rings movie and enjoyed it, loved the second one, and liked the third one until the ninth different ending…it just seemed like it ended nine different times.

Anyway, I can honestly say I enjoyed this movie.  Martin Freeman plays Bilbo Baggins as the skilled, but reluctant hero, really well, even though the movie loses focus from him from time to time.  Richard Armitage plays the leader (and next in line to be king) of the dwarves, Thorin Oakenshield and does a good job as portraying him as a guy walking the line between trying to do what’s best for himself and his men and what’s the best for the dwarves, in general.  He’s trying to reclaim the dwarves’ mountain home, which unfortunately, has been claimed by a squatter in the form of a fire-breathing dragon named Smaug.  Not only is Smaug gigantic and dangerous, he seems better educated than 90 percent of the general population…dragons must have good schools.  Obviously, the dwarves meet all kinds of trouble on the way from point A to point B, getting help from Gandalf the wizard, a guy who can turn into a bear, Orlando Bloom (sorta’), a guy named Bard who’s not a bard, a female elf who’s apparently not really in the books (which is pissing off some Tolkien fans), and a shifty town leader who seems like he’s not a very nice guy.  Most of these characters are played well enough not to be distracting…but this movie’s not looking to create any Oscar winners. 

The movie is fun, relatively well-paced (if not a little long), has some great (and a bit over-the-top ridiculous) action sequences, and is absolutely gorgeous to look at.  I’ve been known to pick apart movies from time to time, but this is the type of movie I just see to enjoy. 

Overall, this is the type of movie that most people either want to see or they don’t.  If you’re in the minority that’s on the fence, make sure you see the first movie in this new trilogy-plus-one, and then give this movie a shot if you like the first one.  It’s pretty entertaining and a fun ride.