Hehehe. I
literally squeaked when I saw this on the in-flight entertainment on the way
back from Japan. I missed this one. I don’t know how it happen – well I do. I
wanted to see it in 3D or IMAX. One wants to save up, make it an occasion, go
with friends. But as it often happens when you try and “overcomplicate” things
I just couldn’t organise it somehow – and then, as it were, it was gone. So now that we have given in and watched the film on a tiny in-flight entertainment screen, what can we say about the second half of our unexpected adventure?
Well, our
party has crossed the Misty Mountains, but that is by no means the end of their
troubles. They have to get through the infamous Mirkwood Forest to arrive at
the human settlement at Lake-town, all this in time for the one appointed day
where the secret door to Lonely Mountain can be discovered. And even then,
although it seems to be a simple matter of Bilbo fulfilling his contract, well,
it’s easier said than done. I mean, we’re talking about finding a single
magical stone in an unimaginably large hoard of treasure, without waking out a
sleeping, terrible dragon. And all of
this would have been a good deal simpler if Gandalf had actually stayed with
them but he has… Gone off somewhere… Yeah, actually, what’s with that?
So if
you’re a fan, you know exactly where we are in the story – isn’t it getting
exciting! This chapter of course introduces us to Legolas. And on a side-note I
had completely forgotten how much of a proverbial “badass” Legolas was.
Watching him and Tauriel fight was definitely one of the highlights of the film
for me. I know , I know, I moan a lot about special effects and the excessive
usage thereof, but come on. We are watching this film so we can be transported
to a magical world of elves, dwarves and hobbits. Movie magic literally goes
without saying. And come on – most if not all of us rather likes the elves. (Oh
yes we do. )And I (still) have nothing but praise for the magical world Peter
Jackson has created for The Hobbit. It is not quite the same reaction I had to
the Harry Potter films. For those, bizarrely a large part of the characters and
settings looked almost as if they had been plucked directly from the inside of
my head (the one notable exception being Lupin – he was so unlike what I had
imagined it actually upset me and made it hard to concentrate on the film for a
short while, but that’s a completely different story). But this world is so
beautiful, so organic and so sensitively created that even if I (probably)
didn’t quite see it like that myself I literally can’t imagine it being any
other way. Just open the door and step right in.
Acting-wise,
of course everyone is on point. I find it hard to imagine Sir Ian McKellan as
anyone OTHER than Gandalf and Martin Freeman is the perfect everyman trying
desperately to keep up with the otherworldly madness going on around him. There
is a certain “Britishness” to his acting that I think really “makes” Bilbo. Not
least, it mustn’t be forgotten, because Tolkein himself was British – so surely
that fits? And of course we have a few new additions to the “family”. The most
talked about was, without a doubt, Smaug, voiced over by Benedict Cumberbach.
Firstly, I genuinely wouldn’t have known it was him if the fact hadn’t been
bandied all over the known world for months. Ok that sentence looks weird but
you know what I mean. It doesn’t sound like him. And bizarrely it sounds just
as absolutely terrifying as a talking dragon should. And, all humans out there
(ehm) we finally have someone representing us too! Yay! We finally get to meet Bard
(Luke Evans) face to face and we even have an appearance from Stephen Fry as
the rather oily master of Lake-town. So basically what we get is a wonderful
magical world reconstructed lovingly by Peter Jackson, with a goodly dollop of
Britishness and British humour injected in. That’s basically my idea of
perfection in so many different ways.
But the
thing about a film like The Hobbit is that it is one of the best
representatives of a very specific genre. If you like fantasy (you probably
couldn’t tell, but I do) you’ll love this. If you don’t, you’ll steer well
clear and honestly feel as if you haven’t missed a thing. I don’t blame you. I
mean, I don’t understand where you’re coming from at all, but I don’t blame
you. It takes all sorts to make a world. I just need a sojourn or two in
different worlds from time to time that’s all.
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