Iowaboy
Lindon
Dec 15 2012, 4:49pm
Views: 420
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The technical: I was in a high-res theater, and the look of much of the film is nothing short of disaster, when it comes to the CGI. I wish I could be more positive about it, but that's an honest opinion, Azog looks awful, compared to my remembrance of the 'real' orcs we saw in TTT, for example. Other CGI scenes just can't hold up to the scrutiny that 48fps puts them through: Goblin-town, the trolls, the Radagast chase, and so on all lookrd very video-gamey to me. My advice: see this film in 2D at 24fps (3D 24 fps apparently is difficult to watch). The costume design, set design,and all other technical aspects were PJ's usual strength.
The narrative: a mixed bag here. The dwarves were much more interesting and involving to me than I expected, especially Thorin. Kudos for his storyline! I did not miss Bilbo's pre-adventure life at all--I think you get an idea of what it was like from his reactions during the party. I enjoyed Radagast and his story, but thought Azog uttertly unneeded as an antagonist--this felt terribly forced to me, especially since we had the SAME character in FOTR in Lurtz. Really a bad decision to have Azog survive the first film. I liked the nostalgia of Frodo and the White Council--perfectly fine choices to me. But I truly disliked Bilbo's charge at Azog--again, it felt forced, whereas Thorin charging Azog seemed perfectly in line with his character. So why not have Thorin kill Azog at that point? Why have him get knocked out and saved by Bilbo? Really, Martin Freeman's nice 'home' speech should've been the climax of Bilbo's character development, since that was such a nice moment. Why undercut that with the (forced) Hobbit hug, with the Dwarves behind them practically 'high-fiving' each other? Shades of the 'multiple endings' of ROTK.
But PJ will be PJ, and there were some horrendously overlong action sequences--the Stone Giants should've just been cut entirely, no need for it in any way, plus the concept is rather ridiculous (felt like a TRANSFORMERS movie), based on a passage in THE HOBBIT that I do not believe is meant to be taken literally. The Radagast chase and Goblin Town sequences were also way, way too long (rememeber the Brontosaurus chase from KONG?). PJ is at his best in the intimate quiet moments--Gollum and Bilbo, for example, and the ending with the thrush and Smaug--and that holds in this film as well. Some of the sequences felt recycled from LOTR--the way Thorin charges Azog, the company running across suspiciously TTT-like terrain--not helped by the continual recycling of Shore's musical cues (I liked the first few times they used those cues, but after a while that got a bit tiresome).
In sum, this felt like an Extended Version with some flab in it, and some unfortunate technical flaws. If PJ had made it more lean, and used less CGI, it might've been a classic like FOTR. Instead, it is, as I like to say: "good but not great." Still, I plan on seeing it again--it may improve on further viewing.
(This post was edited by Iowaboy on Dec 15 2012, 4:55pm)
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