The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Movie Review

With 2012’s ‘’The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’’ Peter Jackson returned to Middle Earth to begin a prequel trilogy with mixed results. One year later and ‘’The Desolation of Smaug’’ has built a more solid effort into what is arguably Tolkien’s best known story.

After narrowly escaping the clutches of the ruthless Azog, the company of dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) and accompanied by Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) and Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen) continue their trek to the lonely mountain, having to contend with giant spiders, uncooperative elves, and of course Smaug himself. Like ‘’The Two Towers’’ before it ‘’TDOS’’ often splits the story, cutting between Bilbo and the dwarves on their journey and Gandalf’s personal mission to discover the full extent of Sauron’s return to power. However where ‘’Lord of the Rings’’ maintained a perfect balance between the stories of Aragorn and Frodo, ‘’The Desolation of Smaug’’ does become quite unbalanced in this regard, especially towards the end where Gandalf is pushed off to the side in favour of pitting the dwarves and Bilbo up against Smaug. But where the narrative becomes unbalanced the action sequences are boosted in entertainment factor and quantity; the tense escape from a spider nest and a fast-paced river run where elves, dwarves and orcs clash are highly enjoyable but it’s the multi-staged battle with Smaug in the depths of the lonely mountain that stakes it’s claim as the most exciting moment of the series so far. The pacing issues from ‘’An Unexpected Journey’’ have also been fixed with the movie proceeding along well, not dilly-dallying in one place for too long and ending at the right time, rather than thrusting the audience into another action scene like it’s predecessor did.

The casting and characters have also been upped for the sequel; in addition to developing further they also provide worthwhile links between ‘’The Hobbit’’ and ‘’Lord of the Rings’’ Freeman’s Bilbo Baggins has been downplayed a bit for a large majority of the film but you can clearly see that the One Ring is beginning to take hold of him. Gandalf, despite not having quite enough screen time discovers more than he can handle when up against Sauron and his army of Orcs. Legolas (Orlando Bloom) makes a welcome return, bringing more awesome stunt-work while also giving insight into the character before Lord of the Rings by being decisively more serious and less laid back. Even some of the dwarves are worth caring about this time as they go through many more desperate situations, causing their camaraderie and unique traits to shine through. Several new characters also make their mostly worthwhile debuts; Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) is a bit flat in terms of emotion but she nonetheless plays off Legolas very well in the action scenes. Bard (Luke Evans) is a loyal yet cautious human who is just as concerned for his own family and town as he is for the quest to reclaim the lonely mountain. Yet ironically the best new actor in the film is one who isn’t live action at all; Benedict Cumberbatch is perfectly cast as the dragon Smaug. His voice is deep, powerful and foreboding, ensuring that the audience always feels his presence. This, combined with his huge size makes him an unforgettable antagonist. New characters aside, when compared with LOTR in which just about every character had their own purpose and moment of glory there are unfortunately still some throwaway characters to be found here. Stephen Fry as the Master of Lake-Town and Ryan Gage as his servant are woefully underused but outside of these characters the main cast does a great job in the roles.

As with all of Jackson’s previous films set in Middle Earth the mountainous regions of New Zealand once again serve a perfect backdrop with stunning vistas to behold throughout the film. ‘’The Desolation of Smaug’’ carves out its own niche through a greater variety of environments that add to an already detailed lore; these include the eerie forest of Mirkwood, the city of Wood Elves and not to mention the silent and expansive caverns of Erebor. The action sequences are shot quite well with good framing, especially the battle with Smaug which makes use of long shots to create a brilliant sense of scale. On the other hand the music that plays in these sequences, while authentic to the fantasy genre can be a bit irregular at times, cutting out at random intervals. Despite these gripes the world of Middle Earth remains a spectacle and easily one of the best settings of the fantasy genre.

It still has some problems but ‘’The Desolation of Smaug’’ makes a marked improvement on the original, bringing more action, more drama and better pacing. I eagerly await the final chapter of the trilogy.

Rating: 4/5 Stars

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Movie Review

In 2011 Suzanne Collins’ wildly popular series of novels made its way onto the big screen with the original Hunger Games. Standing as one of the better film adaptations outside of Harry Potter, a sequel was inevitable; Catching Fire is more than a worthy successor, it’s a phenomenal sequel to what was already a solid film.

‘’Catching Fire’’, picking up from where ‘’The Hunger Games’’ left off continues the struggle between the twelve districts and the totalitarian capital government. Despite surviving the 74^th Hunger Games the struggles of Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) are far from over; the sinister President Snow (Donald Sutherland) along with his new cohort Plutarch Heavensbee (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) have a plan to manipulate and beat the innocent populations into submission whilst at the same time, avoiding inciting the masses to rise up against them. It’s an elaborate scheme that serves to intensify the already oppressive treatment of the twelve districts. Despite the 12A rating, Catching Fire is an incredibly brutal movie; civilians are mercilessly beaten and executed in the streets and there’s a greater level of destruction being carried out by the Capitol this time around. Since getting into the series as a whole I can’t help but feel that it employs several historical ‘’what if?’’ scenarios; if the Nazis or any other dictatorship had control of the world, they would be probably doing the same thing to everyone beneath  them which makes the world of ‘’Catching Fire’’ every bit as bleak as the original. This theme, combined with the worsening state of Katniss and her people provides a great deal of build-up and that’s before we get to the newly upgraded and twice as deadly 75^th Hunger Games.

The setup is the same as before; twenty four young people are selected to take part in a fight to the death, only this time the stakes have been upped enormously. Where the first film offered reprieves every now and again, this time the characters are always on edge, always in some sort of danger and are pretty much always fighting for survival. Toxic gas, carnivorous mammals and weather hazards all seek to claim the lives of the tributes this time and to top it off the tributes themselves are all previous winners of the Games, making them substantially more deadly than the opponents who came before. The plotline of Catching Fire, much like the book it is based on results in a film that is far more tense and frenetic than it’s predecessor. If there’s one gripe with the plot, it’s that the ending (while it does follow the book well) is a bit abrupt and could have had more impact but when the rest of the plot firmly grips the audience from start to finish, this is easily forgiven.

With a darker plotline comes more struggles for the characters to endure and the cast of ‘’Catching Fire’’ rises to the challenge effortlessly. Jennifer Lawrence continues to be incredible as Katniss, bringing an immense amount of emotion to a character who is at witness to unbelievable amounts of brutality and oppression as a result of her actions in the previous film. Though you may suspect conflict to erupt between Peeta and Gale (Liam Hemsworth) in this instalment, quite the opposite occurs as they both band together in the face of oppression; their performances are fully consistent but they never take the spotlight off Katniss for too long. A lot of effort has also gone into introducing new characters to the fray as well; Heavensbee is suave yet calculating in the way he works with Snow throughout the film while the new tributes all possesses unique characteristics and skills from the intelligent Beetee (Jeffrey Wright) to the slightly psychopathic Joanna (Jena Malone) who both have their own roles to play in surviving the games. The other supporting characters remain memorable and some go through a good deal of development; Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks), the tribute overseer in District 12 who was seemingly religiously dedicated to the Capitol becomes more sympathetic whereas Haymitch Abernathy becomes more than an advisor as he finds much responsibility thrust upon him. Above all else the characters of ‘’Catching Fire’’ hold are all solidly implemented into the film and are never lost in the ever-moving plotline.

‘’Catching Fire’’ continues the series expert use of contrast in its settings; the districts are run down, broken and possessed with a grim tone that highlights the struggles of the characters. This is a stark contrast with the bright and colourful Capitol City; which is comprised of towering buildings and numerous high-class citizens who bathe in luxury and wealth. Despite the blinding pace of the plot, every action packed moment is filmed and framed well, never giving an unclear view. The soundtrack contains a surprising variety of tracks from a range of artists but it is Coldplay’s ‘‘Atlas’’, which makes the biggest impression during the end credits, perfectly foreshadowing the films to come.

  

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire takes the foundations by the original and elevates them to a brilliant level. Film adaptations simply don’t get much better than this.

Rating: 4.5/5 Stars