{"id":3223,"date":"2013-12-13T05:53:13","date_gmt":"2013-12-13T12:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=3223"},"modified":"2013-12-13T06:49:15","modified_gmt":"2013-12-13T13:49:15","slug":"review-the-hobbit-the-desolation-of-smaug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=3223","title":{"rendered":"Review: THE HOBBIT: The Desolation of Smaug"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>A lot of folks did not appreciate \u201cThe Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.\u201d Like \u201cThe Wolverine\u201d reboot earlier this year, \u201cThe Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug\u201d is an example of a sequel trying to improve on its maligned predecessor. And the sophomore outing can spell disaster for a series.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019m happy to report that \u201cThe Desolation of Smaug\u201d is better than \u201cAn Unexpected Journey.\u201d And I liked \u201cJourney.\u201d Critics will likely sneer that \u201cSmaug\u201d is another bloated blockbuster that gives director Peter Jackson too much reign. I totally disagree. And I suspect that a legion of Tolkien fans will line up for this 161 minute fantasy epic and even purchase the Blu-ray Disc with tons of extras. As a proud owner of the extended cut of Jackson\u2019s \u201cKing Kong,\u201d for me, there may be no such thing as too much of Jackson\u2019s good thing.<\/p>\n

The story is well known to most everyone. The journey continues with Bilbo and the dwarves battling various dangers including spiders, orcs, and conflicted elves toward their ultimate destination Erebor. And waiting for the ragtag journeymen is a dragon, who guards the gold together with the prized stone that may restore the dwarf King Thorin to power.<\/p>\n

That dragon, Smaug, is a pretty intimidating character. Voiced with menacing zeal by Benedict Cumberbatch (of \u201cSherlock\u201d fame), Smaug is a cocky beast, who has spent a lifetime exerting his influence over anyone who stands in his way. And when he\u2019s on screen, I was transfixed. Like Gollum, the dragon is a wondrous creation seamlessly integrating into the scene. It really comes alive.<\/p>\n

What can I say? My 12 year-old and I had a ball. The drama and exposition take a backseat to thrilling action sequences with eye-popping visuals. The film is an entertaining ride on par with anything in the theater this year. We saw it in 3D instead of the HFR version. HFR or high frame rate is 48 frames per second instead of the cinema standard 24fps. I was not a fan of HFR last time and was relieved to learn that the press was not subjected to it this time round. <\/p>\n

Given the lack of HFR, the 3D addition was not a distraction. Of course, I watched it in Regal\u2019s RPX theater, which guaranteed a clean 4K projection. Would I pay extra for HFR 3D? No way would I pay the premium, especially if I had a family of four tagging along. And the plain old 2D version should be just fine. Readers might remember that I saw \u201cAn Unexpected Journey\u201d in both HFR 3D and plain old 2D, and I preferred the 2D version. Compare \u201cGravity\u201d that does suffer a little in 2D. Some films are just made for the format, and watching \u201cThe Hobbit\u201d with all the bells and whistles is unnecessary.<\/p>\n

\u201cSmaug\u201d is a great middle film leaving the viewer happy to be entertained once again with part three.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jonathan just can’t get enough of Peter Jackson’s good thing!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3223"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3240,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3223\/revisions\/3240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}