The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Movie Review

If you follow me on Twitter you would have probably seen me literally 'begging' for invites and passes for the premiere of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug well it's actually because of a number of reasons- first since Paul and I are big Tolkien fans. When we were boyfriend and girlfriend we spent so many hours watching the Lord of the Rings on DVD (the extended version, with commentary and of course the special features and all the behind the scenes that come with the DVD). We also have (of course) The Hobbit: The Unexpected Journey on DVD :) 

The Second reason is that December 10, 2013 is actually our second wedding anniversary and I really, really wanted to celebrate by watching the premiere. Unfortunately it didn't push through so I just had to take matters in my own hands. (I actually got an invite bit it was only for one- sooo....)  

So yeah -Paul and I really are a match made in geek heaven - wanting to celebrate our wedding anniversary with Bilbo, Gandalf, a band of dwarves and a grumpy dragon. Even if that didn't really happen we went out to watch the movie with Paul's sister, her husband, their son and Paul's Ate who actually owns the DVDs we watch. Yep the geekiness runs in the family!   

Continuing in his tradition of translating Tolkien's work into a great cinematic experience, Peter Jackson once again slips on the one ring to rule them all on and transports you in an epic adventure - even if it means changing a thing or two in the story.     

First of all Legolas (Orlando Bloom) is not in the original "There and back again" story but is included in the movie most probably for the legions of fan girls. You can only have so much bearded dwarves, a clean shaven elf is nice to see on the screen for a change but Paul is not a fan girl and is not such a big fan of Legolas either. He keeps on shaking his head on the 'too much hero shots' for Legolas and I must agree that he has a lot of in the movie to the point of overkill maybe? 

A difference from the first Hobbit movie though is the increase in stunts in the second film, complete with walking on walls ala Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Orc decapitations too. I guess working with Dwarves would definitely limit those kinds of stunts but that definitely did not stop the crew from going all out in the barrel and river barrel ride scene. Anyone who gets out of that situation definitely deserves the title of barrel rider! 

   

The Wildest River ride ever- in barrels! 

Another elf who was also not in the original story is the female elf Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) and in keeping with Peter Jackson's practice of letting female characters kick butt on the screen, Tauriel kicks a lot of Orc butts indeed. In case you didn't know, in the books Tolkien gave more traditional roles for his female characters who often sat back and looked pretty while the men did all the sword swaying and the arrow loosing action. So big thanks to Peter Jackson for putting a little girl power in his adaptations. 

Aside from giving female characters some orc heads to cut off, Peter Jackson also likes to add a little hint of romance and love in the air and in the absence of Aragorn and Arwen that 'honor' fell on the hands of Kili (Aidan Turner) and Taruriel- wait what? Yes you got that right there was also some weird, nay awkward Elf-Dwarf flirting going on. Oh and can I say it was also a bizarre love triangle between Kili- Tauriel and Legolas. Let's see how this inter-racial romance plays off in the next movie.    
   

Legolas and Tauriel: Absent in the books but kicking ass in the movie. 

A new character who was in the books was also introduced in the second movie and this is Bard the Bowman played by Luke Evans and Paul and I both agreed that he looks a lot like Will Turner from Pirates of the Carribean, even Paul's 11 year old nephew thought so! Its rather amusing to note that Bard looks like Will since Orlando Bloom is also in The Hobbit (as Legolas- but you already knew that). Maybe the character design or make up department could have given him a different look. Nevertheless Bard is a really interesting character given that he represents the human race in the movie. 

Kalook-a-like ? : Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) from Pirates of the Carribean and Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans) The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Preview

I was just going through Twitter one Sunday morning when I saw a promo from Odyssey for a sneak peak to the sequel of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey which is (drum roll please) The Desolation of Smaug (pronounced as 'Smwaa-gh' and not 'smog' as I initially thought) the prize of the promo was an access code to a Worldwide live event (live streaming) which would be hosted by none other than Peter Jackson himself. 

The live streaming will feature behind the scenes production for 'The Desolation of Smaug' which is the second installment to The Hobbit trilogy and which will be released in theaters in December. Peter Jackson will also be answering questions from fans and other special guests. 

In order to get an access code to the exclusive event you have to answer the question- When danger is near, Bilbo's sword glows to what color?, (which is technically wrong, since Sting- the sword glows specifically when Orcs and Goblins are near- but that's just me being, nit picky)-anyways! you have to be one of the first 12 to get the right answer by commenting on the photo which appeared on Odyssey's facebook page. I immediately answered BLUE! all caps and was lucky enough to be part of the 12 ^_^. 

My access code was sent as a Private Message on my Facebook account. 

The Worldwide Live Event was going to be live streamed at 8:00 AM March 25, 2013 from New Zealand, which is at 3:00AM in Manila and for other countries was still at March 24, 2013, (3PM Eastern/Noon Pacific).

Paul and I eagerly anticipated the live streaming and at 3:00AM sharp- viola! Peter Jackson was in front of us! :D 

I took some screenshots of the live streaming ^_^ 

Peter Jackson showing his favorite weapon from the LORT series - Theoden's sword. 

The Live streaming started with Peter Jackson greeting fans a good morning all the way from New Zealand, it's 8:00AM where he is and God knows what time from where his audience was watching. (In our case it was 3AM) Peter, showed a newspaper from New Zealand showing the date as March 25, 2013 and the result of a cricket match. 

Peter then proceeded to showing the studio where all the pre-production, post-production and editing was done (in other words) where the magic happens. 

Peter showed the audience, framed movie posters which were hung on the studio's walls, there were a lot of James Bond Movies, he also shared his early love for military aviation.