It's been two years since I read the book. I saw the first movie two years ago at the theatre, and haven't seen it since. I saw the second movie one year ago at the theatre, and haven't seen it since. So clearly I was perfectly positioned to go see the third movie....
Which launches into it without a recap scene. Sort of like the movie wasn't supposed to be split there, and it continued directly from the previous scene of the dragon flying off... But Smaug's a wimp, so it's back to the mountain as everyone and their army gets together to surround it / invade it / fight everyone else. And since I have read the book, I was ticking off in my head major scenes as they appeared on screen. Now, this isn't all battle. There certainly is one, and yes, you'll be hard pressed to tell what's going on, but it does take a breath as relatively quiet moments happen. I'm not going to say who lives and who dies (my main prediction was wrong), but I will give away that Bilbo does make it to the later early trilogy... which I now kinda want to see again.
In front of the local (ie NZ) screening there was a wee behind the scenes recap of the filming from LOTR to Hobbit, and various actors saying how great New Zealand is. Not sure if that'll play elsewhere, or if they'll drop in other country names. Most likely not play it at all. Nice touch, but it almost felt like it was left on a "we'll be back" note...
Acting and production was good as ever. I saw this in 2D (which was far emptier than the sold out 3D screenings), and while I sort of would like to see what 3D does for this, not wearing those glasses is a bonus. (But maybe later.) And while I generally can't tell which dwarf is which, it's pretty obvious which one is Billy Connelly.
So that wraps it up... and no, it didn't feel like it needed to be three. I will watch it again... when the full extended edition three movie BluRay comes out...
[END]
Saturday 13 December 2014
The Battle of CGI Armies
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2 comments:
Hey, that's interesting about the 2D/3D audience split. I would have thought the novelty was done and that people might have voted with ther wallets? I can't say I'm curious after having seen the first in 3D, the second in 2D, I'll settle for whatever :/
Word is another 30 minutes on the Five Armies EE, so that might be the definitive version, maybe.
People possibly think "3D is one D better than 2D"? I would have been happy with 3D, but the timing worked out for 2D.
There was one scene where Thorin was talking to one nearby dwarf, then the angle/action changed and there were two nearby dwarfs. Missing scene maybe?
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