The king has never let Orc filth from our lands... yet, he would let this Orc pack cross
our borders and kill our prisoners. // This is not our fight. // This is our fight! It
will not end here. With every victory, this evil will grow. // Nah... I don't think so.
I mean, Tolkien's book is one big sausagefest, you're not even supposed to be here. // This
is our fight. // Again... sorry to break it to you AngelinaJolieLily, or whatever your
name is, but this is not our fight... this is Movie Night!
Hello and welcome to Movie Night, YouTube's only review show that graciously donates 100%
of its earnings directly to rich Hollywood studios for the first 30 days of every video!
Stupid Content ID... anyway, I'm your host, Jonathan Paula. Originally we were scheduled
to review three new December releases tonight, but due to some unforeseen issues, like being
snowed into and unable to drive to the movie theater, and my being busy on a slightly more
important video this week - we'll only be discussing one picture tonight, "The Hobbit:
The Desolation Of Smaug".
This $225 million dollar adventure fantasy epic from Peter Jackson unsurprisingly broke
even just a week after its December 13th release. The middle-installment of the trilogy adaptation
of J. R. R. Tolkien's 1937 children's novel, "The Hobbit", and also a prequel to the hugely
successful "The Lord Of The Rings" film series, this 161-minute feature is certainly an ambitious
one. Leisurely paced, and opening immediately with a shameless cameo from Jackson during
an unnecessary flashback sequence, the action picks up where the previous film left off:
with Ian McKellen leading a group of 13 dwarves, plus Martin Freeman as the plucky hobbit deep
into middle-earth in search of yet another MacGuffin. Everyone does a fine job in their
roles, many caked under layers of make-up, battle-axes, wigs, beards, and earthly garments...
but Freeman is particularly brilliant as the title character, exhibiting the perfect amount
of nervousness or trepidation with just a roll of his fingers, or a raise of his eye-brow.
Richard Armitage and Aidan Turner return as gruff, but sometimes sensitive dwarves, Luke
Evans is featured as a suspicious, but helpful human archer, while Orlando Bloom is shoe-horned
into the script if for no other reason than fan-service, but it's always enjoyable watching
him dispatch monsters with his long bow. Introduced here, and absent in the original novels is
Evangeline Lilly as a elf, who develops romantic feelings for Turner; her strong female presence
is a wonderful additional to the pictures, and she commendably contributes some great
emotional conflict as well. Benedict Cumberbatch provides his voice and motion-capture likeness
to the picture's primary antagonist, as massive, fire breathing dragon: and does an incredible
job bringing the imposing and frightening character to life, to which Evans warns earlier;
"If you awake that beast, you'll destroy us all!". While the story is inherently stepped
in fictional mythology, it's almost annoying how many proper nouns litter this script...
you've got Oakenshield, Dol Guldur, Arkenstone, Radagast, Esgaroth, Galadriel, Thranduil,
Tauriel... without subtitles, or a prior working knowledge of Tolkien's universe, it can be
decently confusing at times. That said however, the attention to detail does provide for an
extremely realistic and believable environment, aided by expertly done special effects by
the talented individuals at Jackson's "Wingnut Films". There's almost nothing here in the
form of a story though... we just watch the heroes journey from one violent monster battle
to the next, in sweeping wide shots that play out like an advertisement for New Zealand's
lush countryside. The individual action sequences however are truly second-to-none, especially
a terrific scene that has the dwarves killing orcs, and carefully tossing weapons back and
forth while escaping down river in floating barrels. Or when the boys from Sherlock go
head-to-snout in an awesomely fun, amusing, but also terrifying game of cat and mouse...
or, perhaps more appropriately, dragon and hobbit. The PG-13 story is once again supported
by a brilliant original score from composer Howard Shore, who underlines every dramatic
moment with exactly the right sound. Like it's predecessors, this movie is simply too
drawn-out for its own good: with a majority comprised entirely of shallow action and thrills:
enjoyable to watch... but empty just the same. There's really no other way to say it... stretching
a 300-page book into nearly eight hours of cinema is an egregious, unforgivable, and
selfish mistake - and the entire trilogy has suffered as a result. "The Hobbit: The Desolation
Of Smaug" is an, "Undeniably fun spectacle, but lengthy." Now let's read some of your
reviews, to see what you had to say about this film.
Our scores for "The Hobbit 2"... a NINE and a SEVEN. Although you held off on the top-score,
you all thought this picture was AWESOME, with unanimous praise going to the action
sequences. A slight improvement over "An Unexpected Journey", this picture still suffers from
all of the same issues - leaving me partially unsatisfied, but excited to see the third
installment. I thought it was COOL. For our poll question tonight: who's your favorite
character from Middle Earth? Leave your response as a comment below.
I wanted to take a moment to quickly promote an interview I did with Tom Morgan over at
TubeChum.com -- sharing some of my insights, and struggles with creating this program every
week. So, if you'd like to learn a bit about my process, and hear me brag about Movie Night,
click the link below to give the article a read. Now, let's wrap up this shortened episode
with some Tweet Critiques, including even more reviews for The Hobbit!
If you see a new movie in theaters, Tweet your review with the #JPMN hashtag. Next week
I'll be on vacation in the Caribbean, so to celebrate, I'll be watching some awful cruise
ship movies! "Going Overboard" - Adam Sandler's first film from 1989, the ill-conceived 1997
sequel to "Speed", and the marginally offensive rom-com "Boat Trip" from 2003. Because this
episode has already been produced, I unfortunately won't be featuring any viewer comments...
but please share your thoughts about these movies with some comment reviews just the
same. If you'd like to watch more episodes of Movie Night, check out the "related videos"
on my right, or click SUBSCRIBE to be notified of all new content, and be sure to follow
me on Twitter or Facebook for updates between episodes. Once again, my name is Jonathan
Paula, thank you for watching and listening. Until next time, have a good Movie Night!