The fact that we get a real glimpse at Sauron's return does help tie this story to the Lord of the Rings trilogy better. High action is fun, and there's plenty of it in The Hobbit trilogy, but it's moments like these where Jackson takes it too far.īut I digress. It's all very Jacksonian, with Ninja Saruman smacking wraiths with his staff and so forth. This time around, Gandalf is rescued by Galadriel and Radagast the Brown, and then Galadriel, Saruman, and Elrond fight of the Ring Wraiths and Galadriel banishes Sauron from Mirkwood in a display of rather creepy Elf magic. Gandalf travels to Dol Guldur in the previous film and is imprisoned there (after a Harry Potter style duel with the Necromancer, aka Sauron.) So we are shown scenes only mentioned in the book, or implied later on, rather than written out wholesale. Jackson takes this little story and then draws from appendices and the first trilogy to not only greatly lengthen the story, but to weave it into the larger narrative that is the War of the Ring. Likewise, Tolkien wrote The Hobbit long before his ambitions grew into what would eventually become The Lord of the Rings and its accompanying texts (such as The Silmarillion.) In some senses, I'd argue these changes are for the better, if only because change is necessary for a moviegoing audience. Jackson ties the story of The Hobbit into the larger War of the Ring. Jackson changes all that, for better or worse, in his adaptation. Then again, The Hobbit novel itself was more of a miniature adventure, rather than epic fantasy. And I would bet good money that it will be some time before we see anything quite like it again. No fantasy film has ever been so immersive in its scope and beauty. The film is constantly eye-popping, a sumptuous visual feast, backed by an equally gorgeous score. Then there's Thorin standing on the frozen waterfall. It's these moments of devastation and beauty that show Jackson at his best.Īs Bilbo travels back to the Shire, we are treated to scene after scene of this tremendously lovely world. He's massive, and we only truly glimpse the scope of the creature as he sets Laketown aflame. Smaug is quite a cinematic and special effects achievement. That changes in the opening minutes of Battle of the Five Armies.
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