The new Hobbit movie - any good?
In the prologue to this second instalment of Peter Jackson’s sweeping Tolkien trilogy, the director makes a brief cameo, wandering through night-time streets on the borders of the Shire.
It’s a fleeting glimpse – a rare moment of brevity that, sadly, eludes the rest of this over-bloated epic.
Admittedly, there is a greater sense of urgency to ‘The Desolation Of Smaug’ than its prequel, by virtue of a time limit imposed on the characters reaching the Lonely Mountain before the last light of autumn to locate a secret door that leads into the dragon’s lair.
But that doesn’t stop Jackson and his co-writers from padding the script, introducing a gung-ho female elf, who doesn’t appear in the book, in order to establish a dwarf-elf-elf love triangle that will presumably be resolved in next year’s final chapter.
Legolas (Orlando Bloom) also becomes embroiled in various skirmishes here, even though he doesn’t appear in Tolkien’s source text.
Fans of Jackson’s first forays into Middle Earth will experience a nagging sense of deja vu.
The filmmaker and his collaborators, including cinematographer Andrew Leslie and composer Howard Shore, have cast this second film in the mould of ‘The Two Towers’, replete with a cliff-hanger ending that sees the forces of evil marshalling an army and preparing for war.
Technical aspects are impeccable and visual effects look crisp, even in 3D. As an emotional roller-coaster, the second film is also more satisfying than its predecessor.
Yet, for all its grandeur, this instalment doesn’t touch the heart in the same way the ‘Lord Of The Rings’ films do.
Freeman fleshes out his role as the ring continues to exert its pernicious control over Bilbo while McKellen is reduced to growling one-liners that state the obvious: “We have been blind and in our blindness our enemy has returned”.
Having come this far, audiences will want to reach the end as swiftly as possible in ‘There And Back Again’.
Somehow though, I doubt Jackson will be in any hurry to tie up loose ends.
3/5
75%
‘Britain’s Got Talent’ finalist Susan Boyle makes her feature film acting debut in John Stephenson’s festive drama, adapted from the novel of the same name by Max Lucado.
Progressive young minister David Richmond (Hans Matheson) arrives in the sleepy village of Gladbury, nestled deep in the English countryside. He learns of a local legend which states that every 25 years, an angel descends on Gladbury and blesses one of the candles in the shop run by candlemaker Edward Haddington (Sylvester McCoy) and his wife Bea (Lesley Manville).
Whoever lights this candle and says a prayer will be granted a Christmas wish. David doesn’t believe the myth and he encourages his congregation to abandon their reliance on the candle for miracles and to perform small acts of kindness of their own free will.
The modernisation of Gladbury gives church warden Herbert Hopewell (James Cosmo) and his wife Eleanor (Boyle) cause for grave concern.
However, it does pique the interest of religious sceptic Emily Barstow (Samantha Barks), who is drawn to David at the very moment that the minister’s mission is thrown into jeopardy by the disappearance of the supposedly anointed candle.
