I don’t think you could find anyone better to retell the
stories of Tolkien than Peter Jackson; Yes with this second part of the
trilogy, Jackson has again added to the source material for cinematic purposes
and I must say that given the format for which Tolkien’s book The Hobbit takes,
it’s utterly justifiable to expanded upon the story for the big screen to add
some gravitas to the story of Bilbo Baggins journey. This middle part of the
trilogy really does feel like the big action piece of the trilogy with huge set
pieces that play out including the quite spectacular barrel sequence and ending
with the introduction of Smaug for the films finale. As a stand-alone film this
sequel definitely feels like an improvement from its predecessor, Martin
Freeman again encapsulates the essence of Bilbo Baggins with another
wonderfully charming performance and there’s the outstanding voice work from Benedict
Cumberbatch as Smaug who I could just listen to for hours on end, he’s so
captivating in the role. The Hobbit series has of course taken a lighter tone
than the Lord of the Rings trilogy and while the film does have a more family
and lighter feel to the film overall, Jackson still manages to incorporate some
of the darker moments that are prevalent throughout his LOTR films and
certainly doesn’t feel out of place where compared directly next to the
previous trilogy. The Desolation of Smaug is the brilliant thrill ride that
we’d all had hoped for after the narrative driven first part and the
exceptional high standards of beautiful sets, captivating score/music and
compelling storytelling are all met here, whether or not The Hobbit trilogy
will ultimately live up to the extraordinary high reputation of the Lord of the
Rings trilogy we will just have to wait and see after Jackson has wrapped up
this story, but I think it’s pretty safe to say that he has succeeded in
retelling Tolkien’s The Hobbit story with the upmost respect and appreciation for
the source material whilst managing to improve upon what would have existed if
some other director/screenwriter had come in and just gave us a page-for-page
transfer to the big screen; its very rare to see a film live up to the reputation
of it’s source material let alone surpass it, but with hand on heart I can
honestly say that in my opinion Peter Jackson will eventually succeed in this
by the end of next year and we’ve seen his Hobbit trilogy told in full and
would argue that it might not be the last time that the director visits the
literary work of Tolkien. The Desolation of Smaug again brings us into the
wonderful world of Middle Earth and fills you with that magical feeling that
only a Peter Jackson adapting Tolkien film can truly do, these films are one of
a kind and probably not likely to see anything in the near future that is able
to replicate the effect of which these films have managed to do on such a large
cinematic scale.
No. 3 Worst - Only God Forgives dir Nicolas Winding Refn
Yet another appearance for Ryan Gosling in my worst films of
the year; this time it’s with the Nicolas Winding Refn film Only God Forgives;
I couldn’t have been more excited for this film given the directors back
catalogue of work and the trailer for the film, which teased just enough to
spark interest and hope that Refn would return back more to his older style
that featured so heavily in Valhalla Rising (2009) but unfortunately Only God
Forgives makes absolutely no attempt to string together any narrative and is
nothing more that shots of a bland character going from violent scene to
violent scene, each time trying to up the level of grotesqueness and boy is the
film aggressive, but this time where in the past the cinematography has been
gorgeously bright and full of colour that oozes vibrantly off the screen; the
boldness of it in Only God Forgives does nothing but to blur the imaginary and
bloodshed that’s so prominent throughout the film. It’s essentially mindless
violence that really has nothing interesting to say or any deep hidden
meanings, the only half-baked theme that one could take from the film is the
feeling of dealing with male impotency, but even that really isn’t that well
executed here. As mentioned just above, Only God Forgives is a brutally violent
film, but most of this is awash with a blur of red which just makes the film
look utterly vile and not at all artistic – you couldn’t care less for what is
happening on screen and due to it’s lack of narrative approach, all of the
violent sequences carry absolutely no gravitas to them at all because what
happens on screen just feels totally disjointed and unconnected; the film is a
complete mess that serves nothing more than to try and push certification
boundaries, over the years the horror genre has been viciously attacked for the
so called ‘Torture Porn’ sub-genre, but I’d argue that Only God Forgives is a far
more offensive film than all of those films combined for it’s senselessness. It
might only been 90 minutes long, but it feels like a much longer experience
that is pretty unbearable after only 20-25 minutes.
No comments:
Post a Comment