From my second viewing (3D HFR - i.e. three-dimensional high frame rate (48 frames per minute)) - notes scribbled immediately afterwards, and in the darkness of the film's last quarter-to-half hour.
NB The orc horde beseiging Lake-town (Esgaroth) would really have made mincemeat of Bard's kids (son and daughters) in no time flat, as undoubtedly would 'Smaug the Magnificant' with Bilbo and the dwarfs, i.e. (i)Bilbo's accomplices in crime, his skulking side-kicks in Smaug's own estimation.
Various nice touches: 2 pug dogs (reminiscent of our family's pet Teddy and other pugs of childhood acquaintance); literal (ii)'legions' of pigs - cf the gospel story of Jesus with the Gadarenes - and various other biblical allusions, as has likewise been commonly remarked about The Lord of the Rings (both book and film). For example the ongoing battle between (ethereal, incorporeal, spirit) forces of darkness seeking to displace the light; even an obscure, brief mention of the dragon (Smaug) descending from 'the serpent' from the North(ern regions whence the Witch-King of Angmar, Sauron's eventual right-hand man, proceeded), evoking images of the possession of and 'impersonation' of (iii)'that old serpent' in Eden by the 'Great Dragon Satan' (otherwise known as the devil). (For those, like me, with a biblical penchant, that is.)
So much parallelism abounds between these Hobbit films and their Rings' 'predecessors' that it's hard to know where to begin, but how about this example: (iv)Kili's 'mortal (?Morgul blade) wound' (cf Frodo in Fellowship of the Ring), that sees him (much like Faramir (and Eowyn) in 'the Houses of Healing' in Return of the King) stay on in Lake-town to undergo recuperation. And in each instance (as again with Frodo) that healing coming about through special (medicinal) herbs (such as my Mum's potent (v)feverfew - ever good for a sound headache). Elsewhere Thorin on occasion (at Esgaroth) reminds one awfully much of Boromir in his vainglorious stance and fight-to-the-finish bravado.
Similar scenic parallelism, e.g. the senses-suspending, jaw-dropping portrayal of Gandalf ever so barely outwitting his voracious, mighty antagonists (such as Azog the Defiler and Sauron) and thus miraculously escaping with his very life in (and from) the Necromancer's lair, i.e. Dol Goldur. And in a much less fraught 'parallel', mark well the coveted dwarvish treasure of the Arkenstone in its unstoppable plummeting through Smaug's vast hoardings right before Bilbo's dazed gaze. But does he then snatch it up? It's hard to say/we're not really shown, but doubtless 'all will (soon enough) be revealed' when Hobbit film number three comes out, presumably mid-July. On that score Bilbo and the (in this version anyhow, accompanying) dwarfs' ever-precipitous evasion of Smaug on a similar ongoing basis seems just a little too far-fetched for belief, as this (vi)'Calamity of Calamities' was hardly christened such for no good reason, was he?
Smaug's chitchatty banter with Bilbo, engaging in some mutual back-scratching flattery, is quite 'cutesy', even charming and scintillatingly clever (in places), but even at its filmic best doesn't remotely come close to Tolkien's skill in portraying this subtle art form which Smaug, over aeons and aeons, has perfected to infinity and beyond; as befits any dragon (or 'great worm', as Tolkien styled Smaug's ilk) worth his weight in gold and silver. The dwarfs, having finally lost any remaining hope altogether and abandoned Bilbo atop the Lonely Mountain as Durin's Day seems to slip into legend, then instantaneously, miraculously reappear in a touch that effectively consigns Aladdin's Lamp to the realm of yesterday's slowcoach technologies...
The savage warg-riding orc hordes (all the way along the Forest River) ultimately laying seige to Esgaroth are quite unnecessary, but again perfectly in keeping with Lord of the Ring film trilogy linkages throughout, obliterating any meaningful semblance again to Tolkien's beloved kids' classic and replacing this with a no-holds-barred, fight to the finish, tooth-and-nail struggle 'from woe to go'. In other words, all action and intrigue, with precious little character development and el usual gripping, imaginative, Tolkienesque story line besides. As someone might characterize this Jacksonesque take on The Hobbit: 'It's the blood and guts, stupid!' Though methinks J.R.R himself, if softly from the sidelines, might be heard intoning: 'It's actually supposed to be a magical tale of a hobbit, a wizard, 13 dwarfs, a skin-changer, woodland elves, a sleepy town of cranks and crazies, one very stupendous Dragon and a heckuva lot of hidden treasure...(vii)plus an assortment of ferocious spiders, goblins (both under the mountain and over dale), wargs, eagles, and flora and fauna galore, and the exciting adventures that mark the places where these odd bedfellows cross paths.
So in thus effectively presupposing a definitive interlinkage between the two tales (of the lonely trek to Erebor for dragon gold, with the eventual quest for the one ring to rule Middle Earth), PJ Et Al have backed themselves into a corner. How then can one possibly account for the subsequent decades-long interval between the return of the dwarf company and Bilbo to Hobbiton and the arrival of the Ring-Wraiths there? When, according to this (movie) version - cut to the background events supposedly then taking place in Dol Goldur - Sauron has pretty well resurrected and reformulated himself and is now virtually ready for the sustained onslaught he intends upon all of Middle Earth. Because following said events there'd certainly be (viii)no time to lose - much less 60-odd years or so. One really cannot have it both ways.
I'm unsure Smaug would have participated, even inadvertently, in the elimination of his cherished home. But more importantly, Smaug's broiling lava torrent would have instantly incinerated anything and everything in its path except maybe another dragon, and certainly this relatively (if not literally) lightweight and motley crew, from Thorin down. Indeed I don't even believe Smaug could feasibly - not to mention so easily, like so much paper confetti - have shed his new molten hot golden covering, though I'll concede the image of him so doing as he ascended into the skies on his way toward Lake-town is a nice touch aesthetically.
(i) Drawing this comparison inevitably opens me up to ridicule, but the writer happens to share an unusual 'distinction' with Bilbo Baggins, acting the major part of thief in Owen Martel's video 'Given'.
(ii) As described in detail in the Holy Bible's three synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke.
(iii) Likewise see especially the Book of Revelation chapter twelve, and Genesis chapter three.
(iv) But need I note such is completely absent both literally and metaphorically from Tolkien's Hobbit?
(v) My Chambers Concise Dictionary denotes feverfew as 'a composite perennial closely allied to camomile, so called from its supposed power as a 'febrifuge', which itself is defined as 'that which drives off fever'. In Lord of the Rings, however, we have athelas or kingsfoil as the curative herb.
(vi) Yes, I well realize that here it's me, myself and I who'll be accused of fabricating things, so may I make the simple disclaimer that such a nickname, wholly my own admittedly (unless I'm inadvertently repeating a name I heard in one of the Hobbit films), itself does perfect justice to that ever so brilliant endearment of Bilbo Baggins: 'Smaug the Chiefest and Greatest of Calamities'.
(vii) Though no orcs, much less the new and frightful variety concocted for this Hobbit trilogy.
(viii) And don't you tell me it'd take six-some decades for Sauron the Terrible to track down, interrogate and torture Smeagol-Gollum, then process and act upon the relevant doss. But then - if I'm being perfectly fair - perhaps that's Tolkien's issue, not Sir Peter Jackson & Company's.
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