Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Premiere Screening of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug


The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Official Poster


As I write this review for Nuffnang's Premier Screening of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, I am also grieving for my nail. Oh my poor thumb's nail that broke over a crazy, aggressive and adrenaline-filled game of bumper cars. Yes, you read that right. Bumper cars.


Broken thumb nail. Ouchie!


Because we had some time to kill before the movie starts, Lam, Elwyn, Chan and myself went to play bumper cars at T&T Kidzpark located on LG2, Center Court. Imagine the four of us in our 20s bumping each other in our bumper cars, while kids look on. Normally this scenario is the other way round! When our turn ended, I found my thumb to be throbbing in pain. It was then that I saw that I had broke my nail. Not a small piece too! A huge chunk of it! That totally spoiled my movie mood but luckily I cheered up before the movie!

Anyways, I feel like I've reached a milestone as a blogger when I won my own pair of preview passes for a movie! And I got to experience the ticket collection procedure for myself! When I walked into TGV at 7:45pm, the foyer was already filled with bloggers queuing up for their own tickets. At first, I lined up behind the longest line, but to my relief, that line was for Churp Churp. So I moved to the Nuffnang line and it was significantly shorter than Churp Churp's! I gloated as Lam and Lord E lined up behind the longer Churp Churp line. Muahahaha!


Sea of bloggers lining up for tickets


But my gloating did not last long as our dear Nuffnang team came late. At sharp 8pm, Churp Churp's line started moving (thumbs up for being so efficient!), while the Nuffnang team only arrived at 8:20pm. So frustrating really.

I got to gloat again because Nuffnangers, get to watch Hobbit 2 in IMAX 3D! Churp Churp's tickets were for a normal cinema only. I am not a fan of 3D movies, but watching a 3D movie in TGV's IMAX theater is a completely different experience. I was blown away by the realness of Gandalf's face at the beginning of the movie. I was as if he was literally standing in front of me! I was able to see details like the individual strands of Gandalf's snow white hair. Plus, I scored eye-level seats so the realness effect was enhanced.

But there were drawbacks to the 3D effect. Fast action scenes were blurry so it was difficult to make out what exactly was happening. Also, when the camera was focused on a subject in the foreground, the background became blur, and vice versa. There were also projector problems when the movie got stuck three or four times out of nowhere. But I heard the Churp Churp hall's screening got delayed till 10pm so my problems pale in comparison.


Huge glossy tickets. Not like the pink paper cutouts from Catching Fire premiere.


Size of ticket against my face!


Selfie with IMAX 3D Glasses


BACK TO THE MOVIE! After watching The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, I got the exact same feeling as The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. I felt that I was left hanging. It's like the movie built up so much anticipation for the ending and suddenly it just cuts off and the credits come up. I will talk more about the hanging feeling later under spoiler alert. But for now, I'll rate the movie: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆ (6/10). I expected much more from the second movie but I was left disappointed. Perhaps it's because they tried to make three movies from one book. So it's minutely detailed and quite draggy. Now, it's time to navigate to other posts if you don't want any spoilers because..




So the movie disappointed me because like the first movie, the build up to the climax was so great and then the movie ended without reaching the climax. In the first movie, I was sitting on the edge of my seat, waiting for the appearance of the dragon, Smaug, but all I got was a brief glimpse of his eye. For the second movie, I was literally waiting for Smaug to get desolated (read: killed). But there was no desolation of anything! The movie title was so misleading! It should be renamed to 'The Hobbit: Pissing Off The Smaug' instead!

But the advantage of having such a detailed movie is that there is a lot more room for storyline development. It made me want to become an Elf! Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) portrayed Elves as clean and holy, so much that they seemed to be above the other races. They were also so dexterous and adept at fighting, whether it is long range with a bow or short range with a sword.


Both just standing there, exuding elegance


Well that's all about Hobbit 2. There isn't really much to talk about when you're left hanging at the end. Plus, I have not watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy so I probably missed out on a lot of references.

If you ask me whether Hobbit 2 is worth watching in the cinema, I would suggest that you wait for the final movie; The Hobbit: There and Back Again, and watch all three in one sitting. That way, you can avoid being left with a hanging feeling at the end of Hobbit 1 and 2. Or, if you really cannot wait, then you should pay a little bit more to watch the movie in IMAX 3D. Really, other movies I would just go for 2D but this one needs to be watched in IMAX 3D to do it justice.

On another note, I'm going for another movie premiere today: Firestorm, starring the super hunky Mr. Andy Lau. So expect another movie review post tomorrow!

Toodles~
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