Yes, this is a sprawling fantasy yarn, with an ambitious DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 soundtrack to match. The 2.4:1 frame is frequently composed with clever layers and foreground objects that lend ample opportunity for effective stereoscopic illusion, and the sheer breadth and depth of Smaug’s lair is awe-inspiring. The inherent loss of brightness from the current 3D technology is not really a problem for the sublimely lit and hued image-this is largely a story about darkness, after all-and shadow detail is tremendous. For optimal quality, the 161-minute movie is spread across two platters (with a rather abrupt disc break), and the high bitrate yields razor-sharp clarity. Like An Unexpected Journey before it, this movie was shot in 3D on digital video and displays a perfectly natural filmic look. Even the titular Hobbit is marginalized in his own movie this time! I will, however, concede that Desolation serves up some of filmmaker Peter Jackson’s biggest and most dynamic action set pieces to date, which is saying something. It’s a make-believe world, so we have a hard time relating to them, and ultimately we just don’t care that much about them, which is a serious liability in a tale of this length. With their numbers growing, we don’t really have the chance to get to know any of them. Fortunately, he makes new allies in his travels, but while there’s certainly no shortage of characters in this middle chapter of Tolkien’s Middle-Earth epic, it dawned on me that none of them are especially compelling. But to do so, he’ll need to survive an onslaught of murderous Orcs, steal a vital stone back from an insanely powerful talking dragon, and overcome all manner of treachery along the way. Thorin, heir to the dwarf throne, is on a quest to reclaim his homeland and unite his people.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |