{"id":468,"date":"2013-12-18T15:29:41","date_gmt":"2013-12-18T22:29:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/2013\/12\/18\/the-hobbit-desolation-of-smaug-rings-true-to-the-book\/"},"modified":"2019-04-05T13:07:27","modified_gmt":"2019-04-05T20:07:27","slug":"the-hobbit-desolation-of-smaug-rings-true-to-the-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/2013\/the-hobbit-desolation-of-smaug-rings-true-to-the-book\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug Rings True to the Book"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TheHobbit.Desolation.jpg\"<\/a>The second installment from the Tolkien novel, The Hobbit, released recently features the dwarves, along with Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf the Grey, as they continue their quest to reclaim Erebor, their homeland, from Smaug. Bilbo Baggins is in possession of a mysterious and magical ring. KIDS FIRST! Film Critic Raven D. has this to say about the film, The stunning 3D visuals really bring the work of Tolkien to life and, I think the darkness of this film fits a lot better with the \u201cLord of the Rings\u201d series than the first film did.” Raven’s full review is below.<\/p>\n

The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug
\nReviewed by Raven D., age 16, KIDS FIRST! Film Critic<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug\u201d is the second installment of the three part series adapted from the best selling novel by J.R.R. Tolkien. A prequel to the epic trilogy \u201cLord of the Rings,\u201d \u201cThe Hobbit\u201d follows young Bilbo Baggins, played by Martin Freeman, as he accompanies Gandalf and the Dwarves on a quest to rid their home of the evil dragon Smaug. In \u201cThe Desolation of Smaug,\u201d the Dwarves, Bilbo and Gandalf find themselves not only having to face the evil dragon that destroyed the Dwarf Kingdom, but they also have to deal with the threat of the Orcs, the Elves and the Necromancer. Thorin, the exiled Dwarf King is desperately trying to free his people of the dreaded Smaug, but greed begins to overtake him when he starts to focus his attention on a precious stone that is being guarded by the dragon. Will the Dwarves and Bilbo be triumphant in their epic quest, or will they awaken a power greater and more evil than they could have ever imagined.<\/p>\n

I really enjoyed this movie. I wasn\u2019t very impressed by the first Hobbit film that was released in 2012, but \u201cDesolation of Smaug\u201d is incredible. The stunning 3D visuals really bring the work of Tolkien to life and, I think the darkness of this film fits a lot better with the \u201cLord of the Rings\u201d series than the first film did. I really like the fact that they are making three movies off of the one book because I think if they tried to cram everything into one movie it would be way too much. I love the soundtrack in this film. The film has some really beautiful visuals and they are capture the original feel of the Tolkien series while also throwing in some really fun and upbeat tunes.<\/p>\n

My favorite character is Bilbo Baggins because I absolutely adore Martin Freeman. He is such a versatile actor and can play very serious roles while also bringing in playful and comedic qualities. Martin also plays Watson in the BBC series \u201cSherlock\u201d which is one of my favorite TV shows and I just love everything he\u2019s in. He really embodies the character Bilbo and it\u2019s very interesting to see the way Bilbo changes from the last film. His character development is great and Martin Freeman does a phenomenal job taking on that role.<\/p>\n

My favorite scene is when Bilbo encounters Smaug for the first time. The exchange between the two characters is very interesting because Smaug seems very curious about Bilbo and doesn\u2019t immediately attack like you expect and Bilbo does everything he can to distract Smaug by complimenting him and talking circles around him. The whole scene has a lot of suspense but it\u2019s also very playful. I also love the look of Smaug and the CGI for him is incredible. They capture his features in such a wonderful way. You can really tell what he\u2019s feeling by the faces he makes and the very human expressions he has.<\/p>\n

I recommend this film for ages 13+ because there is a lot of action, violence and suspenseful situations. I give this film 5 out of 5 stars and it is definitely a must see if you are a fan of the \u201cLord of the Rings\u201d trilogy. So be sure to catch \u201cThe Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug\u201d in a theater near you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The second installment from the Tolkien novel, The Hobbit, released recently features the dwarves, along with Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf the Grey, as they continue their quest to reclaim Erebor, their homeland, from Smaug. Bilbo Baggins is in possession of a mysterious and magical ring. KIDS FIRST! Film Critic Raven D. has this to say […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-feature-film-reviews"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paS5I2-7y","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3964,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions\/3964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/kidsfirstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}