The Desolation of Smaug
We just got back from taking the children to see the afternoon showing of “The Desolation of Smaug” at the cinema. I'm sure everybody and their dog has written capsule reviews of the movie, so I'm not going toI'm just going to record a few moments that make taking children (and grown-ups) to the movies magic.
It started with the trailers before the movie startedmore specifically the Lego Movie trailer, and the “Everything is Awesome” theme tune that had all five of us shrugging our shoulders in time with the beatI'm sure the family behind us in the cinema thought we were crazy. Batman's use of his bat-phone to bat-chat with somebody just before the movie began was inspired too.
Within moments of the start of the movie, Peter Jackson walked across the shot, causing both myself and W to look across the children at each other with quizzical “did we just see what we think we saw?” grins.
At several moments during the movie I leaned forwards to see the children's facesall leaning forward in their chairs, 3D glasses reflecting the screen, jaws gaping.
If anything, we really pushed the 12A rule on this movie (in the UK it was rated such that children under 12 had to be accompanied by an adult). Our youngest girl is 8, and it was really borderlineSmaug scared the life out of her. I'm thinking we're going to need to watch something silly on TV to erase dreams of fire breathing dragons.
No such problems for Miss 13, who told us all on the way home that she thought Tauriel (the female Elf) ruled, and that she now wanted a real bow and arrows, and arealelvish sword for Christmas. I was just glad to see that the most obvious “invented” character in the movie was the most exciting (and yes, I know I'm biased, being the Dad of three young daughters).
As the lights came up at the end of the movie, I leaned across to our eldest and whispered “you have to wait until next year to find out what happens!”, to which she looked deflated”Or read the book”.