Review: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

By. Joe Moss
★★

Well, I can safely say that Peter Jackson's 2013 continuation of the beloved J.R.R. Tolkein classic "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" is far and away better than the first part, "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" released last year. The pace of this movie is on par with the Fellowship trilogy; the graphics and cinematography are amazing (as is expected from Peter Jackson's Wingnut Films company). What is not amazing...the length of the film once again deters from the plot and the overall enjoy-ability.

The plot picks up where the "Unexpected Journey" left off; albeit, with a slight delay. There is a short flashback sequence in the first ten minutes of the film showing Gandolf (Ian McKellen) and Thorin (Richard Armitage) meeting in the Prancing Pony in Bree. This flashback serves to remind the moviegoers about the purpose of the story (#1 of the unnecessary scenes in the movie) to rightfully regain Thorin his place among the dwarf-lords as the King under the Mountian. After this dalliance, Jackson immediately switches back to Bilbo and the group being chased through the mountains by the Orcs and a large shape-shifting bear. A horrible transitional sequence if I say so myself.

The troop of thirteen finally reaches Mirkwood, and Gandolf deaprts to fulfill an obligation to the Elf Queen, Lady Galadriel (Kate Blanchett). Bilbo and the Dwarfin troop are told to take the Elvin Road through the forest and "do not stray" from the path. We are immersed into the memorable interplay of the Moria spiders who are invading Mirkwood and finally re-introduced to a character from the Fellowship series--Legolas (Orlando Bloom) as well as the captain of the guard, Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly). The elfin actors arrive into the plot with commanding presence, skillful swordplay and deftness of the foot. The travelers/trespassers are taken into custody and brought forth to the king. After a hilarious escape sequence--and the second bit of action (thankful to keeping the audience awake) involving Orcs, elves, and half-drowning dwarfs--we arrive at the boarders of Mirkwood. To cross the lake, the troop enlists the help of a man, Bard (Luke Evans) to smuggle them through Lake-town to be closer to the Lonely Mountian (Erebor).

To not give too much more away, the troop finally arrives at the mountain, Bilbo manages to get into the Hidden Door of Erebor to attempt to steal the Arkenstone for Thorin from the sleeping dragon usurper. Thus ensues a great interplay between the other character who upstages the hobbit and dwarf main characters, Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch in one of his two roles in the film). Smaug (surely an allusion to Smug) is full of himself and his self-assuredness is to be his ultimate downfall.....but this all seems anti-climatic at beast since it took so long for us to reach the point of the entire Hobbit story--the showdown between Bilbo, Thorin, Bard and Smaug.

Peter Jackson has truly taken a well-known story and tried to fill 6+ hours of film in a story that should have taken 3 hours at maximum to do it justice--maybe 4 if he wanted to make two parts or an "extended edition" as was done with Fellowship. He was truly overzealous to the point of ridiculous with the long drawn out marching sequences that worked in Fellowship, yet seem contrite in "The Hobbit." What allowed him to make three movies for the Fellowship was that it was THREE BOOKS and people expected him to do it justice. The Hobbit is only 300 pages in total length. For Jackson to make so long a film sequence is maddening. He is fluffing  the entire script with information from The Silmarillion (Tolkein's book on Elfish history), back-stories from the Fellowship, as well as from the Tolkein Reader set of short stories AND adding characters into the Hobbit who are not supposed to be there--remember Legolas and Tauriel...they are not even in the story--just adding drama. The whole "crossed-lovers"  interplay between Tauriel and the Dwarf, Kili (Aiden Turner) does not occur either and just serves to add unnecessary drama and time to the script.

Again, I would like to state that the scenery and the cinematography is gorgeous, but the sequences suffer from poor editing. I almost feel as though Jackson did not allow the editors (lead by Jabez Olssen who worked on all of the Fellowship) to perform their job properly. You end up with many poor transitions throughout the film, namely every time that Gandolf reappears in the plot almost seems as a jolt to the system. There is not the smoothness that we expect from a Peter Jackson film. Some of the minor characters from the book--especially Beorn the shape-shifter and Bolg the Orc--are given too much individual screen time that adds absolutely nothing to the plot as a whole.

Did I like this movie better than the first part? YES. Do I love this movie, sadly NO.