The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

The second installment of Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy has finally hit theaters, but does it live up to the first film?

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug picks up right where An Unexpected Journey left off: The Dwarves and Bilbo continue their quest towards Erebor to reclaim the dwarven homeland, while dark forces continue to rise in Dol Guldur, hinting at the coming evil. The Desolation of Smaug has the dwarves meeting the wood elves, some nasty spiders, and the men of Laketown, but most importantly of all, Smaug, the last dragon in Middle Earth. 

Like any film, The Desolation of Smaug has its ups and downs. 

To begin with, a lot the most important sections of the story felt very rushed in this film. In Tolkien's novel, the sequences in the forest are draped in complete darkness, as Bilbo and the company are haunted by the unknown beasts in the shadows. These scenes make up a good portion of the first half of the book, and create some very dark and creepy atmosphere, truly displaying Bilbo's anxieties about leaving home. In the film, however, they fight some spiders and are immediately captured by the elves in a fairly well-lit forest. 

Similarly, unimportant scenes felt very drawn out. One particular sequence, when the dwarves cross the lake with Bard, felt much too long and served no real purpose. And while I’m sure some viewers enjoyed it, the romance angle was completely unnecessary and also failed to serve any real purpose, other than making Legolas look clingy and whiney.

  

I always hate to be the type of person that is constantly judging an adaptation by the strict limits of the source material, but these are important scenes that were botched in favor of the contrived romance story between a dwarf and an elf that would never, ever logically happen in the world of Tolkien's Middle Earth. 

Similarly, I’m not sure what Peter Jackson plans to do with Azog the Defiler, the orc chieftain who is apparently now in the service of the Necromancer. In the actual Tolkien mythology, Azog is slain by Dain Ironfoot at the battle of Azanulbizar, after the death of his father, Nain.

This brings up a few problems.

The first is that Dain Ironfoot, who will become the dwarven king under the mountain, has yet to even be mentioned in the films. His character is, however, one that can and likely will be replaced by one of the dwarves we already know.

The second problem is that Azog is already dead by the time that the events of the Hobbit occur, but he is now being promoted to a main player in The Necromancer’s army. His son, Bolg, was introduced in The Desolation of Smaug, but will likely be replaced by Azog as the leader of the orcs and goblins at the Battle of Five Armies, and will probably be slain by Thorin in the end, because that's what the audience really wants to see.

Another character that I felt was not done justice was Beorn. His very short part in the film made him seem like a fairly unimportant, bitter creature, despite that large role he will probably play later on, depending on Jackson's attention to the Tolkien mythology.

At times, it also felt like the characters had completely forgotten everything they’d learned in the first film. Thorin was back to acting like the arrogant, ignorant dwarf from the beginning of the journey, and somehow doubted Bilbo again despite the fact that he saved all of their lives multiple times in the first film, and even had a teary-eyed embrace after the eagles dropped the company off.

A major problem that I had with The Desolation of Smaug, and one that shocked me, especially when compared to An Unexpected Journey, was the special effects. 

The first problem was Legolas' face. I understand that they wanted him to look younger for this film, but he ended up looking like one of the characters from that awful Final Fantasy movie from 2001. His face looked like he was wearing heavy make-up, which actor Orlando Bloom probably was, and it just came off as overly fake.

Secondly was the melted gold at the end of the film. The special effects in this scene included some of the worst CGI I’ve seen in a major Hollywood film in a very long time. It’s almost as if the entire budget was spent on the CGI for Smaug, and the leftover was spent on the gold. It was embarrassingly bad.

The film tripped up in a few places, however, it also had its merits.

Many of the fight sequences in The Desolation of Smaug topped those of the Lord of the Rings, particularly the barrel-riding scene. The action was great in this film, even when the story fell short.

It was also great to finally get a look at Smaug, who Peter Jackson did a great job of bringing to life. The dragon, voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, was the perfect villain for this film, and will be great to see again in the next one.

Another element that impressed me was the reveal of the Necromancer’s (also Benedict Cumberbatch) true identity, and his intentions. Without spoiling anything, the Necromancer will play a pretty large role in, well,  everything, so it was nice to see him finally revealed in his true form.

Whereas An Unexpected Journey was packed with Tolkien mythology, great action, and a well-written story, The Desolation of Smaug certainly fell short in a few ways, but managed to impress in many others.

It seems like The Desolation of Smaug faced the problems that many middle-of-the-trilogy films face (see: The Two Towers). It’s not the beginning and it isn’t the end, so it can sometimes feel like filler before the big events occur. However, the film was undoubtedly a good one, but it surely didn’t live up to the hype of the original.