I have to say that I was slightly hopeful about this film, the second of three planned
Hobbit films. The reviews were good on the whole, and it has a 74% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. This obviously set my expectations way too high. It makes me sad that I have to give a thumbs down to
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug because there are some very good bits, almost all of which are bits from the original book. Some day, I hope, there will be a re-edit of these movies, much as was done with Star Wars: Episode I. Just removing all scenes with Radagast the Brown would add a full bottle to my rating. He is the Jar Jar Binks of
The Hobbit. I'm happy to say that Radagast's role has been much reduced in the second film. He is only on screen for about 5 minutes. But, where was I? Oh yes, Radagast is not the worst thing about this bloated film, which, at 2 hours and 41 minutes, is actually 8 minutes shorter than the first installment of
The Hobbit.
The Desolation of Smaug roughly follows the middle third of the book starting with entering Mirkwood and fighting the spiders to a final scene of Smaug flying off in the direction of Laketown.
The action, that is contained in the book, would fill maybe half an hour, so much new material has been added to the film that is nowhere to be found in the book. First, there is the addition of Legolas and the new female elf character, Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly), and the associated "love" triangle involving them and Kili. Second, there is a subplot where Gandalf and Radagast go to Dol Guldur to confront the Necromancer. This will seem very familiar since it is almost identical in every way to Gandalf's visit to Saruman at Isengard. Third, there is a huge expansion of the action in Laketown, where the Master (Stephen Fry) is an evil ruler and the enemy of Bard (Luke Evans).
Fourth, Peter Jackson obviously feels that none of the action is exciting enough, so he adds Orcs to almost every scene including the Barrel escape and in Laketown. Finally, the last half hour of the movie is given over to a ridiculous running battle between Smaug and the dwarves, which like a series of Rube Goldberg devices. This ending is sad because it follows the the best part of the movie, by far, in which Bilbo sneaks down to behold the riches of Smaug. The scene where Smaug is first revealed from underneath a pile of treasure is very well done. It is a strange reunion of Benedict Cumberbatch, who does the voice of Smaug, and Martin Freeman, who is, of course, Bilbo. We will see them together again soon as Sherlock and Watson.
The addition of Legolas and Tauriel is welcome, much as was the expansion of Arwen's role in The Fellowship of the Ring. It just feels good to see Legolas sliding around shooting orcs again. And he is doing it through most of the movie. Evangeline Lilly's Tauriel mostly works well too, although the subplot of Legolas falling in love with her and Tauriel falling in love with Kili is laughable. Thranduil, King of the Wood-elves and father of Legolas appears much as he does in the book. Lee Pace plays the role as woodenly as Hugo Weaving plays Elrond, but with a great love of fetishes.
The dwarves are mostly good. Ken Stott is wonderful as Balin. And the movie begins with a nice flashback of Gandalf and Thorin meeting at the Prancing Pony just to set the scene. The size of the dwarves seems to vary a lot depending on whether any humans are around. It is unintentionally funny when Thorin is suddenly three feet tall. Smaug looks quite good and has a nice touch of menace, at least until he has his fight with the Keystone Cops at the end of the movie, which destroys the mood completely.
Bard is quite a good character, but the Laketown subplot combined with attacking orcs is a fiasco. And I almost walked out during the climactic battle between Smaug and the dwarves. Even Beorn was a bit of a disappointment. The most Peter-Jackson-esque scene is when the dwarves are trying to find the hidden door in the Lonely Mountain. They can't find it, so Thorin throws away the key and the dwarves quit and head home. Jackson loves to make the characters do things that hey would never do, as when Frodo sends Sam home, when Theoden wants to run away at Helm's Deep, and when Faramir becomes Boromir. The good parts of
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, and there are some, are lost in all the Jackson chaos. All in all, it was very disappointing.
