The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug (A "Better Late Than Never" Review)

I have a confession. I actually saw the Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug on December 14th and am just now getting around to writing my thoughts on the movie. It turns out working retail is hectic during the Holidays, who knew? So I'll do my best to adequately write my thoughts on the second film in Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy - in between bites of lunch, of course.

Warning! Spoilers ahead! 

As my brother Andrew so eloquently put it - "it was a good 3 hour movie that could have been a great 2 hour one."

Basically, this is all you need to know about the second installment of the ragtag group of Dwarves and their Hobbit burglar. The movie began well enough, and the pacing was definitely an improvement over the slow crawl that began An Unexpected Journey. However, some of the changes Jackson made didn't feel necessary to plot, such as Beorn stating that he was the last of his kind when the book explicitly mentions that although the mighty skinwalker will give the party refuge for the night in his house, they should beware his sons who roam outside. Also...

You know what? I'm just going to cut to the nitty-gritty. For those of who are familiar with Tolkien's classic novel, you were probably just as curious (and skeptical) about how the book could be stretched over three 3 hour long films. To pad out the second film when most of the cool stuff on the path to the Lonely Mountain had already happened in the first one, Jackson decided to flesh out secondary characters in a move that (I'm guessing, and seriously hope that I'm right about) will hopefully explain and lead towards events that do canonically take place in the book. For instance (and super serious guys, SPOILERS) the one and ONLY reason a love triangle between Kili, the nephew of Thorin Oakenshield, Tauriel, the (invented by Jackson) captain of the guard of Mirkwood, and Legolas,who, need I remind you, doesn't even appear in the Hobbit book - the only reason this exists is to shoehorn Legolas being pouty in, and to hopefully set up the Battle of the Five Armies in the third movie. Need I remind you, Kili does not survive that battle. Tauriel has already saved Kili's life at least 3 times by the time the battle takes place - it's not entirely inconceivable that Kili will end up repaying the debt in an extremely dramatic and heroic fashion. As far as the other padded material goes (the Dwarves playing Scooby Doo in Erebor, Bard's heroic rogue backstory), it pales in comparison to the general WTF-ness being thrown into the viewer's face, absolutely not subtly, by the Dwarve-Elf love story. There MUST be a reason for it. There just must be. Although, now that I think about it, funny that Legolas fails to mention any of the events that happened during this movie at any time to the Fellowship in Lord of the Rings. My thoughts about a female character being created only to serve as part of a love triangle raises some ire, but I'll spare you the soapbox rant.

The other things that struck me as odd were mostly cinematography related. Lord of the Rings looked so natural because many of the effects were practical, not CGI. I tried to get past the obvious and abundant use of graphics this time but just couldn't. I was no longer immersed in Middle Earth - just keenly aware that Legolas looked rather chubby in the cheeks despite being 60 some years younger. The tone is a bit darker this time around, unlike the more lighthearted adventure that carried through in the the first movie. There are some pretty funny moments, and of course the occasional ham-handed scene, and I will say that (plot additions aside) the pace has improved.

I don't think I can summarize the movie more succinctly than Andrew did - many things could have been pared down and many of the climactic scenes bordered on tedious. It was a movie that I desperately wanted to love, but just couldn't. It's been a divisive movie for fans, with one of my fellow Tolkeinites saying, flat out, "I hated it". Definitely worth a watch if only to find what parts specifically rubbed you the wrong way.