Feature | Lights, Camera, Action! – The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

By Freda Cooper 11.12.2013 5

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (UK Rating: 12A)

First came the Lord of the Rings trilogy - three books, three films. Then came The Hobbit - one much shorter book, but still with three films.  It doesn't add up - and it certainly doesn't make for a consistent film in part two, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

Thorin Oakenshield and his company of dwarves continue their quest to reclaim their kingdom and have taken hobbit Bilbo Baggins with them for his skills as a burglar. Their aim is to reach the Lonely Mountain, where Baggins has to find the Secret Door and then steal back the Arkenstone, the dwarves' most precious treasure. However, they have to overcome numerous obstacles and enemies before getting there - and guarding the jewel is the predatory dragon, Smaug.

Image for Feature | Lights, Camera, Action! – The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug


It takes Peter Jackson just ten minutes short of three hours to tell us this section of the story, which is one of the film's biggest problems; it's simply too long. The first two thirds drag their feet, despite the many battles and escapes that should be exciting but, in all honesty, don't exactly get the pulse pounding. There's a routine sameness about them, with the dwarves under attack - usually from Orcs - and being rescued, albeit reluctantly, by Elvin archers Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly). The language doesn't help: it takes its style from the book but, on the big screen, it's plodding, not dignified.

As an army, the Orcs are pretty useless, not much more than bow and arrow fodder for the Elvin mob. From the sound of it, they all suffer from terrible asthma, chronic indigestion and, from the look of their teeth, appalling halitosis. How their master can believe he's going to rule the world with this lot working for him is baffling, to say the least. The elves, on the other hand, are all elegance and art. When they fight, it's almost balletic, reminiscent of recent Chinese martial arts films. Crouching Hobbit, Hidden Dragon anybody?

It's the third section of the film, though, when things really look up. Why? Enter the dragon! Smaug is superbly re-created, fire glowing in his belly as he prepares to unleash his big weapon on his enemies. He's agile, scaly and - apparently - almost indestructible. Every time he's attacked and seems to have been defeated, he comes back for more - at one point rising spectacularly from the ruins of his latest encounter, clad in gold. The action is fast and furious, the settings are striking and it all demonstrates just how leaden the first two parts are. That's the inevitable result of stretching one average-sized book into three parts.

Image for Feature | Lights, Camera, Action! – The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug


Like many of the current crop of blockbusters, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug comes in 3D, yet it doesn't really add much to the film - just the occasional moment when giant bumble bees fly out towards the audience. The settings, especially inside The Lonely Mountain, are strong enough on their own.

There is, of course, a third part to come: The Hobbit: There and Back Again is due out next year and will tie up all the loose ends from the end of this film. Does Smaug attack the human settlement, Laketown? What happens to Gandalf (Ian MacKellan hamming it up), who is currently suspended in a cage, without his magic staff? Will Thorin reclaim his throne and kingdom? Then there's the small matter of the gold ring in Bilbo's pocket…

7/10
Rated 7 out of 10

Very Good - Bronze Award

Rated 7 out of 10
The third section of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug shows just what Peter Jackson is capable of - superb, imaginative and vibrant cinema. The trouble is, it takes the audience the best part of two hours to find out and it's perilously close to being too late.

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Comments

I thoroughly enjoyed the first one - seemed far lighter in content than the LotR Trilogy (for obvious reasons), which was fine by me. Intrigued about this one now, Freda. I watched Gravity the other day and thought it was rather boring...so maybe I'll enjoy this Smilie

Adam Riley [ Director :: Cubed3 ]

UNITE714: Weekly Prayers | Bible Verses

I gave it a 5/10 on IMDb, I was really disappointed by it. Warning, some minor spoilers coming up.

Did they make this movie for 15 year old boys or something? What's with the random action scenes every 10 minutes? And with the funny decapitations every 20 minutes?
Did they really have to butcher the story THIS MUCH? They even keep contradicting their own story.

Did they really think people would be so desperate for a love story that they'd enjoy an Elf and a Dwarf flirting it up??! Oh and how does entering the mountain to steal the Arkenstone to reunite the Dwarfs to kill the Dragon to enter the mountain work exactly??
The scenes with Smaug were WAY too dragged out. Dwarves luring a Dragon around by going "Nanananana you can't get me and you're ugly!" is just an insult to Tolkien's lore. And don't get me started on this molten gold stuff.

Final complaint: the whole movie seems to work towards the scene.... that's going to be the opening scene of movie 3. -_-


Edit: the name of the female Elf is Tauriel, not Taurin.

( Edited 12.12.2013 01:17 by Canyarion )

I decided to write my own review. I submit it to IMDb, I'm waiting for aprovel at the moment.

This is it:

Decent fantasy-action slightly inspired by The Hobbit.

Most reviews will tell you what's so great about this movie and why it's worth watching, but I figured you should hear the other side of the story.

First of all a small note for Tolkien fans. If you thought An Unexpected Journey strayed a bit too far from the book: The Desolation of Smaug looks like the script writers didn't even know there was a book. The movie tries hard to change the story wherever it can, reducing fan-favorite chapters to 5 minute scenes and writing new content that feels out of place.

But it's not only bad if you've read the book. I really wonder what the target audience is, because it feels like it's written for 15 year old boys. There are random action scenes every 10 minutes and 'funny' decapitations every 30. The worst thing here is that the action comes at the cost of character development. You have a band of 13 Dwarfs and a Hobbit, yet you rarely see them interact.

Now I like Elves more than Dwarfs, so I didn't mind seeing so much of them in this movie. But having them show up in every place to save the day feels wrong. Perhaps Peter Jackson thought his cast of Dwarfs wasn't good enough to create an enjoyable movie? Gandalf's scenes in Dol Guldur were an interesting addition in concept, but they are just too slow. I feel his scenes mostly serve as an attempt to raise The Hobbit to The Lord of the Rings' level of epicness. And that just doesn't work.

The story is full of illogicalities. How does entering the mountain to steal the Arkenstone to unite the Dwarfs to kill the Dragon to enter the mountain work exactly?? And remember that heartwarming last scene of An Unexpected Journey, where Thorin finally accepts Bilbo? Well, that's all gone again. Even though he keeps outsmarting all the Dwarfs, Bilbo is back to being an unappreciated 5th wheel of the party. And did the writers really think viewers would be so desperate for a love story that they'd enjoy an Elf and a Dwarf flirting it up? Their scenes feel forced and are painful to watch.

Martin Freeman's acting is top notch again, but sadly he hardly gets any screen time. He only shines in his scene with Smaug. Now Smaug as a character is awesome, no complaints there. Yet most of his scenes are way too dragged out. There's a 20 minute scene with the Dwarfs running around thinking they can defeat him. Only at that point the movie already hinted at the only possible way of defeating him. Perhaps the worst aspect is that these scenes make Smaug look like an unintelligent creature. Dwarfs luring a Dragon around by going "Nana-nanana you can't catch me!" is not only silly and cliché, it's an insult to Smaug's character.

Final complaint: the whole movie builds up to a scene.... that's apparently going to be the opening scene of movie 3. Nobody in the cinema was sure if the movie had ended, or there was just an awkwardly long pause when the screen went black.

A movie like this you'll want to see, no matter how good or bad it is. You can't miss out on such a huge release, especially when it looks gorgeous in HFR 3D. But where I watched each Lord of the Rings movie 3 times in cinema, watching The Desolation of Smaug just once was enough for me.

In the end, most problems of the movie seem to stem from the decision to turn the cute Hobbit tale into three epic movies that have to live up to the Lord of the Rings hype. It doesn't work.

Thanks for the extensive feedback! I'm sure Freda will be tucking into it very shortly Smilie

I've updated the name - thanks for pointing it out!

I'm even more intrigued about this movie now, by the way. I love it when people get really critical of films - makes me want to delve in more than normal. Weird, right? Smilie

Adam Riley [ Director :: Cubed3 ]

UNITE714: Weekly Prayers | Bible Verses

Yeah you should go see it, it's too epic not to see. And maybe if you never read the book, you'll enjoy it a bit more.
Yay, my review got placed on IMDb, I hope some people will find it useful: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1170358/reviews-38

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