Movie Review – ‘THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG’

What was the main thing missing from the first chapter of Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy?  It was a dragon, of course; a big ass, mean, intellectual, fire breathing monster in a cave-castle filled with more coinage than Scrooge McDuck could possibly fathom.  He who was spoken of constantly and yet never seen in An Unexpected Journey, Smaug, as voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, takes over the last third of the movie and completely steals the show.  Cumberbatch apparently did motion capture for the creature as well, though I’m guessing that was all face work and not prowling around like a snake with limbs.  Regardless, Smaug is a brilliantly designed and executed character, and though he does eclipse the rest of the film once he appears, there is a LOT of great stuff on the way there.  In just about every respect, The Desolation of Smaug is ten times better than An Unexpected Journey.

The story begins with a highly unnecessary flashback to Gandalf recruiting Thorin, followed by jumping back into where the story left off and hitting the ground running.  The dwarves, Bilbo, and Gandalf continue their journey to reclaim the homeland and defeat the mighty dragon holding it and its wealth hostage.  Gandalf must leave them, which only makes things tougher.  Along the way they stumble into a spider kingdom in the forest, the elves that rescue the crew and then imprison them, a gentleman named Bard who reluctantly helps, and they make one seriously daring trip down a raging river.  That sequence alone is so well worth the price of admission – full of so many clever and memorable orc deaths, laughs, and thrills that it could have worked extremely well as a finale to the first film.

All characters remain solid and get a bit more development, and the new additions of Luke Evans’ mysterious Bard, and the much welcome return of Orlando Bloom’s Legolas and newly created character Tauriel, played perfectly by Evangeline Lilly, round out a great ensemble.  Tauriel is the controversial character here as she isn’t one of J.R.R. Tolkien’s creations but was rather developed to add a female character to what is a story dominated by nothing but males.  The good news is that Tauriel feels like an organic, much needed character, and those bothered by her inclusion should be put at ease by her appearances and additions to the story.

I wasn’t forced to endure the HFR 48fps with the screening as I was last year, so visually the film was easier to digest and thus far more enjoyable.  Even without the frame rate enhancement the digital 3D presentation was crystal clear and immersive.  There are a lot more stand out moments and a much greater sense of depth here, with a much more assured hand and eye at work.  Knowing Jackson and company filmed all three chapters together and seeing how much stronger and inspired this chapter is leads me all the more toward knowing that separating the film into three chapters rather than the two originally sought was an awful mistake.  The problem is that this film is so full of action and the meat of the story that the first film feels even more worthless.  I would have rather seen two-4 hour films than waste 3 hours on a set-up.  But it’s more money for the studio, who raked in over a billion dollars with that first entry, so who can argue with that?  As a business decision, it was fantastic…as an artistic one, not so much.

As you can tell, I was no fan of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey last year, and just revisiting my review from then can tell just how different The Desolation of Smaug is.  The film is what The Two Towers was to Fellowship of the Ring – bolder, bigger, exciting, and a lot more violent and grown up.  The problems I had with Unexpected Journey are all but erased here, and I couldn’t be more excited to see Jackson’s final chapter in Middle Earth next year.