It's rather difficult to assess these Hobbit movies; the common complaint is that Peter Jackson could have made one, spectacular, tight three-hour movie of the book and it would have been done. But instead Jackson and the team at Warner Bros. have been forcing this little book into a huge event to equal the original LOTR saga, and as such these films don't feel as effortlessly epic as the previous ones did.
To be sure, I enjoyed Desolation of Smaug a bit more then An Unexpected Journey, if only because all the set-up is out of the way and we can get to the best parts of the book, which include the terrifying journey through Mirkwood and the confrontation of Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch) in the Lonely Mountain. But the second installment commits the same treason as the first, by shoving Legolas (Orlando Bloom) in our face when he was never part of the original proceedings.
The movie opens with a brief, odd prologue in the city of Bree (where if you look fast you'll spot ol' carrot chompin' Peter Jackson himself) where Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and Thorin (Richard Armitage) have a meeting that basically results in Gandalf convincing Thorin to set out on this quest. We resume our journey with Bilbo (Martin Freeman) and the company of dwarves as they tangle with the skin-changer Beorn (Mikael Persbrandt), ferocious arachnids, wood elves, the people of Lake Town, and ultimately the dragon.
Though this films is only 8 minutes shorter then An Unexpected Journey it somehow feels a lot quicker, for the most part. There are a few major complaints I have with the film, but the barrel-river-ride is as exhilarating and as goofy as one could have hoped for and the confrontation with Smaug is one of the best scenes in cinema this year.
Mr. Cumberbatch lends both his voice and body to motion-capturing the dragon Smaug, and the result is a villain so dastardly and evil that, no matter your complaints about everything else, you'll be riveted to the spot watching him slither around the enormous treasure room of Erebor. Its one of those moments people call pure cinema, and just like Bilbo's confrontation with another mocap villain, Gollum (Andy Serkis) in the previous installment, this a scene that alone is worth the price of admission (unless you see it in IMAX 3D, in which case the price may be a bit too much).
There are also some other embellishments that work, for the most part. The part of Bard (Luke Evans) is greatly expanded to better pay off his actions in the third movie, rather then the book's method which is to introduce him right before he does one of the most important things in the story. Though it may be a little ridiculous that this man would meet with the dwarves and shepherd them to their destination, its a quibble I overlook.
Gandalf also comes face-to-face with the Necromancer (also Benedict Cumberbatch) in another of the few additional subplots I do enjoy. Gandalf does go wandering off a lot in the original book, and its nice to get some insight into what he was up to. This is one of those embellishments that enhances the story, rather then feels leaden and extraneous. Perhaps I don't mind this as much because I know its something that happens in the book, albeit off page, and perhaps if I had no familiarity with the novel I would find this stuff too much.
What I do find too much, unfortunately, is the character Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly). She is a character nowhere to be found in the Middle Earth universe, yet Jackson has fabricated her to get a female into the story. I'm fine with this; she kicks some serious ass and is pretty badass, showing up Legolas. But she is also the unfortunate cause of a love triangle between Legolas, herself, and the dwarf Kili (Aidan Turner). I may sound 10-years-old for saying this, but there is no room for a love story in this epic, at least the one Mr. Jackson and his screenwriting team have realized. Tauriel rescues Kili on more then one occasion and he falls for her, and she in turn for him after they have a weird, "cute" conversation while he is her prisoner.
Her subplot culminates in the most ridiculous image of the film, and possibly all of Jackson's Middle Earth films: as Kili lays dying from a wound he sustained (another deviation from the novel), she brings the special weed to heal him, and Kili gazes up and sees her surrounded in a magnificent glow. I wanted to boo at the screen.
The biggest complaint I have though, is that the movie called The Hobbit is not about the hobbit. Bilbo has his moment at the beginning with the spiders and rescuing the dwarves from the elves. But once the barrel ride starts, Bilbo is again regaled to nothing more then popping up every now and then to remind us he's there, until the end when he has his big face-off with Smaug.
Well wait a fucking second...why do we see this film told from Thorin, Legolas, Gandalf, and Bard's perspectives and get barely any Bilbo? HE'S THE MOST IMPORTANT CHARACTER! I believed Frodo's journey to destroy the ring, I believed Aragorn's struggle with accepting his place as the King of Gondor, but I have barely seen any development of Bilbo's strength and courage. Its there as the book tells it, but Bilbo is so caught up in the spectacle that we never see him develop at all. He's a flat, terribly written character who simply shows up every now and then to service the plot. Martin Freeman does all that he can in the role, but Mr. Jackson has lost sight of what this story is truly about in his epic quest to stroke fanboy boners and deliver the ultimate companion to his epic LOTR films. I said it last year and I'll say it again, THIS IS NOT LOTR! The world is not at stake (although that threat is being established); a dwarf just wants his home back (and even he's a greedy bastard as we'll see in the forthcoming final film) and this is their struggle to do so. But just because you have Bilbo doing these actions that prove he has grown in some way doesn't mean we believe it because we never saw Bilbo grow! This was a huge issue in the first film, which saw Bilbo as the focus for the first hour and then relegated him to a smaller role until Gollum time. I guess he gained his courage at the end of Part 1, but that leaves no growth for him here! I never once doubted Bilbo's abilities until the scene with Smaug, and I should have been held in more suspense before that about what Bilbo would do.
Jackson also ends the film in the stupidest cliffhanger place possible, interrupting a third act because otherwise there wouldn't be enough movie to service the third installment. I'm very tempted to show up next year to the theater, buy my ticket, sit down, and watch Smaug get taken down, which should supposedly happen in the first scenes of the film. Then I'm done.
