REVIEW: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

by dreynolds91

This review may be slightly late, but ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’ is still performing well in the box office having grossed over $650million worldwide. Peter Jackson’s first instalment ‘An Unexpected Journey’ was a commercial success, taking over $1billion worldwide, but reviews were mixed and the film received criticism for its pacing and reliance on CGI. ‘The Desolation of Smaug’ is an improvement on its predecessor however some issues are still present.

Martin Freeman in ‘The Desolation of Smaug’

‘The Desolation of Smaug’ (TDOS) picks up from where ‘An Unexpected Journey’ (AUJ) left off with Bilbo (Martin Freeman), Gandalf (Sir Ian McKellen) and the dwarves attempting to escape from the chasing Azog and his Orc pack. As they continue their adventure, Gandalf must depart due to an old evil returning leaving Bilbo and the dwarves to continue on their quest to reclaim their homeland from the cunning fire-breathing dragon Smaug. Bilbo begins to find his courage before he is faced with entering the lonely mountain in the hope that he doesn’t encounter Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch).

One of the biggest improvements on ‘AUJ’ evident in ‘TDOS’ is the pacing. Although it does take a while to get going, once it does, it doesn’t lose it. New characters have been introduced to gather more interest, including ‘Lord of the Rings’ hero Legolas as well as Tauriel, a completely new character, who help add another perspective to the film which is not evident in the book. There is also the fantastic Bard (Luke Evans) who is without a doubt the strongest of the newly introduced characters (non-CGI). He is a hero, arguably a villain, and is exactly the type of character ‘AUJ’ was missing. Undoubtably he will play a huge role in the last of the trilogy and the film will benefit greatly from it.

Another character that has to be praised is Smaug. After all the talk and build up throughout the ‘AUJ’, we finally get to encounter the fire-breathing dragon (which should not come as a spoiler to you, if you’ve seen the trailers). Smaug has been executed almost perfectly. Visually, he looks stunning and speaks brilliantly. Benedict Cumberbatch has not failed in bringing Smaug to life and creating a personality, not just a dragon. Smaug steals the film.

The editing is much tighter and you do get a much greater sense of scale, in terms of the story, from ‘TDOS’. An ‘AUJ’ may have felt so padded because it didn’t ever feel like there was enough happening, or going to happen, to fill three films. ‘TDOS’ does have a lot more going on and does now actually feel like there is a lot at stake for not only the dwarves, but everyone. Despite this, ‘TDOS’ does always feel like the second of a trilogy; everything is being positioned for the big finale, ‘There And Back Again.’

Whilst ‘TDOS’ is an improvement on ‘AUJ’, there are still the same issues evident in this as there were in the first. Firstly, there is still an over-reliance on CGI but unfortunately this is something everyone has to except as Peter Jackson hasn’t exactly hid his preference of CGI over make-up and miniatures; which many don’t agree with. Whilst he can be forgiven for CGI during action sequences, creating characters completely from CGI when they could have been created with the use of effective make-up is wrong. Azog is unimpressive, and Bolg is the same.

In addition, though this may simply be because ‘The Hobbit’ is a light-hearted children’s book, there is still no sense of danger. Why this is such an issue is because it makes getting really immersed into the action near impossible, it makes it quite boring and sometimes laughable; maybe this is what Jackson wants. Comparisons between ‘Lord of the Rings’ (LOTR) and ‘The Hobbit’ shouldn’t be drawn up too often, but in this case it needs to be. With ‘LOTR’, it never felt like anyone was safe from injury or death. This is the opposite with ‘The Hobbit’ and this is down to some over-the-top action sequences. The CGI does play a part in this as highly unrealistic moments take place. ‘LOTR’ did have a few too, but they were still executed much better and never quite as far-fetched.

Despite some flaws still being present in ‘The Desolation of Smaug’, it is a vast improvement on ‘An Unexpected Journey’ and is likely to be bettered by the finale ‘There and Back Again.’ The exaggerated action sequences and overuse of CGI is something we have to accept will be present in the third, but the series now has enough momentum and strong enough characters to carry it through for a satisfying conclusion.

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