The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Part 2: The Desolation of the Middle Chapter)

Nick: The CGI in this film when in the dragon’s lair is remarkable. The dragon, Lonely Mountain and the vast amounts of gold make the scene where Bilbo meets Smaug all the more frightening. The castle is such an open space that it fits a dragon and more gold than any man has ever acquired.

Dustin: I agree the CGI was a huge step forward. The dragon looked awesome (voiced by Benedict Cumbersome [12 Years a Slave]). Peter Jackson does a terrific job imagining Tolkien’s Middle Earth. I remember in The Fellowship of the Ring thinking the Balrog looked exactly how I pictured it in the book, even though Tolkien gave a very sparse description. When I read books, I tend to cast the characters in my head to help me picture them, and I had actually cast Elijah Wood as Frodo a good five years before the movies were made. He just had a very hobbit-like look to me.

Nick: The films are casted superbly. The things that were concerning are throwaway lines like when we find out that one of the dwarves is Gimley’s father and the way we find out is Legolas being insulting while at the same time actually misconstruing the sexes of dwarves he sees in the picture. There are one too many gags about how the world sees the dwarves.

Dustin: I didn’t mind that too much. I would say for a movie called The Hobbit, though, the hobbit didn’t get much screen time, while the entire book was from Bilbo’s point-of-view. He was in maybe 15 minutes of the 4.5 hour movie. It should have been called The Wood Elf, since Legolas got more screen time.

Nick: I can guarantee that Legolas didn’t even have half the screentime of Bilbo, but if you said Kili, the she-elf, Gandalf or Thorin, I’d be more inclined to agree with you. Richard Armitage, who plays Thorin, is quite a good actor, and I’m a little shocked I have never heard his name before these films.

Dustin: I liked how his character developed in this installment. He is beginning to go mad with greed, where he started out courageous and generous, like Humphrey Bogart in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. It starts when he won’t promise the Wood Elves one treasure from Lonely Mountain in exchange for their release, and culminating in him going psycho on Bilbo when he thinks (probably correctly) Bilbo has the sought-after Arkenstone.

Nick: I’m pretty sure Bilbo does have it. He was reaching for something in his pocket, but then retreated his arm when he saw how mad Thorin looked.

The film does have another triangle where we have three characters who are obsessed with objects. Bilbo with the Ring, Thorin with the Arkenstone and Smaug with every last bit of gold. It’s an interesting addition to have multiple characters dealing with greed which is like most Western films, as you correctly compared it to The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

Dustin: They never actually showed Bilbo take the Arkenstone. It was left ambiguous so when Thorin confronts him, you don’t know whether he’s right to be angry. But that’s actually what I liked, it didn’t matter if he was right, he was still wrong in his reaction, and it showed his greed. I think the movie was very graceful how it portrayed that ambiguity.

Nick: I know they were playing the ambiguity of the situation, but i think it’s fact that he does have it, unless you are going to tell me that in the book he for sure doesn’t.

Dustin: Bilbo eventually finds the Arkenstone in the book, but I don’t remember at exactly what point. So even I wasn’t entirely sure he had it when Thorin confronted him.

Nick: I’m probably being over confident in saying that I’m 99 percent sure that he does, just because of what Smaug had said of Thorin’s greed right before the scene when Bilbo sees Thorin and right when Thorin asks (demands) that the Arkenstone be presented to him Bilbo immediately pulls away his hand, which was enthusiastically in his pocket and his smile fades realizing that Smaug was correct in his depiction of Thorin. But I digress that I’m not certain and no matter what the scene was done phenomenally well because as you said his reaction was not very kingly. Well not a good king.