The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Part 1: An Unexpectedly Long Review)

Dustin: 4 of 5 stars Nick: 4 of 5 stars Average: 4 of 5 stars (Live canary)

Dustin: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is the second installment in the film trilogy based on a 300-page book. It picks up in the middle of the hobbit and the dwarves’ journey to the Lonely Mountain to reclaim their treasure from the dragon Smaug.

What did you think of The Hobbit, Nick?

Nick: A rare sequel that is better in every aspect when compared to the first.

Dustin: I didn’t feel like it dragged as much as the first. I remember about an hour into the first film, I got up to use the restroom, and when I came back 45 minutes later they were still standing around Bilbo’s hole in the ground and the story hadn’t advanced at all. This time the story moved more briskly, and it held my attention, even though it got overlong.

Nick: Going into the first Hobbit film, I had just finished half of the book for the first time wanting to get an idea of what the movie would be like. The book was more geared towards children’s fantasy than adult fantasy, which made the whole series a little less interesting to me. While the Harry Potter films gradually grew in darkness, we are treated to a new trilogy from Middle Earth that doesn’t seem as complexed or as dangerous. It’s hard to find their quest interesting when its not as interesting as the trilogy that came before. Where I stopped in the book was actually right where the first film stopped. While I’m not sure what was added in this adaptation, I assume it was most of the scenes I enjoyed and the film needed in order to be more than a straightforward adaptation would have allowed.

Dustin: I think I would have preferred a straightforward adaptation. My main complaint about the first film was that the things that were added didn’t add anything that wasn’t already in the original story (see my review of the first installment). Same complaint here as well. There is a love triangle subplot between Legolas, Kili and some girl elf who wasn’t in the book. This was given too much screen time. I realize Peter Jackson and co. wanted to have this to appeal to females dragged into the audience by their boyfriends, and to give a more human touch to the fairy tale world, but I think I could do without Peter Jackson’s fan fiction.

Nick: Although it was a love triangle, it wasn’t as melodramatic as recent triangles we’ve been forced to sit through. The she-elf is forced to look away from Legolas, which helps her romantic glances towards the dwarf Kili. She is also not considered special in the elf world while Kili makes her feel like one-of-a-kind. The film does a good job not laboring on this for too long considering that the screentime is around three hours.

Dustin: There was too much going on toward the conclusion. You had Kili suffering from a poisoned arrow shot to the leg while another dwarf searched for some herb that could save him, Bard the guardsman in jail, Legolas and the girl elf fighting orcs in Lake Town, all while the dwarves tried to force Smaug out of the Lonely Mountain in an overlong scene that reminded me of the Griswolds trying to force the squirrel out of their house in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.

Nick: It’s like the end of a book chapter when all of these things are not summed up so it makes you anticipate reading the next chapter as soon as possible. Though the film should have summed up more and left some things till the next film. The first film did this, with one climax and one anticipating Smaug. This climax reminded me more of The Matrix Reloaded where it builds up so much then ends with basically saying to be continued. Both franchises were made the same way, with the two sequels being shot at the same time. When the film ended (for both movies) the audience groaned being annoyed with how much was still yet to be summed up.  The first Lord of the Rings franchise was better at having a large conclusion at the end of each film while leaving enough still yet to be done for our adventurers.

Dustin: For me, none of this stuff was in the book, and I knew what would eventually happen, so I was thinking, Can we just fast-forward through all this?

Nick: I’m happy I didn’t continue reading the book. Maybe the book would be more endearing to me if I’d read it as a child.

Dustin: I think so. I was 10 or so when I first read it. Seems like most people I know who’ve read it as adults didn’t much care for it. I felt that way reading The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as an adult. L. Frank Baum didn’t know what he was doing. The movie was much better.