The Desolation of Smaug is a small step up from 2012’s
Hobbit. One of the improvements here is
that the action sequences, still long, are more fun than those in Jackson’s
2012 film. Smaug features a lively
barrel run with the dwarves in the barrels being pursued by orcs onshore, who
are themselves pursued by elves. The
bouncing barrels coupled with the aggressive orcs and agile elves makes for far
more animated, martial arts-inflected fun than does a similarly active sequence in the first Hobbit, where dwarves
are tossing plates around in Bilbo’s house. And though this film pauses overly long to
allow Bilbo and Smaug to engage in the Lonely Mountain, Smaug’s slithering,
sardonic fire breathing is more interesting that the overly long escape of the
dwarves from the goblin underground in The Hobbit.
Another improvement is a subtlety that exists here more than
in the previous Hobbit. Throughout The Desolation of Smaug, we encounter hints and signs
of the expansion of evil. We learn, for example, that the spider
incursions are getting worse in Mirkwood, and we see that the Nazgûl tombs are
empty, surely a bad sign but one we can't completely interpret. While the orc armies of Azog and the reveal of Sauron are rightly
on-the-nose, little signs like the tired weakness of Thranduil and the isolated Smaug's awareness of Sauron’s rise all imply the increasing range of evil rather than making it explicit with exposition. And on a purely visual level that the dialog doesn't even note, Smaug's eye looks remarkably like Sauron. This Hobbit film has much more subtlety than the former.
Desolation of Smaug still has some serious flaws,
though. The worst problem with this long
film is that it doesn't go anywhere.
There’s no resolution of an issue, and there’s no movement or idea at
its core. Dramatically, the film also
has even less character development than The Hobbit, and vast majority of the
script is declamation rather than dialog. And there is so much CGI in Smaug that most of the film looks like a video
game, one that someone else is playing and that we only get to watch. And some
parts of the film are simply hard to understand. It’s difficult, for example, to catch that the orc in charge of catching Thorin, Bolg, is the son of the Azog, the
orc commander. And as to why that would be
worth noting, perhaps the next film will tell.
Like its predecessor, Desolation of Smaug is not a great
film. People who love Middle Earth and
its lore will relish the film’s visuals and the way Jackson weaves in
background to create a sense of time and history. But the overlong action sequences, the lack
of character, and the meandering storyline here will leave many audiences on
the side.
