December 19: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013 -- Peter Jackson)

★★★

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.