Is The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug a great story, well told? Or a case of dollar signs producing another soulless saga? Let's dig in ...
The Hobbit’s source material was a single book less than 500 pages with fewer battles than the Lord of the Rings (LOTR) saga. LOTR spanned three books and the last one spans close to 900 pages hence the three trilogy take of the movies. So as I watched The Desolation of Smaug I was like: "Why is this movie a standalone flick though?"
In last year's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the plot was quite thin for a movie that takes three hours long. The plot was basically Bilbo Baggins going on a wild adventure with the dwarves who are trying to reclaim their kingdom from the egotistical fire-breathing dragon Smaug.
The only difference between last year's film and the latest addition is that we finally get to see the dragon 2/3 into the film!? "But the first ended with them right at the mountain," you say - well, we have to go on some annoying side tracks.
Side tracks such as re-introducing Legolas and a dim-witted love story that does not exist in the source material which results in a feeling of watching a series of events that really do not add anything to the major the plot.
The story only picks up when we finally get to Smaug - which, if you have seen the first film, you would expect would happen within the first 40 minutes. But Peter Jackson is seeing dollar signs and makes sure we meander for the first 1;30 minutes.
The only amazing thing for me with the Hobbit is the visual effects. From the realization of Smaug the dragon to the creation of the Orcs and goblins, the visual effects are beautiful. Pity one cannot say the same for the story.
There’s detail and sheen to the story that looks great but the story is like little butter spread thinly on too huge a piece of bread. Even Smaug's character is not half of what he is in the book, although Benedict Cumberbatch (who voices the dragon) captures the arrogance and malice of Smaug but the word games and banter from the book is out of the window.
It’s a good thing that next year's edition The Hobbit: There and Back Again is the final one. So far the first two parts of the trilogy have been a disappointment. I feel a single 3-hour run of the trilogy would have been better.
The idea of forcing tie-ins to Lord of the Rings into the Hobbit trilogy that do not exist in the source material is so mind numbing - sometimes it does not even make logical sense. This then affects the pacing of the story, making it super ssssssslow. There’s little to no emotional investment expected from the viewers but just watching things happen. How can the guys who created Lord of the Rings trilogy give us such a soulless movie?
The Hobbit is slowly becoming the Twilight Saga - one trilogy the world can do without , the trilogy that could have happened in one movie and everyone would be happy. Alas Jackson is determined to really kill the magic and nuance of JRR Tolkien's book, all chasing Rihanna's dollar signs as he tosses up half-baked stories with zero heart.