'The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug' review by Captain Raptor
An Unexpected Journey was good enough to make my top ten of the year by the skin of its teeth (although by this point, having seen more films released in 2012 on DVD, it's probably somewhere around 14th) but still left a lot to be desired. However, this film was to contain most of my favourite moments from the book, had extra Benedict Cumberbatch and my favourite films from franchises tend to be second one (Lord of the Rings, X-Men, Christopher Nolan's Batman, Pirates of the Caribbean... the list goes on), so expectations were still high.
For the first forty minutes or so, the film totally delivered. Bilbo and his dwarfish entourage are still entertaining, and two equally great but contrasting setpieces - a mostly silent and thoroughly atmospheric interlude with giant spiders, and a brilliantly fun and fast-paced piece of what can only be described as barrel warfare - marked a strong step in the right direction. These scenes weren't done perfectly; it's still hard to care about all of the dwarves when about 5 of them have don't any resemblance of character, and the spider scene, my personal favourite segment from the original book, is done far too briefly, but they're the still the strongest parts of the prequels thus far. Also good is Tolkien newcomer Evangeline Lilly as elven warrior Tauriel, who kicks ass like she's being paid in direct proportion to how much orc blood she can spill. However, whether the film ran out of steam or I just ran out of patience, eventually everything just became dull. The main cause of this is Luke Evans, who fails to display much more than a drop of either charisma or pathos in his role as Bard, which while he may be an important character, is not worth spending an hour with when said hour could feature more dwarves, wizards, goddamn giant spiders or, y'know, fantasy. Lee Pace is adequate but still uninspiring in a role that could have been cut almost entirely and is similarly dull to Evans'.
I don't even want to talk about Smaug. Someone has clearly put in a lot of effort in the wrong direction, because I cannot fathom how one could make a dragon with the voice of Benedict Cumberbatch feel boring. There are numerous other disappointments too, but really they all stem from one problem: trying to recreate Lord of the Rings. The Hobbit is fundamentally a lighter, sillier and (arguably most importantly) shorter story, but this goes by the wayside. Legolas is needlessly brought back, and it's not even that much fun because the canon necessitates him being an asshole. Smaug is stripped of any and all distinctive traits and the talents of Benedict Cumberbatch buried beneath voice modification in order that he might a far more simplistic villain, like Sauron. Rather than concentrating on the fun, light-hearted idiosyncratic tale and set of characters it has at hand, The Desolation of Smaug instead focuses on attempts at moodiness and epicness, and despite the outstanding visuals and thrilling action that it possesses by the bucketful, the end result is somewhat half-baked.
It's such an abundant criticism that it hardly feels worth mentioning, but The Hobbit films are just too long for their own good. There's a 90 minute film that's highly above average somewhere within The Desolation of Smaug, buried under stuff that could have or arguably should have been more heavily edited. The most interesting parts of the film (yes, I'm still annoyed about the giant spider thing) are whizzed past whereas the duller parts (namely almost everything that happens in Laketown) seem to stretch on for countless minutes, yet despite all that there's enough charm and fun to keep you entertained for the majority of the film's duration. The review doesn't really sound like I enjoyed the film (I did) but that's because it was so easy to see where it could have been better, if only Peter Jackson (who I instantly feel awful for criticising) could maybe, just maybe, learn when enough is enough.
I don't even want to talk about Smaug. Someone has clearly put in a lot of effort in the wrong direction, because I cannot fathom how one could make a dragon with the voice of Benedict Cumberbatch feel boring. There are numerous other disappointments too, but really they all stem from one problem: trying to recreate Lord of the Rings. The Hobbit is fundamentally a lighter, sillier and (arguably most importantly) shorter story, but this goes by the wayside. Legolas is needlessly brought back, and it's not even that much fun because the canon necessitates him being an asshole. Smaug is stripped of any and all distinctive traits and the talents of Benedict Cumberbatch buried beneath voice modification in order that he might a far more simplistic villain, like Sauron. Rather than concentrating on the fun, light-hearted idiosyncratic tale and set of characters it has at hand, The Desolation of Smaug instead focuses on attempts at moodiness and epicness, and despite the outstanding visuals and thrilling action that it possesses by the bucketful, the end result is somewhat half-baked.
It's such an abundant criticism that it hardly feels worth mentioning, but The Hobbit films are just too long for their own good. There's a 90 minute film that's highly above average somewhere within The Desolation of Smaug, buried under stuff that could have or arguably should have been more heavily edited. The most interesting parts of the film (yes, I'm still annoyed about the giant spider thing) are whizzed past whereas the duller parts (namely almost everything that happens in Laketown) seem to stretch on for countless minutes, yet despite all that there's enough charm and fun to keep you entertained for the majority of the film's duration. The review doesn't really sound like I enjoyed the film (I did) but that's because it was so easy to see where it could have been better, if only Peter Jackson (who I instantly feel awful for criticising) could maybe, just maybe, learn when enough is enough.
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