REVIEW – The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug, A Better Second Instalment From Middle Earth

When Peter Jackson announced that he would be bringing the Hobbit, the classic J.R.R Tolkien tale to the big screen, there was much rejoicing. The Lord of the Rings trilogy was hugely successful, both critically and commercially and was beloved by both new fans and fans of the original book, which was not an easy achievement, Lord of the Rings is literally massive in scale, just in terms of sets alone. However, when Jackson announced that the Hobbit would be turned into another trilogy, there was a collective sigh from the film world. Firstly, it was going to be incredibly difficult to spread the story that thin and secondly, there was such a love for the Lord of the Rings, it was going to be incredibly difficult to tear people away from that and drop them into another story in Middle Earth. Thankfully, the second instalment is slightly better than the first, but it still suffers from its problems. The story continues essentially from the end of the first film, the company of dwarves along with Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) and Gandalf continue on their journey to Erebor, the homeland of the dwarves which they must reclaim from the terrifying dragon, Smaug. However, after a journey through the dangerous Mirkwood Forest, the company are taken captive by Elves, including our old friend Legolas and his new friend Tauriel. Following an elaborate escape from the elves, the dwarves continue on their mission through Laketown and onto the layer of Smaug. Bilbo, who has been taken on board as a brilliant burglar, is sent into the layer to recover a stone which will make Thorin the ruler of his people and unite the dwarves so that they may take back their homeland. Oh, and Bilbo is in possession of that ring... The above is a summary of what is two and a half hours of onscreen time, which is the main problem that the Hobbit suffers from; it’s just far too long. Some have even begun to question if Peter Jackson was slightly presumptuous on his part, the Hobbit should have been split into two films at the very most. The entire sequence in Laketown, although entirely necessary as a plot structure for what is to come, is elongated to a terrible extent; it just becomes drawn out. In terms of how the film looks, this is something that you could never criticise Jackson and his crew for, the entire production is visually stunning. Every single second on screen is breathtaking, beautiful sets and CGI and the costumes are absolutely flawless. The artwork from both the trilogy and the Hobbit is some of the best artwork on any film that has ever existed. The performances are also excellent, Ian McKellen was born to play Gandalf, Aidan Turner is just adorable as dwarf Kili, but the real stand-out performance is from the amazing Benedict Cumberbatch as the brilliant voice of the dragon Smaug. The Desolation of Smaug almost feels like the long crusade in Apocalypse Now to meet Marlon Brando, by the time Smaug utters his first word, you will know why you bought that cinema ticket. However, there are a couple of other problems with the film besides its length. The first being the Elves. Althought its a perfect plot construct for the other films to have the elves included, Legolas doesn’t actually feature in the book, neither does Tauriel, who is essentially crowbarred in there for a love story and to have a woman represented. There are barely any others. However, their characters do lend to the action, which, thankfully there is a lot more of in this film. On top of that, despite the fact that the film is called the Hobbit, there is hardly a lot of the actual Hobbit in there. Bilbo doesn’t exactly feature prominently until the last third of the film. This is not to take away from his performance, it just means we don’t really see as much of Bilbo in this particular chapter. For those of you with extreme arachnophobia, watch out for that scene in the forest with an extended large spider sequence; it’s terrifying. Worth seeing, an improvement on the first but a tad drawn out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPVWy1tFXuc