This movie has been out for a couple of weeks, but I waited to review it for two reasons. One is that anything Middle-Earth related is kind of required to see for the first time with the family, or at least my brothers and me since we're all fans of Tolkein's work like practically everyone else, so I had to wait until both of my brothers were home for the holidays. Two is that this movie was required to watch two times before having a more genuine feeling about it - which is something I wish I did with the first movie because I ended up liking that a little more when watching it again. All that being said, let's take a look at The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.
Plot: Set roughly right after the events of the last film, Bilbo and Gandalf and the dwarves are still on their way to The Lonely Mountain. But along the way they come across giant spiders, wood elves where one of the dwarves, Kili, begins to fall in love with a female wood elf named Tauriel, and eventually Bard and the people of Lake Town. Thus they begin to find an way into the mountain and face Smaug himself.
One thing that both me and especially my youngest brother Johnathan are beginning to realize with these Hobbit films is that they are kind of required to see more then once. Because despite how most of us are probably trying our best not to compare them so much to the Lord of the Rings trilogy or the Hobbit book, a lot of things that Jackson does differently seem to be very hard to swallow for everybody. And if it was hard to watch the first Hobbit movie because of that despite it still being good, it's a little harder with this movie - which is where it was imperative for Johnathan and I to see it twice before having a more sincere opinion about this movie. But let's talk about what's good about this movie, because there's still a lot to like about it just like the first one. First off, it's still visually wonderful to see, as if there was any doubt of that. The characters are still enjoyable to watch - I really like how the dwarves are starting to stand out more as individuals such as Gloin and Óin. And Martin Freeman is starting to grow on me more an more as the perfect person to play Bilbo for these films. The music - while no masterpiece, did have some nice pieces such as the track for when we first see Lake Town, and I the end credits some "I See Fire" has been growing on me. The action is still great to watch, and while it is questionable for Tauriel and especially Legolas to be in this movie in terms of story, they were still very entertaining whenever they were out there slaughtering countless Orcs. The comedy - while giving into slapstick once in a while, also had some memorable moments. But by far the best of the movie is Smaug. Holy crap, was it a treat to finally get to this guy. His design was perfect, his size was perfect, and his voice above all was perfect. Benedict Cumberbatch could hardly have done a better job at making Smaug so powerful and menacing that makes it little wonder that this character is such a terrible danger for Bilbo and the dwarves to face. I wanted Smaug to turn out to be as terrifying and menacing as possible, and I was not disappointed. So what exactly is wrong with this film? Well...it kind of depends on your point of view. The big reason why this film needed to be seen twice before I felt ready to review it is that there's a lot of things they add into this movie that are not in the book at all. Most of them pay off pretty well like the politics in Lake Town and Gandalf's search for The Necromancer. But the rest of them either don't work at all, or are yet to be determined whether or not they work until the third movie comes out. The biggest example is the relationship between Tauriel and Kili. While they're hardly the most painful couple to put on screen and are less of a bother to watch the second time, they do so far seem to hurt the Hobbit films as a trilogy the most. I especially say that because their last two scenes where kind of really hard for my brothers and my dad and I to watch when we first saw this film. As entertaining as Tauriel was to watch in the fight scenes, the whole thing between them is possibly the least needed thing for these films as far as adding things to Tolkein's story goes.
And that's my review for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. While still not a masterpiece like the Lord of the Rings films, Johnathan and I are beginning to truly accept that it didn't have to be and that's perfectly fine because it's still a good, entertaining film. Even if some of the things Jackson added that weren't in the book didn't pay off, it's still visually pleasing, still has some great fight scenes, still has well acted characters, and we could hardly have asked for better once we finally got to Smaug. It's the weakest of the Hobbit films and live-action Middle Earth related films in general, but it's still a darn good entertaining film. How does it all come together in the final film There And Back Again? We're just gonna have to wait and find out.
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