The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Despite the furious following of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, last year’s tentative revisit to middle earth was still seen as an overall critical disappointment. Its tone was off, pacing messy and overall aesthetic reminiscent of dated children’s cartoons. Divided into three unnecessary cinematic releases, fans were quick to state that ‘a lot of the action starts towards the end of the book’, giving much hope to the, now released, sequel, the desolation of smaug. Whilst this sequel does repair the glaring issues of its predecessor, it left some problems untouched and even created some more, more major, issues in the process.

After the rather forgettable conclusion to the first film we re-join the team of 13 dwarves, Gandalf and a Bilbo (Martin Freeman) on the second leg of their journey to the lonely mountain. As they travel towards their destination they’re challenged with a mysterious forest inhabited by bloodthirsty spiders among a multitude of other events that send their journey into disarray. This simple plot line is very much what it should be considering that it’s based on the popular adventure tale for children being action packed with fun fuelled set pieces. At these points in the film we really see the story flourish to its full potential, spilling its creative ideas over the screen to create for some truly exhilarating and fluid scenes of action. The most notable example of this is a scene where the team are sent down a thunderous lake, each in individual wooden barrels as they’re chased by the enemy, working effortlessly to fling axes and swords to each other and towards the foes to create for a scene of pure enjoyment and hilarity. Similar set pieces are seen throughout the film with each carrying a comforting and overwhelming sense of adventure as they explore the vast kingdom of middle earth, an important essence missed from the first release.

 Something that riddled middle earth however with no fault of its storytelling was the films CGI. Visibly distorting vast landscapes and making the enemy look like poorly designed waxworks, it’s easy to reminisce of the days when Peter Jackson used makeup and practical effects instead to truly ‘wow’ his audience. Whilst this isn’t as much an issue for the worlds landscapes, the digitally created villains on the other hand look consistently bad for the majority of their screen time, this makes them less of a threat and more of a lame bore. Unfortunately however this can be said for most of the films anti-heroes with each of their unrealistic physical attributes doing very little to intimidate both the audience and the on screen characters. There are a few exceptions to this with the spiders in the forest, which we are treated to in the form of an exciting set piece at the start of the film, looking visibly frightening as well as the film’s most domineering villain Smaug. Surprisingly more detailed in his appearance there are far fewer occasions where Smaug looks visibly poor however his most villainous feature is by far his superb tone voiced by the fantastic Benedict Cumberbatch, who perhaps saved the film from a total lack of threat. A scene almost comparable to the predecessor’s standout ‘riddles with Gollum’ occurs at the films climax where Bilbo and Smaug share a conversation. The wit and humour of Martin Freeman, playing Bilbo, is seen visibly here as he vocally battles the sinister Smaug in a hall filled with riches, in perhaps the most memorable scene of the film which combines character, humour, excitement all within a rich environment, here we see but a mere glimpse at what this film should have been.

As stated this release makes far greater steps than its predecessor did but also however made one grave decision that would make the film, at least for a lengthy proportion, a source of whimsical laughter. Bringing in a new character to the story, Peter Jackson introduced Tauriel a wise and strong female Elf who actually brought along quite a bit of variety to the plot but who also brought with her a sub-plot which needs to be cast into the flames of mount doom. The love triangle between Tauriel, Legolas and (dwarf) Kili is one of the worst narrative decisions of the year being hugely unnecessary and consistently whimsical to the point where it inadvertently becomes quite an effective source of comedy. With this brings Legolas who prove to be nearly just as pointless in the story. Bringing sword wielding talent and shiny blonde locks, aside from this Legolas doesn’t really serve a purpose and for the most part quite literally stands around reacting to situations, again to great comedy timing.

The Hobbit: The desolation of Smaug does make notable improvements on the first with this one actually feeling like a great adventure as oppose to the first film which felt more like a  lengthy route plan. This is why it comes as such a frustration to say that this release is still riddled with many issues, from the bizarre script to the questionable aesthetics. The Hobbit: the desolation of smaug shows many glimpses of greatness but never seems to go down the right path; it’s a definite improvement but only marginally.

6.5/10- Often an exciting journey with spectacular set pieces and humour, the film is let down by a lacklustre plot of irrelevant love and general goofiness.

Calum Russell