Tell me a story

There are three ways to think about The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. The first is as a prequel to the amazing Lord of the Rings trilogy. Next is as a sequel to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Last is as a stand-alone movie. Your opinion will vary depending on the angle from which you’re viewing.

As a Prequel

If you were a fan of the original Lord of the Rings trilogy I bet you can name every character that left Rivendell with Frodo to journey to Mordor to destroy the One Ring. Now try naming all the character’s in Bilbo’s fellowship. I can get Gandalf, Thorin Oakenshield, Balin, and then I’m stuck. There might be a Heeli or Keeli or something. (I could easily google this info, but that defeats the purpose.) This is a problem. There are 11 dwarves that I cannot name and, thus, whose identities are more or less interchangeable. Sure, they look different and have distinct personalities when they interact, but you could cut most of them out of the story, and it wouldn’t make much of a difference. Some of them could die and I wouldn’t really feel anything.

This means that the only characters we really care about are Bilbo, Gandalf, Thorin, and Balin, and we already know the first two are going to make it through this adventure just fine, which leaves Thorin and Balin as the only people we really might worry about. But I never really worry about Thorin because I don’t really like him. He’s angry, he’s stubborn, he might only be viewing Bilbo as an ends to a mean. Compare him to Boromir in The Fellowship of the Ring, who threatened Frodo just as much as he tried to help him. Like Thorin he wanted to do good, just not in the most advisable ways. Yet we saw Boromir’s flaws and rooted for him despite them. I don’t really care if Thorin ever claims his throne under the mountain.

One of the problems in comparing the two trilogies is the vastly different scopes they have. The Lord of the Rings were about four races (species?) of people coming together and making sacrifices to defeat a great evil force that threatened all beings. The Hobbit is about a hobbit that goes on an unlikely journey to help another race (species?) reclaim the kingdom that was stolen from them. Bilbo’s story is every bit as important to him as Frodo’s was (will be?), but Bilbo’s does not have the same weight. It does not have world-wide implications thus far. So it’s odd to see both stories being told in the same way: across three films. There just isn’t enough source material for The Hobbit to reasonably justify its length, and it shows. Obstacles seem thrown at them all to slow them down and to dazzle us, not because the story really needs them. At least this second Hobbit movie is better about it.

As a Sequel

My expectations for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey were cloud high since I loved the LOTR series so much. My expectations for The Desolation of Smaug were not so high, since I had the first movie to temper them. I already knew I wasn’t going to get the LOTR, and that actually helped me to enjoy it more. It also helps that the first film got all the character and plight introductions out of the way, leaving Desolation to hit the ground running. The movie opens with the fellowship continuing on their journey to the Lonely Mountain  as they try avoid detection from the orcs hunting them.

Along the way there are a ton of action sequences. They face orcs and giant spiders and elves and men. It’s no spoiler to say that Legolas appears in this movie, and he of course gets his share of awesome agile fight scenes, as does his elf “friend,” Tauriel, though the best sequence features Bilbo and the 13 dwarves traveling down a river in barrels. There’s no doubt that Peter Jackson and company know how to make a good action film, and thankfully they didn’t fill Desolation of Smaug with completely unnecessary action scenes. That Rockem Sockem stone giant fight scene from An Unexpected Journey was the first time I felt a little bored in a Middle-Earth movie.

To be fair, I’m not sure Legolas was needed in this movie. I believe he’s only there because of our affection for him. And it works for that purpose. I was glad to see him, but ultimately he feels wasted because he’s unnecessary. Tauriel, on the other hand, I liked for the femininity she adds and for her character’s desires themselves.

Now the times I enjoyed Desolation and Unexpected Journey the most were the scenes with Bilbo trying to outsmart someone else or talk his way out of a bad situation. We saw it with him and the trolls and with him and Gollum in Unexpected Journey, and we see it with Smaug in Desolation. Bilbo’s intellect is far greater than is brawn and it’s more interesting when he uses it than his sword. When he’s talking to Smaug, the movie actually manages to evoke some tension. Yeah, we know he’s going to survive, but how is he going to get himself out of this situation? Can he outsmart Smaug? Those questions had me gripped.

Speaking of Smaug, he was rendered so well. When we see his massive body circling Bilbo’s miniscule one, we’re blown away by the size of him, and the danger to Bilbo seems even greater. Unfortunately Smaug isn’t all that interesting a character. I don’t think we really get a handle on his motivations, and so he just ends up being a big bad guy. I wanted just a little more from him.

I will say that after seeing Desolation I’m more interested in rewatching Unexpected Journey. I think I could watch it more fairly the second time through. The first time I saw it was with the 48 fps frame rate, and I found it too distracting. I remember missing bits of conversation because I was preoccupied with how it all looked. I saw Desolation in 24 fps, and it was much easier to concentrate on. I think the key is to see these films in the regular frame rate first and then go back to the higher frame rate if it’s worth it to you to see it a second time.

As a Stand-Alone

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is not a stand-alone movie, nor does it try to be. It starts with the protagonists on the run, and ends with everything still unresolved, promising even greater conflicts in the next film. The whole thing is the middle of a story, which makes it hard to judge. The Lord of the Rings:The Two Towers was also a middle movie, but it was my favorite in the trilogy for how many good things it did—can you say ents?—and because it actually did wrap up some of the story. The battle of Helm’s Deep and the battle at Isengard came to a conclusion, giving us a sense that one chapter of the story was complete and we just had one more to go. The Two Towers ended on a sort of plateau, whereas The Desolation of Smaug ends while things are just ramping up.

Because so much of this movie was them just going from one place to another, which gets a little tedious, I became more interested in watching Bilbo change. We get to see his courage and his skills grow. We’re also seeing the One Ring have an effect on him. In An Unexpected Journey, as he was thinking over going on this adventure, he said to Gandalf, “Can you promise me that I will come back?” to which Gandalf responded, “No, and if you do, you’ll not be the same.” Well he does come back, obviously, so it’s that change that is going to be most interesting to observe. The Bilbo that returns to the Shire shall be very different indeed. I hope the third movie continues to focus on his growth.

For better or for worse, I am glad to be back in Peter Jackson’s rendering of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth. Even though these Hobbit movies I note a scene’s relative lack of importance, I don’t want these movies to end, and I would gladly watch the extended versions. I just have way too much affection for Tolkien’s works, and the original movies series. I look forward to seeing they end this story.

 My Rating

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Director: Peter Jackson
Writers: Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson, Guillermo del Toro, and J.R.R. Tolkien.