{"id":40084,"date":"2013-12-15T22:41:50","date_gmt":"2013-12-16T05:41:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/12\/15\/movie-review-the-hobbit-the-desolation-of-smaug-2013.html"},"modified":"2013-12-16T06:37:20","modified_gmt":"2013-12-16T13:37:20","slug":"movie-review-the-hobbit-the-desolation-of-smaug-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/12\/15\/movie-review-the-hobbit-the-desolation-of-smaug-2013.html","title":{"rendered":"Movie Review: "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" (2013)"},"content":{"rendered":"
What went wrong with this movie?<\/p>\n

[SPOILERS, SWEETIE]
.
.
.
[Even Hobbits fail\u00a0their Stealth role when walking on piles of gold. Who knew?]
.
.
.<\/p>\n

Well, let' start out with what went right. \u00a0Jackson and his team have built a world with a consistent, expected texture and presence that not only works, but which gives him a firm foundation upon which to tell his stories. \u00a0And where he's working with the source material, he does a marvelous job embellishing and enriching it. Beorn, the Spiders, the Wood King's hall (and the Wood King himself), Lake Town, the secret door, Bilbo's encounter with Smaug, even the escape by barrel all are stirring renditions given added depth and, even when pushed far beyond the original, were something I enjoyed.<\/p>\n

As soon as Jackson deviates from the story, though, things start to go off the rails. I understand and appreciate that the dwarves in the original are largely passive, slogging characters, even Thorin. \u00a0They march, they get captured by goblins, they're sprung by Gandalf, they run, they get trapped by goblins, they're rescued by eagles, they march, they get captured by spiders, they get sprung by Bilbo, they get captured by wood elves, they get sprung by Bilbo, they march up to Erebor, they send in Bilbo, then they stand by while Smaug heads off to level Lake Town.<\/p>\n

So it's okay that the dwarves are actually doughty fighters, that they mix it up some with the orcs, even that they mix it up with Smaug a bit themselves. \u00a0But that latter big set piece felt .. way too goofy. I mean, big, impressive, cinematically wild and crazy, but plot-wise just zany (and in-movie-technically highly implausible).<\/p>\n

Also, I understand the sense that (Galadriel aside), this is an all-male cast leading to the introduction of Tauriel. Three cheers and all that. \u00a0But her story line and sudden besottednes is just wretchedly executed; Evangeline Lily is fine, but her story arc is enough to make me wish that we hadn't had a specific token female character.<\/p>\n

Also, I understand wanting to up the stakes and tension by having this orcish search-and-destroy team in pursuit of Thorin & Co., but not only is it a huge number of orcs to the purpose (for all the ones who get gacked at each step along the way), but it's one more distracting plot element amongst so many others, all to introduce yet another Big Bad Orc (since Azog is busy elsewhere) and someone for Legolas to fight with later on. (Plus, um, how the hell did Bolg have a Warg parked by the front gate to Lake Town?). \u00a0It all just feels like random conflict to throw at the audience to keep the action going.<\/p>\n

Also, I understand that the Wood Elves and the Dwarves need to have a big conflict going on. \u00a0That's just canonical Tolkien. \u00a0But this gets dicey in two aspects: Legolas acting like a racist jerk (in a way that's difficult to understand how he'll turn into a much milder jerk in LotR), and Tauriel getting all dewy-eyed over Kili (for reasons that would be difficult to understand under normal circumstances, but seem downright railroaded given that whole elf\/dwarf thing).<\/p>\n

One potential conflict between the current tale and the later "Lord of the Rings" is handling the Ring. \u00a0In "The Hobbit" (the book), it's simply a convenient Ring of Invisibility, but that can't be the case here, especially since the Necromancer \/ Sauron is on the rise. \u00a0To some degree that aspect is played well here (flashes of Sauron-eye and the like cropping up for poor Bilbo), but not in a consistent fashion, and Bilbo ends up using the Ring a lot less when confronting Smaug (or all the other shenanigans \u00a0later on with Smaug and the Dwarves) than it feels he should — not so much because it makes sense character- or story-wise (indeed, in the original book he spends most of this time in Smaug's chamber wearing the ring), but because one gets the impression that Jackson didn't want all the Bilbo scenes in Ring-o-Vision.<\/p>\n

(On the other hand, Bilbo's first taste of Ring Obsession vs. the Spiders is very nicely done.)<\/p>\n

That raises the last of the "invented" bits, all the goings-on down at Dol Guldur. \u00a0There's some of this that's canonical (in various appendices and other locations in Tolkien's writings), but the particulars are, I believe, pretty much invented by Jackson et al. for this film … and, frankly, they just don't work. \u00a0Gandalf pokes his nose in and gets in deeper trouble than he can handle … Aaaagain. \u00a0While some of the Necromancer\/Sauron FX are nice (the Eye\/Figure-in-the-Eye are nicely designed), unless Gandalf has some master plan in mind, his stepping into what he knows as a trap feels like manipulative writing rather than a grand plot by the Big Bad.<\/p>\n

(Plus, it's the one time ever that people ignore Gandalf — "meet me there and don't go in!" — where it turns out … that ignoring him was the right thing to do.)<\/p>\n

Worse, aside from being a big set piece (Big! Spikey! Castle!), there's not much to the whole thing. \u00a0We get next to zero personality or character from the episode, just a lot of Gandalf grunting and Big FX. What should be an amazing and noteworthy exercise of power feels cramped and manipulative.<\/p>\n

The final big misstep was the ending. Frankly, the movie didn't feel long at that point, and the action was clearly rising to the big confrontation between Smaug and Bard at Lake Town. \u00a0But the cut-off, as presented, was premature. \u00a0Dramatic structure requires some level of victory, only to having things turn into defeat (or, at least, a recognition that the biggest struggle is yet to come). \u00a0Luke & Co. have escaped from the trap on Bespin, but the Empire remains and Han needs to be rescued. \u00a0Helms Deep has been won, but a far greater challenge lies ahead against the forces of Mordor. \u00a0Hobbit 2 has had no such victory \/ respite; driving off Bolg hardly counts, and there's no sense of victory in having survived (or even "driven off") Smaug, since the (gooftastic) giant gold statue plan was a bust. \u00a0As a result, after frenetic action and desperate measures, things just …<\/p>\n

… end.<\/p>\n

Now, with all that, remarkably, I didn't dislike<\/i> this movie. There's a lot here to recommend it in texture and concept, and a lot of individual moments, visuals, speech, facial expression music. And, fergoshsakes, it's a HOBBIT MOVIE.<\/i> It would have to be truly wretched for me to reject the whole thing.<\/p>\n

But …<\/p>\n

… there are some significant missteps here that definitely get in the way of unalloyed enjoyment for me. \u00a0I can understanding wanting to expand the book to two movies — and even the desire to go to three. But the material that was made up from whole cloth to do that extension simply doesn't cut it. And that's a darned shame.\ufeff<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

\n \n <\/div>\n

A \u2605\u2605\u2605\u00bd review of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)<\/a>
\n What went wrong with “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”? Well, let’ start out with what went right. Jackson and his team have built a world with a consistent, expected texture and presence that not only works, but which gives him a firm foundation upon which to tell his stories. And where he’s working with the source material, he does a marvelous job embellishing and enriching it. Beorn, the Spiders, the Wood King’s hall (and the Wood King him…\n <\/p>\n

View this post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What went wrong with this movie? [SPOILERS, SWEETIE]…[Even Hobbits fail\u00a0their Stealth role when walking on piles of gold. Who knew?]… Well, let' start out with what went right. \u00a0Jackson and his team have built a world with a consistent, expected texture and presence that not only works, but which gives him a firm foundation upon … Continue reading “Movie Review: "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" (2013)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,382,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-lord-of-the-rings","category-media-movies"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":43788,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/23\/smaug-is-um-a-wee-bit-intimidating.html","url_meta":{"origin":40084,"position":0},"title":"Smaug is, um, a wee bit intimidating","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 23-Jul-14 3:43pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The new Official Poster for The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies is up. Interestingly enough, it doesn't include a Hobbit.I've generally been avoiding leak \/ commentary \/ photo sites elated to the third-and-sixth-and-final Peter Jackson Middle-Earth epic (that has, at least, been announced), but this was a cool enough\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/the-hobbit-the-battle-of-the-five-armies-poster5B15D.jpg.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12314,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/05\/31\/returning_to_middle_earth.html","url_meta":{"origin":40084,"position":1},"title":"Returning to Middle-Earth","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 31-May-08 9:58am","format":false,"excerpt":"Transcript of a chat session with Peter Jackson and Guillermo Del Toro about The Hobbit and the as-yet-unnamed \"Second Movie\" (Penny Arcade's impression of the whole Second Movie thing...","rel":"","context":"In "Lord of the Rings \/ Hobbit"","block_context":{"text":"Lord of the Rings \/ Hobbit","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/lord-of-the-rings"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38903,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/01\/smaug-y-goodness.html","url_meta":{"origin":40084,"position":2},"title":"Smaug-y goodness!","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 1-Oct-13 8:32am","format":false,"excerpt":"New trailer for the next Hobbit movie? \u00a0Oh, do want! View this post on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30057,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/01\/renaming-the-hobbit-movies.html","url_meta":{"origin":40084,"position":3},"title":"Renaming the Hobbit movies","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 1-Sep-12 10:09am","format":false,"excerpt":"#2 is now renamed \/ subtitled The Desolation of Smaug, which seems an appropriate middle title. \u00a0The title There and Back Again moves to the third movie, which is also quite appropriate.I think it had been heard (or at least hinted) that the third movie would be released in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/images0-focus-opensocial.googleusercontent.com\/gadgets\/proxy?container=focus&gadget=a&resize_h=100&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcomicbook.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F12%2Fthe-hobbit-movie-poster-202x300.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":32443,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/05\/and-so-the-hobbit-purchase-repurchase-repeat-festival-begins.html","url_meta":{"origin":40084,"position":4},"title":"And so the Hobbit purchase-repurchase-repeat festival begins","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 5-Feb-13 5:12pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Hurm. I really don't want to end up buying multiple versions of the Hobbit movies ... but I also don't want to wait until 2015 to get the (first) Trilogy Extended Version Pack. \u00a0Ugh.Reshared post from +The Hobbit MoviesLive FIRST LOOK at The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug on March\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41328,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/03\/04\/roll-out-the-elf-barrels.html","url_meta":{"origin":40084,"position":5},"title":"Roll Out the Elf-Barrels!","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 4-Mar-14 9:52pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It's ironic that Peter Jackson claims the barrel escape from the Wood Elves is his favorite part of The Hobbit, as the centerpiece of his rendition -- Big Chase Scene! Elves with Bows! Orcs with Swords! Dwarves with Barrels! Legolas with CGI! -- is nothing like the very placid ride\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40084"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40089,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40084\/revisions\/40089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}