Blogmas #13: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Last night I was at the midnight premiere (which was really at 10pm) of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. 

The second in a trilogy of films adapting the enduringly popular masterpiece The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug continues the adventure of the title character Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) as he journeys with the Wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellan) and thirteen Dwarves, led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) on an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor.

This movie was everything that the J.R.R. Tolkien/Peter Jackson party is all about. You know, it’s easy to sit and watch as these movies come out and are a universe that you’re not part of, but this is brilliant. It’s ambitious, smart, and beautiful. But it's not without problems.

  

The downfall of the first movie is that it had to cram in all of this backstory so that you could understand not only what the characters were doing, but why. Now that all of that world-building is out of the way, the story can just dance along. Even though it’s still 2+ hours, as are all of the Tolkien movies, it doesn’t feel that long. The Hobbit is also funny in a way that the original trilogy could never do. It isn’t so much gloom and doom as a real honest adventure with more than a dozen blundering friends.

And this one has something the last movie did not: a dragon. And what a dragon. Reading the book as a child, it was exactly what I had pictured. When Smaug is on the screen he fills the whole room with his deep booming voice and intense frame. Listening to him grind out “I. AM. DEATH.” makes your bones tremble. In terms of technical performance, nothing else comes close. The one scene in all of the trailers where he’s facing off with Bilbo is superbly done. In all of the making-of interviews I’ve watched, they said that Benedict Cumberbatch (Smaug) and Martin Freeman (Bilbo) never shared a set, but you wouldn’t believe that for seeing them. Bilbo’s performance really steals the show, nuanced and perfect as the two move together. I wish it could have gone on longer. For all the movie has his name in the title, the dragon-y parts aren't as extensive as you'd think.

The thing that makes Smaug come to life is the superbly executed CGI work. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie didn't share this finesse. 

Times when there is good CGI: any time there are bugs, and Smaug. 

Times when there is bad CGI: The rest of the movie. 

Well, bad is a bit of an overstatement. It's just not good. It looks fake, and a bit like a rush job. It's lacking the precision the original trilogy had and that's noticeable. It almost feels like they ran out of time or money or both.

Note on the bugs: This movie (not really a spoiler) includes tons of spiders. Watch out arachnophobes. I was flinching all over the place, and had to shut my eyes for a good chunk of that sequence.

Besides Cumberbatch, several new actors are added to the roster, including Stephen Fry, who plays the vain but hideous master of Laketown (creative name, Tolkien). Lee Pace was also thrown in there as King Thranduil, who has both a terrible but well executed personality and distracting eyebrows. But it's Luke Evans who brings most to the table. Evans really did it for me. His work as Bard is spectacular. I feel like he’s not getting enough media attention, and certainly did not get enough screen time. He'll be in the next movie though, so there's always hope.

However, the most controversial of new characters is Tauriel the wood elf, played by Evangeline Lilly. Jackson invented her character because The Hobbit has no women in it at all. I like the idea that The Hobbit needs women, but I didn't like her. I found that as a character she was flat and forced to be the romantic interest, even though they try (and fail) to portray her as strong and independent. She also gets a lot of screentime that I wish was spent on Bilbo et al. I feel like if they were that desperate for ladies, Bard has a teenage daughter who had the chance to be a badass but ran away screaming. Disappointed.

So I didn't like the CGI or Tauriel, but the movie was not bad. Martin Freeman shines as Bilbo. It may be The Desolation of Smaug, but this is still very much about the hobbit. I can't speak highly enough about his performance. If anything, he deserved more of the movie. But besides Freeman, the cast as a whole is superb. It's acting at its finest, and you can tell that they all love the work they are doing. I'd recommend you give this a watch. It does give you that feeling of wonder and magic about seeing these characters come alive that I haven't felt since the early days of Harry Potter. It's worth your time, all three hours of it.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug opens in theatres worldwide today.

In today's advent calendar, I had my first real disappointment. 

Today the prize is this pink horseshoe bracelet. It's about as cheaply made as you can get and looks really tacky. I might regift it to my niece in elementary school. After how impressed I was with the hair barette, this was a real let down.

Have you seen The Hobbit? How do you feel about the dragon? And the lack of women?