The world of Middle-Earth has been brought to life on screen several times over the years, the most recent being Prime Videos The rings of power. Prior to this series, the most recent explorations of JRR Tolkien’s fantasies came in the form of the trilogy of films based on the hobbit. Director Peter Jackson’s adaptations of Under the spell of the Ring in the early 2000s are hailed as one of the best trilogies to ever hit the screen. The hobbit movies, however, have a more complicated legacy.
The first film in the trilogy, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, definitely has its ups and downs. The reaction to the film was mostly positive when it was released in December 2012, but the sequel, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, is often considered the best of the trilogy. A year after the first movie released, The Desolation of Smaug grabs exactly where an unexpected journey stopped, with Bilbo, Gandalf and the company of dwarves being chased by Azog the Defiler on their journey to Lonely Mountain, Erebor.
While The Desolation of Smaug is definitely a step higher than an unexpected journeythe film still contains a few lackluster elements that keep it from reaching the same heights as Under the spell of the Ring. These are the best and worst aspects of the second hobbit movie.
Good: New additions to the cast
If the story for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug extends from that of an unexpected journeySo is the cast of the film. While the hobbit already had an excellent cast consisting of Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Cate Blanchett and more, The Desolation of Smaug brings a lot of heavy hitters into the prequel trilogy of Middle-Earth movies. As the Dwarves’ adventure leads them to Mirkwood and the Woodland Realm, several Elven characters make their debut. One of the best is Thranduil (who was only seen briefly in the first film), played by Lee Pace. As ruler of the Woodland Realm, Thranduil carries a certain regality that Pace fully embodies. His booming voice suits the character perfectly, and Pace firmly establishes himself on screen as one of the great Elves of all time in Middle-Earth.
In a change from the book to the movie, Legolas’ (Orlando Bloom) character can also be seen in The Desolation of Smaug. While some fans have complained about the character’s inclusion, his appearance in the film makes sense given his age and the fact that he is Thranduil’s son. Looking back at the book, the only real reason Legolas isn’t in it is because Tolkien hadn’t created the character yet. It wasn’t because of the lack of existence in Mirkwood at the time of the events of the story. Anyway, it’s nice to see Bloom back in the role after playing the character in the famous movie Lord of the Rings movies a decade earlier. Legolas is often accompanied by Tauriel in the film, a new Elven character created for the film, played by Evangeline Lilly. While the character may not be the most highly regarded part of the film, that’s not Lilly’s fault, who puts in a solid performance as the character.
Finally, when the dwarves arrive in Lake Town and Erebor, the audience is introduced to Luke Evans as Bard the Archer and Benedict Cumberbatch as the dragon Smaug. In fact, Evans immediately becomes a co-lead of this trilogy when he appears in the second half of the film, which is a decision that carries over into the third film as well. Bard is an interesting character who brings a new dynamic to the film, as he is a good person who disagrees with the Dwarves’ journey, and Evans brings him to life beautifully. Cumberbatch as Smaug, on the other hand, is one of the best parts of all three of these movies. He is perfectly cast in the role and it is one of the most captivating parts of the entire movie. Knowing that he cared his performance through motion capture only adds to the fun of it all. As for the image of Smaug himself, more on that later.
Not so good: the romance between Kili and Tauriel
The hobbit movies often succumb to the weight of their immense size. Since a trilogy of nearly three-hour movies has been squeezed out of a book that’s only about 300 pages long, there are many additions to the story that are pretty much just there to fill the running time. The romance between the Dwarf Kili and the Elf Tauriel is one of the aforementioned additions that just doesn’t work.
That’s not to say there shouldn’t have been romance within the… hobbit movies, as one of the best aspects of the Lord of the Rings movies was the romance between Aragorn and Arwen. However, Kili and Tauriel are not Aragorn and Arwen. In the first film, Kili was established as little more than a sarcastic young Dwarf in the company, and Tauriel’s introduction in this second film is almost exclusively meant to be part of this romance. Neither character is particularly interesting or important to the story, so any time spent developing a romance between them just feels like an aside that doesn’t really matter.
Evangeline Lilly and Aiden Turner (who plays Kili) do their best to sell the relationship, but they have little chemistry together and the writing doesn’t do them any favors. The addition of this romance to the story is almost painfully contrived. It doesn’t feel like a natural extension of the plot, nor does it add much to the overall story. Instead, it’s just a cliche and downright annoying subplot that’s just wasting the audience’s time in a movie that’s been over two and a half hours.
Good: a more serious tone
While one of the drawbacks of an unexpected journey was as stupid as it could be, that foolishness is (almost) completely gone The Desolation of Smaug. In the second hobbit movie, Jackson fully embraces the same epic tone of The Lord of the Rings, and it serves the movie well. The cartoon nature of some Dwarves is toned down (reducing many of their roles), and the film’s focus is shifted almost exclusively to the quest that is obvious. The journey of The Desolation of Smaug feels more focused and grander in scale than the previous film. Each new predicament the company finds itself in brings a new danger to the table, quickly moving the plot forward and keeping the audience engaged the entire time.
With the exception of the barrel riding sequence, which goes on for far too long and reverts back to the silliness of the first film, the action sequences of The Desolation of Smaug are generally a lot better than the ones in an unexpected journey. They are exciting, sometimes scary and really entertaining to watch. The film immediately throws the audience in the deep end as it begins with the Dwarves on the run from Azog and his orcs, while also dodging the skin changer Beorn, who is chasing the party in the form of a giant bear. Apart from that, the spider sequence in Mirkwood is also excellent, as is Smaug’s extended sequence chasing the dwarves and attempting to burn them to a core in Lonely Mountain.
Not So Good: The Orcs and Dol Goldur
While an unexpected journey does everything he can to establish the white orc Azog as the central antagonist of the film, the plot involving the orcs chasing the dwarves becomes unnecessary baggage in The Desolation of Smaug. Azog is completely replaced by Smaug as the villain of the film, and frankly, that might have been better. Smaug is a much more interesting antagonist, both in concept and design. Meanwhile, Azog spends most of The Desolation of Smaug mugs around the castle of Dol Goldur while the film introduces yet another white orc, Azog’s son Bolg, to take his place as the film’s lead dwarf hunter.
The reason for Azog’s lack of agency in the film is that the character is pulled into the subplot, with Sauron rebuilding his strength in Dol Goldur, which is added to serve as a direct set-up for Under the spell of the Ring. While it’s understandable why Jackson would want to include this plot in the film, and it’s cool to see Gandalf investigate and inadvertently engage in a one-on-one magical battle with Sauron himself, the film spends way too much time doing nothing. . with the orcs in the dark castle.
The whole subplot just feels undercooked. The introduction of Bolg, and his replacement of Azog in chasing the Dwarves, feels odd when you consider how much work the first film took to set up the rivalry between Azog and Thorin. Swapping Luis Bolg in that plot instead of Azog just doesn’t make sense. Perhaps it would be if Azog had more to do elsewhere, but instead he stands around Dol Goldur yelling at a shadow that should be Sauron. It doesn’t make much narrative sense, and it doesn’t add much to the overall movie (other than the aforementioned cool bit with Gandalf).
Good: Smaug the Terrible
The real power of The Desolation of Smaug arrives in the final act with the introduction of the titular dragon played by Cumberbatch. Smaug is one of the most recognizable dragons in modern literature and one of the most iconic aspects of the original hobbit novel. Thankfully, just as Jackson has perfectly adapted the Riddles in the Dark series in an unexpected journeyPretty much everything about Smaug is beautifully brought to life in this film.
The dragon is introduced during Bilbo’s exploration of Erebor in search of the Arkenstone, and the sequence that follows is one of the best this trilogy of films has to offer. Bilbo and Smaug engage in a tense discussion, while Smaug tries to distract Bilbo’s target and Bilbo simply tries to stay alive by playing on the dragon’s immense ego. The two go back and forth, playing a verbal chess game and it’s exciting to watch. Bilbo meeting with Smaug is one of the most important moments in the whole hobbit story, and Jackson really makes his editing of it good.
Just as Gollum’s inclusion was the ace up an unexpected journey‘s sleeve, the introduction of the dragon is the ace up The Desolation of Smaug‘s. Given the sheer amount of Smaug included in the film’s third act, the second hobbit movie really ends on a climax. Smaug is by far the best part of The Desolation of Smaug, and the image of the dragon on the screen is reason enough to watch the movie. In the end, it makes it worth going through the two hours of the film’s mixed story leading up to the dragon. The last act of The Desolation of Smaug is about 80% of the reason it is considered the best of the three hobbit movies. It’s exciting, it’s tense, it’s visually impressive, and it’s just great fantasy movie making.