It’s December again and it’s time
to return to Middle earth. A full year has passed since the disappointment of An Unexpected Journey, and Peter Jackson
offers a mixed bag yet again. The good news – The Desolation of Smaug is much better and more exciting than the
first Hobbit film. The bad news – it still is a lacklustre and hollow movie
compared to the original Lord of the
Rings trilogy.
The biggest criticism of the
first Hobbit movie was that it took too long to get going. It seems like Peter
Jackson listened to this complaint and fixed the problem this time around. The Desolation of Smaug gets into action
in less than five minutes and it is thankfully briskly paced. The action
scenes, despite resembling cut scenes from video games are fun as well - one
featuring the dwarves floating downstream in barrels is beautifully
choreographed. Moreover, while the first movie was just an adventure comedy for
kids, the second chapter is more of a horror movie. There are dark forests, bottomless
chasms, spiders, werewolves, Necromancers, disgusting Orcs and much more cool
scary stuff to keep things interesting.
Best of all, the dragon Smaug is
absolutely terrific; a landmark in computer graphics and Benedict Cumberbatch’s
sneering booming voice gives you the goosebumps. If the LOTR films were
memorable for Gollum, the Hobbit movies will be remembered for Smaug. When
Smaug brushes off the gold coins covering him and stands up showing his entire
form occupying the entire screen, it really makes your jaw drop. The
tete-a-tete between Bilbo and Smaug when they meet for the first time is as exhilarating
as the riddle chat between Bilbo and Gollum from the first movie. You need to
wait for two whole hours before Smaug shows up but he really is worth it.
There are plenty of problems. Yet again Jackson crams in too many subplots about underdeveloped
characters. When I watched Fellowship of
the Ring I came out knowing the names of every character that appeared in
the film. I’ve watched two Hobbit movies and I still don’t exactly know how
many Hobbits or dwarves are there in the team, and I can’t name more than two of them. One
of the dwarves gets a totally unnecessary and half assed love story, and
there’s a lot of cringe inducing schmaltz that just pops in and out in during
the tense sequences. The film is repetitive and an hour too long. The mid
segment featuring the ‘humans’ is dull and boring - it totally destroys the fun
of the mayhem in the first hour, and the wait for Smaug to make his entry becomes
tedious. Legolas makes a return in a ham fisted Bollywood style love triangle.
The final scene is a tad infuriating because just when there’s an epic buildup
and you expect an epic showdown with Smaug, the screen cuts to black, telling
you to come back next year.
None of those problems matter
because The Desolation of Smaug is
going to make a lot of money anyway. Every self-respecting fan of Tolkein,
Jackson and Middle Earth is going to show up in theaters to watch this film and
the next one. It’s time to accept the fact that Jackson sacrificed quality for
an extra billion dollars in box office and just enjoy the computer generated
awesomeness of Smaug on a big screen, in 2D.
(First published in MiD Day)
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