Review of the Desolation of Smaug

Dwarves, little men with hairy feet, rings, precious things, and dragons. Yes, I’m talking about Middle Earth. With the release of The Desolation of Smaug, we were brought back into this world of wonders once again.  

The Hobbit (aka. There and Back Again) is a novel by J.R.R. Tolkien published in 1937. Although it is a prologue of the famous The Lord of the Rings series, its first movie came out only last year. Though this was not a problem, because The Lord of the Rings really set the stage and introduced the audience to the vast universe of Middle Earth and gave us plenty of background information, while The Hobbit was much more specific as it concentrated on dwarves and hobbits.

The Desolation of Smaug was the second movie of the planned trilogy. It is an adaption of chapters 7 to 13.

The movie was impressive with all the beautiful and sometimes terrifying scenery, realistic make up and props, and how the mass of characters was handled (although I have to say I cannot possibly identify all the dwarves by name).

The Hobbit was originally going to be adapted into 2 movies, but it was later on decided that it would be another trilogy. Now this… created a slight problem. Does The Hobbit have enough content to make all of these 3 movies enjoyable? The Lord of the Rings was made into 3 movies, because the long story of 6 parts was separated into 3 books, each book being approximately 300-400 pages. But The Hobbit is only 1 book of 350 pages. The length of these movie adaptations might be a little too much for only one book, and even with extra stories added from Middle Earth lore, can seem forced. I think this was the biggest problem with The Desolation of Smaug. I was not satisfied at the end of the movie, and felt like someone had offered me a million dollars and then taken it back, saying “Sorry, you have to wait one year to get this!”. It was almost painful to exit the theatre knowing the exciting plot I hadn’t gotten to see. Also, The Hobbit is a book for children. It’s a mystery if it was ever meant to match the greatness of The Lord of the Rings.

The changes to the plot affected the movie for both the better and the worse. Sometimes I found I was extremely confused about things going on. The insertion of many side plots may make the last movie complicated and unclear, as it’s inevitable for the audience to forget many details in following year. The viewers might get distracted with all the different characters who weren’t originally in the book, and actually forget about one of the main characters: Thorin Oakenshield. Thorin’s personality didn’t seem to be a big focus, and this was quite disappointing. Though I quite enjoyed the events involving the female elf, Tauriel. I was quite happy to see a female hero saving all these bearded men and I believe many others are pleased to have a character they can relate to.

Something that was missing in the movie was all the poetry in the books. Bilbo and the dwarves sang plenty of songs that helped explain more of the story, and is a defining feature of Tolkien’s writing.

Overall, the movie was well paced and fun to watch. Although the end was a slight disappointment for people who had read the books, it was a clever cliffhanger that will keep everybody waiting eagerly for December 2014. I recommend it to anybody who likes fantasy and dragons. Especially dragons. Because Smaug was probably why I went to see the movie in the first place.