The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – review

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is better than the movie that preceded it, but it still pales in comparison to the Lord of the Rings movies.  While visually interesting and having good acting, there are loads of scenes and side plots to this story that are really obvious filler material.  The movie force-feeds fan service to the audience in the hopes that their familiarity with the Lord of the Rings will make them enjoy it more.  It sadly reminds me of Star Wars trilogy in that respect.

Bilbo Baggins, played by Martin Freeman, travels with his 13 dwarf companions and Gandalf, played by Ian McKellen, toward the Lonely Mountain and Smaug the dragon. They must enter the Mirkwood forest and face many dangers.  Gandalf must also address an issue with a Necromancer bringing evil to Middle Earth. They need to show courage and ingenuity in order to get to the Lonely Mountain and face the terrible dragon.

The acting is pretty decent for this chapter.  Martin Freeman is good at bringing heart to Bilbo Baggins.  The One Ring is taking its toll on him and it shows. For the most part everyone else just seems to be going through the motions.  The effects and the action scenes are at least pretty fun to watch.  The amount of CGI is a bit crazy at times, making it almost as if you are watching a cartoon.

This movie makes it painfully obvious that The Hobbit did not need to be broken into a trilogy.  They add a pointless romance between a female elf that was not in the book, with one of the dwarves.  They also put in a scene with Beorn, the skin-changer, which adds nothing to the story. Adding Legolas and talking about Gimli is just fan-service that also is not needed.  As if that isn’t enough, giving the character of the Necromancer multiple scenes was certainly unnecessary.

There are plenty of versions of this story that have been told that don’t require splitting the book into multiple stories.  The fact that Peter Jackson had to add so much filler makes the “cash grab” painfully obvious.  At the very least, some elements of this movie are entertaining.  It is worth seeing if you are a fan of the last movie-as it a lot more entertaining.  I would just recommend catching it as a matinee or waiting until the entire trilogy comes out and getting to see it altogether.

Oops they did it again.

When I was in High School I got the Star Wars Trilogy on VHS before it came out in special edition format.  I decided I wasn’t going to go out and buy the trilogy again for the special edition.  It was just not worth it to me.  Eventually I heard about the original trilogy coming out on DVD.  So I bought it.  Sadly it was not as I remembered it.  It was a SUPER special edition.  Where Boba Fett’s voice is changed with a kiwi and the Jedi Spirit of Anakin Skywalker is cast by a most unwelcome Hayden Christensen.
These, of course weren’t the only changes.  Adding Jar Jar to the end of Return of the Jedi yelling “Weesa Free” killed my joy the most.  Still, I guess that Lucas heard the cries of the fan boys. They said “Han shot first.”   Sure enough a few years later he released another set of the trilogy which was supposed to be the original original trilogy.  This time I fell for it AGAIN. This time there were only slight changes but still changes nonetheless.  Now I know I have paid twice for a trilogy that was not even what I wanted.  A fool and his money were parted.  
This wasn’t the only time I paid twice for a trilogy.  When “Lord of the Rings” came out I rushed out to get them all. I was irritated to find out they later had an extended version planned out.  Luckily I missed those and waited just enough time to get the set that mixed the two varieties together.  So now I have a theatrical and extended version of “Lord of the Rings.”  Does the sickness end there?
Well now I just found out that in early October that they plan on releasing "Grindhouse" as it was seen in theaters.  So “Planet Terror” and “Death Proof” including all the fake previews they screwed you out of when you bought the separate DVDs.  That is weak.  Is every movie now going to do a director’s cut version too?  Nothing like getting something you like and realizing that they were planning on making a sucker out of you within a month.