Movie Review – The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
Released today throughout the U.S. is The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, the second film in Peter Jackson‘s epic trilogy based on The Hobbit, the predecessor to The Lord of the Rings.
Directed by Peter Jackson and based on the book by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug brings back the cast from the first Hobbit film and gives us a couple of new characters as well. Like before, Howard Shore conducted the music for this film.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug begins with a flashback in the Middle-earth town of Bree. Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) is having some food and drink at the Prancing Pony tavern when he’s approached by the wizard Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen). Gandalf informs Thorin that he needs to acquire the Arkenstone so that he can become the King of Erebor. Gandalf also mentions that there’s a price on his head and he’s a wanted man. Thorin agrees to go on the quest to claim his throne, and Gandalf says that all they need to join them is a burglar (a.k.a. a hobbit — Bilbo Baggins).
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug then jumps to the ending of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey film where Gandalf, Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), and the band of dwarfs are being pursued by orcs from the Carrock. After Bilbo spots an incredibly large bear, Gandalf has everybody head to a house not too far away. They barely make it into the house without being attacked by any orcs or the giant bear.
Inside the house, Gandalf reveals that the bear is really a skin-changer named Beorn (Mikael Persbrandt), and they’re inside of his house. In his bear form he’s dangerous and unpredictable, but when he’s in his normal form of a large human, then he may be more negotiable. When morning comes, Beorn is a human and he speaks with his unexpected guests. After learning about their adventure, Beorn is reluctant to help the dwarfs. He does in the end as he dislikes the orcs more than dwarfs, and he allows the dwarfs to have provisions and borrow his ponies.
Before leaving his house, Beorn tries to warn Gandalf and the dwarfs about the dangers in the forest of Mirkwood. His warning does little as avoiding the dangers of Mirkwood would involve a detour 200 miles north or 400 miles south around the forest. Their only option is to travel through the dangerous forest.
When they reach the entrance to Mirkwood, Gandalf tells the dwarfs to proceed on foot. He has them free their ponies so they can find their way back home to Beorn’s house. Gandalf himself will not be joining the dwarfs as he has a separate mission to accomplish. Before he leaves, Gandalf gives everybody a strict warning about staying on the marked path. If they stray from the path then they may never find it again.
The dwarfs reluctantly enter the forest of Mirkwood and stay on the path. The ancient path of stones leads them deeper and deeper into the forest, winding around trees and taking them past giant rocks. At one point the path abruptly ends and everybody spreads out to look for it, but they become lost. There’s a heavy air in the forest and Bilbo Baggins briefly hallucinates, seeing things that really aren’t true. At one point one of the dwarfs finds an item on the ground and it’s realized that they just walked in a giant circle.
Things are looking hopeless until Bilbo decides to climb a tree and try to scout the area. He does so and is welcomed by a breath of fresh air that clears his head. The hobbit notices that they’re actually pretty close to the lake and a river, and the Lonely Mountain isn’t much further away. As he’s trying to tell this to the dwarfs, Bilbo notices that something is crashing through the trees and heading in their direction.
It’s a big group of spiders!
Bilbo falls from the tree and lands in a giant spider web. He’s quickly captured by a spider and wrapped with the webbing. By the time that Bilbo awakens he discovers that he’s still wrapped and now being dragged by a spiders. The rest of his friends have also been captured. One of the spiders returns to begin feeding on Bilbo. As the spider leans closer to bite into him, Bilbo jams his short sword into the spider’s head, killing it. He scrambles out of the webbing and realizes the danger of his situation.
The hobbit then puts the One Ring onto his finger and becomes invisible. While in this state Bilbo realizes that he can understand the spiders. They’re about to start feasting on his companions. Bilbo throws a stick and distracts the spiders. He’s then able to free the dwarfs and give them access to their weapons. The spiders return and the dwarfs fight them in a large battle. The fighting ends with the sudden appearance of Wood-elves including Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) and Legolas (Orlando Bloom).
It turns out that the Wood-elves aren’t much more hospitable than the spiders.
The band of dwarfs is captured and their weapons are removed. Bilbo hides and uses the One Ring to remain invisible and follow behind his captured friends. He follows the dwarfs to the hidden Elf Kingdom deep in the forest of Mirkwood. Bilbo is able to sneak into the fortress before the gates are closed.
Inside the Elf Kingdom, the dwarfs are thrown into prison cells while Thorin Oakenshield is taken before Thranduil (Lee Pace), the Elvenking and father of Legolas. Thranduil knows that Thorin is heading to the Lonely Mountain, and the vast amount of treasure that it contains. He tries to spark a deal with Thorin, freeing him and his men for a large portion of the treasure, but Thorin refuses the deal. Thranduil throws Thorin in jail with no intention of releasing him any time soon.
While Thorin was before the Elvenking, one of the dwarfs, Kili (Aidan Turner), takes a liking to Tauriel. He uses some charm and she responds positively to him. Legolas takes note and begins to grow jealous of Kili’s growing relationship with Tauriel.
Still invisible from the One Ring, Bilbo sneaks around the fortress and discovers a way to escape from it. He steals the keys and unlocks the dwarfs. He then leads them down to a cellar with a bunch of empty wine bottles. As the guards are drunk and asleep, Bilbo instructs the dwarfs to climb inside of the barrels. He then pulls a lever and dumps them into the river to float downstream. Other guards in the castle have noticed that the dwarfs are gone, and they sound the alarm. Bilbo quickly escapes into the river before the Wood-elves can capture him.
At first the escape plan works as the dwarfs float in the barrels. But then the alarm sounds and a gate is closed downstream. Just as the Wood-elves are about to capture the dwarfs again, the orcs suddenly attack the elves. The orcs have been following the dwarfs the entire time. A massive fight ensues between the Wood-elves and orcs. At one point Kili climbs up and pulls the lever to open the gates, but he’s struck by an orc’s poisoned arrow. The dwarf is injured as he falls back into a barrel and he and his companions float downstream.
More orcs are waiting for the dwarfs downstream. Tauriel and Legolas see this and they run along the sides of the river, killing orcs wherever they’re found. As orcs are killed the dwarfs pick up the fallen weapons and use them to kill more orcs. One of the dwarfs kills an orc and saves Legolas’s life. The dwarfs in barrels finally float to freedom and reach the edge of the lake.
Most of the orcs attacking Elf Kingdom are killed except for one. The surviving orc is taken to Thranduil where he’s interrogated by Legolas and the Elvenking. The orc reveals that “The One” (a.k.a. Sauron) has returned to Middle-earth. Thranduil executes the orc and orders that the gates of the Elf Kingdom be sealed. Tauriel flees to look after the injured Kili, and Legolas follows to keep an eye on her.
On the shore they meet Bard (Luke Evans), a descendant of the original Lord of Dale who now has a mostly meaningless job of collecting empty wine barrels from the Wood-elves. Bard then takes the empty barrels back to Lake-town where they are refilled and traded back to the elves. The dwarfs strike a deal with Bard and offer to pay a massive fare for him to help smuggle them into Lake-town and supply them with some weapons. He agrees and the dwarfs hide in the barrels again. Each of the barrels are filled with dead fish, and Barb successfully smuggles them past the gates and into Lake-town.
At his home in Lake-town, Barb gives the dwarfs some weapons, but the dwarfs claim that they’re inferior. They’re going to need *real* weapons made from steel, and that means stealing them from the town’s armory. The dwarfs are caught while stealing the weapons, and they’re taken to the Master of Lake-Town (Stephen Fry). While standing in front of the Master and town folk, Thorin convinces the people that they will be able to share the riches of the Lonely Mountain. The dwarfs are then freed and set on their way up the mountain. Kili continues to become sicker from the poisoned arrow, so he remains behind at the Bard’s house.
Meanwhile, Gandalf has reached the old fortress of Dol Guldur, and he finds another wizard, Radagast the Brown (Sylvester McCoy). Gandalf knows of the approaching danger and growing threat of war, so he sends Radagast off with a message to warn others. Gandalf then steps into an ambush of orcs and finds himself facing off with the Necromancer (a.k.a. Sauron). The battle ends with Gandalf being captured and the Necromancer changing its appearance to a flaming figure which looks like the Eye of Sauron.
Bilbo and the rest of the dwarfs find a staircase and make their way up the side of the Lonely Mountain, locating the spot where the hidden door should be found. But as the last rays of sunshine slip beneath the horizon, none of them can find the door. The dwarfs give up and start heading down the mountain while Bilbo continues working on the puzzle. Suddenly the answer occurs to him. The full moon emerges and its light reveals the hidden lock. Thorin successfully unlocks and opens the hidden door, gaining access to the Kingdom under the Mountain.
Now it’s up to the burglar to do his job. Bilbo is sent into the underground kingdom to find the Arkenstone, a powerful crystal that will make Thorin the king as he is destined to become. The only problem is that the dwarfs still don’t know if the dragon is in the mountain or not. If there is a dragon, Bilbo is advised not to wake it from its sleep.
Bilbo follows the tunnels and enters the Kingdom under the Mountain. To simply say that there’s a horde of treasure there is an understatement. The sheer amount of gold coins and other valuables is a mountain itself. The hobbit picks his way along the endless amount of treasure, searching for the Arkenstone. That is, until he accidentally awakens Smaug (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch), the fierce and seemingly invincible dragon who made the Kingdom under the Mountain his home for the past 200 years.
As predicted when Bilbo was recruited for this mission, Smaug is initially confused by the hobbit as he has never seen such a creature. The confusion quickly changes to amusement as the mighty dragon listens to the hobbit try to talk his way out of being eaten or burned by the dragon’s fire. As the conversation continues, Bilbo spots the Arkenstone and tries to steal it. He never gets a chance and Smaug becomes irritated by the hobbit, and he tries to attack him. While trying to use his wits against Smaug, Bilbo spots a small black hole on the dragon’s side, confirming that Bard’s story about attacking Smaug was correct. If only one more special Black Arrow penetrated that weak point, then the dragon would have been killed years ago.
Bilbo is able to slip away from Smaug, but when he reaches the tunnels back to the secret door, Thorin is standing there. All Thorin is concerned about is retrieving the Arkenstone, and not so much the life of the hobbit, just as Smaug predicted. Before anything else happens, Smaug returns and Thorin and Bilbo are on the run. They’re soon joined by the other dwarfs, but they all find themselves trapped in part of the underground kingdom. Thorin creates a plan where they split apart and make their way back to the mines where they’ll stand a better chance of survival. The plan works and Smaug is thrown off by the dwarfs running in different directions. They make it to the mines and temporarily stop Smaug behind a massive iron fence.
Thorin wants the dwarfs to get the furnaces running again, but they’re too cold. Thorin then taunts Smaug and gets him to use his fire breath which relights the furnaces. The dwarfs then run into position and are ready to fight the dragon when he breaks through the fence. Their weapons are merely distractions against the incredibly powerful dragon, but they work. Water pours out of a storage area which spins water wheels and reactivates the mining process, sending rocks to be liquified by the furnaces and letting the liquid gold flow to another part of the mine.
Back in Lake-town, a dwarf who remained behind to help care for Kili is sent out to find an herb that will cure him from the poison. While he’s out, orcs attack the town and Bard’s house. Suddenly both Tauriel and Legolas arrive in the town, and they use their specialized fighting skills to kill a bunch of orcs. Legolas chases the last orc out of town while Tauriel uses the herb to heal Kili.
Bard has been sensing the approaching danger of the dragon under the mountain, so he and his son take Bard’s last Black Arrow to a large crossbow mounted on a tower. His son is in possession of the Black Arrow when the Master’s men find and arrest Bard, placing him in the town’s stockade.
In the Kingdom under the Mountain, the dwarfs have gotten Smaug to appear in another chamber in the kingdom. It looks like Thorin is defeated until the dwarfs pull on chains and reveal a massive golden statue that was held in place with loose rocks. Smaug is mesmerized by the statue as he stands there and gazes at it and all of its gold. Suddenly the statue falls apart and the mostly liquid gold covers Smaug.
At first it looks like the dwarfs succeeded in drowning the dragon in gold, but then Smaug pops up. Now he’s really made at Thorin and wants to make him and the dwarfs suffer. Smaug flies into the air, shakes off the gold, and then flies out of the mountain.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug ends as Smaug flies away to destroy the town of Lake-town.
So is this second film in The Hobbit trilogy any good?
Yes and no.
Like with the previous films from Middle-earth, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug does a fantastic job showing that creative world and many characters that live in it. This is a very visually appealing film and the landscapes and characters, especially Smaug, look great. The same goes for Howard Shore’s soundtrack. There’s no mistaking the fact that you’re watching another Hobbit / Lord of the Rings film here.
Unfortunately, this film didn’t feel up to par with the previous films. I probably won’t be the only LOTR fan who feels somewhat disappointed with this film.
For starters, this is a very long film with short bouts of action scenes. Don’t expect any epic battles against orcs or other creatures in this film.
I really didn’t care for the way that the film handled the entire sequence in Mirkwood, from the forest itself to the escape from the Elf Kingdom. The first part with the dwarfs in the forest felt too rushed, and the escape from the kingdom was also paced way too quickly. In the book the dwarfs spent several days wandering the forest and spotting the wood-elves. It wasn’t until their food provisions were empty and the dwarfs were starving that they were attacked by the spiders and then captured by the elves. Inside the kingdom it took Bilbo some time to figure out a way to escape without being noticed by the elves. While it’s good that the film took a slightly different approach to this sequence, the final version felt rushed and lacking too many plot elements.
Another problem with this film was its ending.
Why didn’t this film end with the death of Smaug? We know that the dragon attacks Lake-town, kills a bunch of people, and Bard fires the Black Arrow into the dragon’s weak spot to kill the mighty beast. The film could have then ended with word of the dragon’s death spreading throughout Lake-town and Elf Kingdom, and armies of warriors heading to the Lonely Mountain to claim its incredible amount of treasure.
Unless Peter Jackson is planning an elaborate hour-long attack sequence with the dragon, then killing Smaug at the ending of the second film would have provided a more natural ending to the film. The film could have then ended with word of the dragon’s death spreading and armies of men and elves assembling to go claim the vast (and now unguarded) treasure in the Kingdom under the Mountain.
That break would also leave more room for the upcoming Battle of Five Armies that should be occurring in the third film plus whatever story lines that need to be finished.
But no.
Instead, Smaug the dragon is still alive. It’s like the movie suddenly ended at the halfway point of a battle. Now we’re going to have to wait a year so that we can see the death of Smaug, something that we know is coming. It just feels like a really awkward place to end a 161-minute movie. Why have the audience sit through a two-and-a-half hour long film without giving them a rewarding ending?
The sudden ending ruined what was otherwise a still decent film.
Was the rest of the film that bad?
No, certainly not. The few action scenes that were there were still great (though it was pretty obvious that the actors were fighting against CGI spiders), and most of the film was fine. It was long, but still good. Just be warned that you really need to see the first Hobbit film before watching this one.
Smaug the dragon steals that show in this film. He’s both a fascinating yet incredibly powerful and dangerous creature. It’s worth the long build-up for those scenes with the dragon near the ending of the film.
The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug (2013) – movie trailer
Fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings will still find themselves at home with The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. While it’s still a good film, this movie isn’t anywhere near the greatness of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers or The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. In reality, this is probably the worst of the Middle-earth films.
At least we know that the third and final film, The Hobbit: There and Back Again,*should* be a really outstanding film. It’s just a shame that we have to wait a year from now to find out.
