Desolation of Smug (not a typo)

Rating: 6/10 (13 December 2013)

Peter Jackson took a trilogy of books, and made it into three movies. He then took a single book, and is trying to stretch it into three more movies. Do the math--if the Lord of the Rings had rec'd the same treatment, there would have been 9 movies in that series. Way too much. Wayyyyy to much. The Hobbit, if anyone needs to be told, is a wonderful book, but it is short on story and long on character development. This movie tries to flip that script and make it a wonderful story about a hobbit, and a dwarf seeking his kingdom, and making it an elf chick flick, and the redemption of a Bard, and let's skip the neat character of Beorn altogether, and add in Orc parties (and forget that the orcs couldn't/wouldn't travel in daylight). Let's change the character study of a odd hero and make it such a stupendous story that the title character, the Hobbit, is lost in the shuffle. Bilbo, for those that don't remember, barely did anything in the book. He forgot his walking stick. He only succeeded in delaying the trolls. He did wake up and holler when the orcs attacked their midnight camp in the mountains, but then he fell off the dwarf during their escape. He did fight in Mirkwood, and was instrumental in their escape, but after that, he is basically just tagging along with the group. And, that's OK! And even though, in the book, he is the linchpin for all the changes, it is more by his inaction than by his actions that he succeeds. Funny thing...that's what made him seem so believable, and accessible, and loved by millions of fans. The Hobbit is not just the most successful fantasy novel because it is the grandfather of all fantasy novels, but because the Hobbit was fleshed out and seemed like an actual creation. He seemed exactly like what we would be like in a fantasy setting. There is a reason that first edition The Hobbit sells for the same thing as first edition works of Twain. This movie has drawn upon the story, but it forgot to tell us his story, and instead is about ten different stories all shooting off in all kinds of arcs. Not a bad movie...but not the hobbit. I blame the director for this. He did the same thing in LOTR...he changed the characters to suit his purpose and forgot that it wasn't his story to tell...he should stick to telling the story and only show us his vision of what it looked like. He is not the creator here...Tolkien was. To think he can improve on such a story is, well, could be defined as smug. And thus, we have the Desolation of Smug.