Reasons I didn't like The Desolation of Smaug

Rating: 5/10 (23 December 2013)

As The Two Towers is my favorite film of the previous trilogy and I was told The Desolation of Smaug was darker than the first Hobbit film, I was looking forward to this one. But my god, was it disappointing. Why? Well, here's why:

Gandalf and Bilbo have to be the most important ánd most interesting characters of this trilogy. But where are they in this film? Gandalf leaves the group pretty early in the film and we hardly see him again. And also Bilbo isn't really used to his maximum capability, it almost looks like Peter Jackson forgot the film has Bilbo.

So, who gets all the screen time, then? Well, there is this dwarf that gets his leg hurt and an elf who randomly falls in love with him and wants to heal him. And then there is Legolas, who also loves this elf or something? This love triangle is apparently so interesting that during the big scene with Bilbo and Smaug, they keep cutting back to the dwarf and his leg that hurts. Yeah, I really didn't wanna miss that.

And this film is filled with a lot of boring and pretty much useless characters and appearances. Boring characters such as that leader of the elves. And useless appearances like Cate Blanchett showing up for 2 seconds. Or that Radagast dude, who only appears so he can lift his hat and show there is a birds nest underneath. Exciting AND useful.

Anyway, you can really tell that Hobbit 2 is mostly filler- material. I guess you can just walk in the film during the third act and you wouldn't have missed any essential part of the story. I'm even assuming you can just skip the entire film and go right to There And Back Again and you wouldn't be all that confused with what you've missed.

Also, I find it frustrating that Jackson didn't even take the time to give this movie a proper ending. Fellowship, Two Towers and even Hobbit 1 had cliffhangers too, but at least they felt like they had an ending. Here the film just stops in the middle of a scene, like it's a cliffhanger for an episode of a TV-show. Only difference is; this is a three hour movie! A little more effort wouldn't be too much to ask, right? I mean, the man who had 20 endings for Return of the King didn't have one left for this film and so he just simply cuts to black?

The one thing I would look forward to with this film, was the dark tone. I thought the first Hobbit was a little too childish, with all these trolls and goblins with funny voices. But Peter Jackson apparently liked this, so he even gave the giant spiders a voice. Yeah, that just what Shelob, one of the scariest and most awesome creatures from the original trilogy, needed; a funny voice. Only cool thing I can say about that is, is that one of the voices was done by Peter Verne- Jones (Lord Crumb in Bad Taste). But still, why would you give those spiders a voice?

I guess the voice of Smaug seemed a little more appropriate. Benedict Cumberbatch does a pretty decent job on the voice of the dragon, really dark and mysterious. Only problem is.. the dragon just won't shut up. I guess this scene had to be stretched to reach the 3 hour mark, but my God, couldn't the dragon just shut up for one minute? He really got a lot less mysterious and threatening when he just kept talking and talking. Too bad.

So, is that all the problems I had with The Hobbit 2? Not really, there were still two things that really annoyed me. First of all, there were these horrible scenes in this little town, with Stephen Fry as the mayor/leader/master- guy. It looked like an unfunny episode of Blackadder, did they really except us to take this stuff serious? Stephen Fry was totally inappropriate and out of place, his Wormtongue- ripoff- sidekick was really annoying (the guy obviously isn't a Brad Dourif) and that Bard and his family were far from interesting characters. And still, we stay in that town for a very, very long time.

Last thing I really hated was the 3D- HFR. I saw the film in HFR and I can't remember ever seeing something so incredible ugly. I really can't believe someone actually chooses his film to look like that. And they say that's the future for cinema? God, I hope not!

Last but not least, is there anything positive to say about The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug? Yes, there is. Like with the previous film (and also the first trilogy), the effects look great and the action sequences are well put together. And Martin Freeman is a great leading man, much better than Elijah Wood for the Lord of the Rings films. But still, Freeman doesn't get to do a lot, because of all the other uninteresting characters showing their faces.
Best scene of the movie? That is, without a doubt, Gandalf showing up at Dol Guldur and seeing the return of Sauron (with that Mordor- theme playing). That gave me some chills, as a true Lord of the Rings fan. But it was only for a short while, because right after Gandalf vs Sauron, we had to return to dwarfs with leg pains, elves in love and Stephen Fry.