As in "An Unexpected Journey", "Desolation of Smaug" Still Preserves the Novel's Inherent Spirit and Themes

Rating: 9/10 (17 September 2014)

Despite "Hobbit" purists' frenzied accusation of director Peter Jackson's "Hobbit" movie trilogy's lack of stringent, precise loyalty to the source material, I believe such loyalty is unrealistic. No movie can exactly duplicate a novel's characteristics; if it attempts to do so, it becomes ponderous, sluggish and dull.
Take for example the scene near the beginning of "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (hereafter "Hobbit:DOS") where Bilbo, Gandalf (Ian McKellen), and the dwarfs encounter the ursine, muscular shapeshifter Beorn (Mikael Persbrandt) at his pastoral home. If "Hobbit:DOS" had copied the Beorn episode exactly from the novel, it would have become mired in redundant exposition, since Gandalf relates to Beorn the adventures he and his followers have already endured in order to enlist the surly loner's aid in their quest. Instead, "Hobbit: DOS" makes the Beorn sequence more economically streamlined and actually more meaningful. Although Beorn is no fan of dwarfs (which is why he angrily pursues them in his bear form), he decides to help them because they oppose the orcs and their confederates. Beorn hates orcs and their company even more, since they have decimated and enslaved Beorn's bear bretheren in the past (he waves a brawny, shackled arm as proof). Though some may complain that the admittedly fiercely charismatic and "bada$$" Beorn gets truncated, limited screen time, "Hobbit: DOS" manages, I think, to capture the sequence's intent in the novel, and even embellish and extend it to the imminent, encompassing evil of the Necromancer and his legions.
Throughout the novel's notable set-pieces - From Beorn , through Bilbo and the dwarfs' enchanted, perilous wanderings through the aptly named Mirkwood, through their battle with huge, voracious spiders, through their imprisonment in the Elvish citadel, through their gymnastically stunning and suspenseful escape from the citadel in floating barrels, to their initially furtive and demeaning but ultimately triumphant arrival in Laketown, to their journey to the Lonely Mountain to try to wrest the dwarfs' homeland from the unforgettable dragon Smaug – through all this, "Hobbit:DOS" continues to preserve each sequence's basic purpose and meaning in the novel despite some tweakings and deviations. Most of the deviations originate from implacable orc Azog the Defiler's (Manu Bennett) Ahab-like dogged pursuit of Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) for causing his deformity, and from the elves' (namely Terminator-like warriors Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) enhanced presence and intercession in the dwarfs' quests. Except for what I felt was a gratuitous, inexplicable (if still affecting), growing relationship between Tauriel and the dwarf Kili (Aidan Turner), these deviations and detours do not detract from "Hobbit:DOS"'s deliberate but fluid, action-packed, and genuinely exciting and involving interpretation. Indeed, I felt the deviations emphasized the "Hobbit" novel's indirect reference to the looming threat of the Necromancer and its understated insistence that it is the duty of ALL Middle-Earth denizens (including the isolationist elves represented by Elvenking Thranduil) to face this pervasive evil.
Therefore, Jackson's "Hobbit:DOS" does have epic objectives above and beyond the dwarfs' quest. But again, I strongly disagree with the purists and other naysayers who argue that "Hobbit:DOS" gives short shrift to Bilbo, Thorin, and his band. Even though his transition from reluctant bourgeois homebody to committed adventurer, inspiration to the dwarfs, and even defender seems more abrupt in the movie, Bilbo (Martin Freeman) nevertheless makes his conversion convincing. As in the novel, Bilbo proves his worth and value to the group and even (horrors!) faces the beguiling, mellifluous, but monstrous and seemingly invincible dragon Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch) even without his ring of invisibility. He even persuades the dwarfs, who fearfully do not encounter Smaug in the novel, to show their true legendary courage and confront the dragon in their stolen lair – which I actually think is a logical, plausible improvement.
"The Hobbit" novel touches upon themes of courage, self-reliance, greed, and the duty to resist evil in all its myriad forms. "The Hobbit:DOS" reflects these themes in its somewhat divergent, wildly dynamic and entertaining but still respectful cinematic presentation of Tolkien's vision and depiction of (as Balin (Ken Stott) would agree) that most remarkably daring and observant fellow Bilbo.