Jackson's vision is a departure from Tolkien

Rating: 8/10 (7 January 2014)

Unlike many other reviewers, I do not fault Peter Jackson merely because he departs from his literary source. A film is not a book. Jackson has a right to take wide latitude from the original to create his own vision of this or any other story. This being established,
I found this film to be a whole lot of fun and adventure! Yes, there are large differences between Tolkien and Jackson's telling of this story. But I believe those who detract from his films merely on this account are woefully short-sighted.
Jackson is making a small children's book into a massive epic retelling of monumental events in Middle-Earth history. Do the math; you can't get three immense films out of one small children's story book without cooking up some major inflations of Tolkien's quaintly narrated events.
LOTR is adult literature, but The Hobbit is not. Therefore the transformations involved in getting from book to cinema must of necessity be much more extreme. This accounts for most of Jackson's augmentations in the Hobbit films.
Another consideration is that this segment of Hobbit is much richer than the first. How can anyone fault him for ramping up the action sequences involving Beorn, giant spiders, the Necromancer, and Smaug? It would have been a waste to portray all those sequences on the quaint level of Tolkien's original narrative.
The one major detraction I cite Jackson for is all this nonsense about Tauriel and Kili. I understand that in cinema, romance is an essential element that needs to be included (but I still don't like it in the context of Tolkien!). But the concept of an Elf romantically attracted to a dwarf (and vise-versa) is thoroughly unacceptable! It would never happen in Tolkien, and it should never be countenanced in any film version of his works! But the effrontery does not merely stop there! The most shameful affront is the salacious banter between Kili and Tauriel about "what he might have in his trousers!" That is an inglorious disgrace that should never be tolerated in these adaptations! I hope Jackson has the good sense to eliminate or at least tone-down this plot thread in the final installment!
The other major departures to found in Desolation of Smaug are thoroughly excusable and mostly even improvements, in my opinion.
The barrel sequences actually make more sense than the original. The idea that elves would ignore that fact that barrels that should be empty are filled with something very heavy always bothered me in the original story. Jackson solved this in his version by having Bilbo launch the barrels himself. I also often wondered how dwarfs could be expected to survive in water-tight sealed barrels as they drifted through freezing river streams. Jackson solves this problem by keeping the barrels unsealed. I thoroughly enjoyed the barrel sequences, as over-the-top as it indeed is! The scene with Bombor's barrel bouncing around among the orcs is an absolute hoot! I laughed out loud through the whole thing! The battle sequences in this part were also far- fetched, but I found them a great romp of fun as well. Jackson loves to show off the battle prowess of elves, and I find this thoroughly in keeping with Tolkien's vision of the Eldar.
The dragon scenes, as extremely inflated and changed as they are, are also understandable to my mind. Why waste a perfectly good dragon by sticking to the constructs of Tolkien's children's narrative? It would have been a disservice to do less than Jackson did.
I must admit that at first the purist in me balked at seeing Bilbo visible to Smaug and the dwarfs running from Smaug inside Erebor, but I soon realized that it made perfect sense unless you were going to make the whole interior of the mountain one simple pitch black treasure chamber as Tolkien did. But such a decision on Jackson's part would have been contrary to the best qualities of the cinematic media. In the days when special effects were best only hinted at because they were too transparent to appear authentic it may have been justified, but when you have the full gamut of seamless effects at your disposal, why not take everything to the limit? After all, it's doubtful that this film franchise will ever be duplicated in the future, and Jackson, for all his excellent qualities as a filmmaker, has never cultivated the reputation of being a minimalist! perhaps someday a purist version of Hobbit and LOTR will be filmed, but I'm not holding my breath, nor do I recommend it to others!
All in all, I found this installment mostly satisfying along with bright hopes for the concluding segment next year. My one fear is that Jackson will insist on ending the story with an ill-advised wedding scene between Kili (who should by rights die in the battle of the 5 armies!) and Tauriel (MAJOR GAG! MAJOR CRINGE!)