Desolation of Smaug crosses a line

Rating: 6/10 (14 December 2013)

The Desolation of Smaug continues the Hobbit story in the second movie. Once again the there are the added story lines from the first movie and then some. After watching the second Hobbit movie I can only ask "how much of story can be altered to keep the integrity of the book"? and while keeping an open mind to how closely most movies keep to their books (which is not much), I believe the Desolation of Smaug crosses this line. I understand and see why in this day and age more action was made out of the barrel ride, Lake Town and in Smaug's chamber, but after watching Kili the Dwarf hitting on a she-elf guard captain, I actually asked out loud in the crowded movie theater 'what the hell is this?' Without getting into too much geeky detail into the long history of elves and dwarfs and how this would never happen, I would presume after seeing this love scene Mr. Tolkien has rolled in his grave this weekend not unlike Bombour rolling over a half dozen orcs (with more precision than an Indy 500 driver). And how has this dwarf not lost a single pound after getting through Mirkwood? It seems as if he's actually GAINED weight since they've begun this adventure.
As in the first movie, the attention is taken away from Bilbo, his feelings, thoughts and actions, to me the crux of the Hobbit. Let's not forget the title of the book.
On a positive note the CGI of Smaug is incredible, his voice and movements were well done, as were the casting of Bard and the Laketown Master. Bolg is a much more believably goblin than Azog who has always just looked like an albino NFL linebacker to me. Why they did not attack Beorn in bear form seems to me a lost opportunity to show the power of the shape-changer which in the book comes into play later in the story, yet they just simply walk away from attacking him with 30 orcs because 'he is on guard'.
One element of the story that was added that was intriguing was the finding of the Arkenstone by Bilbo. This aspect of his job was not alluded to in the book and rather, Bilbo's job was to 'burgle', a point I always felt to be a weak part of the plot. Even in the book Bilbo, unknowing of the vastness of the hoard even points out after returning from the den "...you didn't expect me to walk out with the entire hoard of the Thror on my back did you?" By adding that he is to only burgle the Arkenstone to unite the Dwarfs, actually seems more plausible than what was once a truly impossible mission.
The movie is entertaining and will certainly delight today's attention deficit audience. There is certainly nothing wrong with the movie if you've never read the book, but to a purist, the movie makers may have just bastar...changed it a little too much.