And being too long is not The Desolation of Smaug’s only issue. Character development is near nonexistent due to a reliance on soft jokes and lack of screen time rendering the majority of the twelve dwarves cardboard cut-outs, and the leads don’t fare much better with Martin Freeman’s excellent Bilbo underused and Ian McKellan’s Gandalf largely unseen. This results in total viewer indifference to the fates of the characters, so scenes which ought to wring with emotion become bland and clumsy. Compare this to Boromir’s shocking self-sacrifice in The Fellowship of the Ring and it’s obvious that Jackson has failed to recreate the bond between character and viewer during the transition between The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.
And it doesn’t end there, as even the smallest problems are amplified
due to the movie’s underserved hype and weight of anticipation. Cinematography has
suffered; yes the aerial views of New Zealand’s mountain ranges are as stunning
as ever but an occasional weak shot instantly destroys any sense of atmosphere;
with several scenes which look like they were recorded on an iPhone submerged
in water making for particularly grim viewing. Even the famed visual effects
occasionally stumble, as several uses of magic look rather outdated by comparison
to the phenomenally animated Smaug, also an excellent turn of voice acting by the great
Benedict Cumberbatch. And a dire attempt to make the tale a little less sexist by introducing an utterly pointless female character seems completely contrived and near idiotic.
The Desolation of Smaug utterly fails to recapture the magic
which rendered The Lord of the Rings trilogy three of the best films ever made,
and is a colossal disappointment for any fan of Tolkien’s novels. It utterly
misses the mark even more than the first Hobbit did, and it’s going to take
something very special indeed from part three to save this inferior cinematic
trio.
3/10
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