The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Review)

“If this is to end in fire, then we will all burn together!”

Those in-your-face “Top Ten Movies of the Year” lists being featured in different movie websites and magazines have a major adjustment to make. The Desolation of Smaug is here, after all.

If I were to write a one-sentence review of the film, it would go like this: “With mind-bending action sequences complemented by astonishingly beautiful visuals, the second episode of The Hobbit series comes as a desirable successor to one of the best fantasy films ever made”. But a one-sentence review would hardly to justice to the movie, would it?

When I watched the first film in the trilogy about a year ago, I thought it was an absolutely smashing beginning to the trilogy. But it also set a sky-high bar for the next film. You know, that’s the problem with filming a series – if you make a great movie, you have to exceed or at least match the quality of the predecessor.  As a “linking” or “bridging” film, it wasn’t going to be easy for the Desolation of Smaug, anyway, Peter Jackson’s efficiency notwithstanding. I was still pretty sure that he would pull it off, though.

Oh he did, all right. And that is not terribly surprising to me, really. I expected nothing less from him.

What I did not expect was that he would make Tauriel, an entirely new character which wasn’t in the book, fit in so beautifully with the rest. But more on the that later.

Whilst the first film in the trilogy had an arch, adventurous tone, The Desolation of Smaug drops you right into the midst of action. Well, after a bit of flashback in the town of Bree which demonstrates the inception of Thorin’s company and which serves no purpose that I could see.

The grandfatherly squint

As the company of Thorin Oakenshield continues its legendary quest to reclaim Erebor from Smaug at the Lonely Mountain, they are attacked by Beorn, a skin-changer, in his huge bear-form. They take shelter in a nearby house which, they come to know, is Beorn’s own abode. As he shifts back into his human form, which according to Gandalf “can be reasoned with”, he expresses his hatred towards Dwarves (the race). But apparently his hatred of Orcs far overpowers with that of Dwarves and he lends them his horses and secures their passage to Mirkwood. Gandalf takes their leave to investigate the Dol Guldur thing. He being a wizard with his mysteriousness and everything.

In Mirkwood the heroes are “saved” by Silvan Elves from Giant Spiders. Saved and then taken prisoner. Bilbo, of course, proves elusive yet again because of the Ring. Legolas (Orlando Bloom) enters the scene in style, as the crowd bellows in recognition and then joy. He instantly displays his aversion for Dwarves and, more particularly, Thorin by nocking an arrow, pointing and warning:

“Do not think I won’t kill you, dwarf!”

With Legolas arrives Tauriel, played by the Lost actress Evangeline Lilly. Tauriel is the head of guards in Thranduil’s (Legolas’ father and king of the Silvan Elves) household. To be frank, I loved her. Evangeline’s work was pretty impressive. Her character didn’t feel redundant or superfluous to me at any point in the film like she did to many reviewers. And this is coming from a long-time Tolkien/Middle-earth fanatic. As a matter of fact, she harmonises neatly with her quintessential Elf-look.

Moreover, she also acts as a pretty effective counterpoint to Legolas’s disdain towards Dwarves and his ignorance for the burgeoning war (The War of the Ring). Another reason I liked Jackson’s decision of including her was the absence of a notable female character in the original plotline. If my memory serves well, there was hardly any female character in The Hobbit (book), let alone a strong one. Her character, admittedly, could have been more developed, though.

Tauriel and Legolas

You could argue that Legolas doesn’t belong here, either. As he wasn’t in the book. But he was the son of Thranduil, the king of Silvan Elves (wood-elves), so he must have existed back then. Only not mentioned. And Jackson has far diverted the story from the book already. But who am I to complain if the films turn out this good?

The youngest Dwarf (and according to my niece, the best looking one) Kili, falls in love with Tauriel, whilst she gets increasingly torn between him and Legolas. She converses sweetly with Kili while he’s locked up, and Legolas secretly observes, envy plain in his eyes. This romantic subplot (a love-triangle!) was not a deterrent to the main plot-line for me. Although, it did take away precious screen-time which could have been used in more character development of the new characters, especially Tauriel.

When the Dwarves escape from the Woodland Realm in empty wine barrels through a river with Bilbo’s assistance, they are pursued first by Elves and then Orcs who see this as a great chance to finish off “Dwarvish Scum”. This escape scene was probably my favourite in the entire film and the list includes Bilbo’s showdown with Smaug. Here, battle gets sort of muddled. Elves fight Orcs and they in turn fight both Elves and Dwarves. The Elf-duo (Tauriel and Legolas)  somehow make even killing look like a work of art. Every shoot of the arrow hits the target, every lunge exudes finesse, and every fighting stance has a grace to it.

Another notable addition to the cast is Luke Evans, as Bard the Bowman. His character is considerably expounded in the film. More so than Tauriel. He actually helps the heroes in their quest by carrying them to Laketown in his boat. And we come to know about his family, too. Among other things. I think Luke did a great job as Bard.

He does not approve of the quest, though, when he realises who the Dwarves really are and what they intend to do. He is aware of what happens to a town when a dragon is unleashed. He regrets his giving assistance to the the company and yells to Thorin:

“You have no right to enter the mountain!”

To which, Thorin replies, thoroughly unimpressed and perfectly unperturbed:

“I have the only right.”

When the company eventually arrives at the Lonely Mountain, Bilbo is charged with the task of burgling out (with he being the official burglar of the company and all) the Arkenstone, which would give Thorin the right to be “King Under the Mountain”. In short, his rightful throne. At this point, Thorin begins to show signs of “treasure sickness” which inflicted his grandfather, and which invited Smaug in the first place. Maybe the proximity to Arkenstone has something to do with it?

Bilbo approaches the treasure and confronts Smaug. The Smaug set-piece turned out to be one of the best in the film. Easily my favourite after the dwarves-in-barrels scene. I simply loved the idea of a huge, terrible dragon being as crafty as he is so majestically powerful. Also, I loved how the tension was built up until he wakens. Dwarves converse within themselves, whilst Bilbo is in the treasure chamber with dragon. As they hear a deafening roar, Dori asks:

 “Was that an earthquake?“

Balin replies:

“That, my lad, was a dragon.”

Smaug repeatedly taunts Bilbo, seemingly amused, and expresses his distastes for all-thing Dwarves (my, my, poor Dwarves). Bilbo, however, keeps his cool and tries to make good use of the One Ring to elude Smaug. Too bad, that does not seem to work. Smaug’s sense organs seem far too strong for a dragon. Heck, for pretty much anyone. Bilbo tries everything to stay alive, though, even flattery:

“Truly songs and tales fall utterly short of your enormity, O Smaug the Stupendous!”

The voice-acting was brilliant by Benedict Cumberbatch (not his voice exactly, a modulated version), who happens to be Martin Freeman’s co-star in Sherlock.

With all Smaug’s grandeur and wiles, he still can’t beat Bilbo’s confrontation with Gollum in my eyes. With Gollum’s child-like, almost pitiable obsession with the One Ring, and nicely acted sequence by Andy Serkis, the Bilbo-Gollum showdown was simply unmissable.

Our burglar gets his courage out of nowhere to confront Smaug the Terrible

Like all Peter Jackson films, the visual-effects were simply perfect in the Desolation of Smaug. CGI rendering was so good that I inwardly wished I could pause the film and observe those little details more closely. Smaug might just be the most realistic on-screen CGI dragon ever. And when I say the film was visually fantastic, I am not even taking the 3D effects into consideration.

It is not just about technical brilliance, though. The primary reason I am loving the series is because of its great cast. I don’t think I can ever tire of watching Sir Ian Mckellen’s Gandalf. I just can’t. He is like that kind grandfather who makes things better with his mere presence. Martin Freeman was once again superb. Funny, how I had thought he would be awful as Bilbo before watching the first film. Well, I am happy to be proved wrong for once. The Dwarves were great too, especially Aidan Turner as Kili. He did have a bigger role this time.

Methinks, Howard Shore is highly underrated. When we talk about LoTR trilogy and The Hobbit films, we forget how well these films are scored. While the soundtrack of Desolation of Smaug is not as good as its prequel, it is still pretty damn good. Shore uses traditional arrangements and yet produces an amazing OST with some engaging tunes.

The film ends on a cliff-hanger – but that is expected for the second film of a trilogy. Although, it has set me aflame in anticipation for the concluding film already.

So, that’s that. I utterly adored the movie and I think it is a great addition to another legendary trilogy-in-making by Peter Jackson. It easily rivals The Two Towers from the Lord of the Rings Trilogy as a “linking” film. The film is not without a fair share of flaws, I grant you, but overall, it is an engrossing fantasy experience which should be on everyone’s watch-list. There and Back Again promises to be a super-grand conclusion I WILL NOT MISS at any cost.

Rating: 9/10

Top Ten Movies That Outdid The Book They Were Based On

That is exremely rare, granted. There aren’t many movies which do justice to the book from which they are derived from, let alone bettering it. But we have had quite a few movies which managed to outdo their source material in many ways. Either their execution of the story was nicer or they just added their own theme to the plot which worked out better than the original one. Or in some cases, they explored greater dimensions, fleshed out the story, characters and so forth.

Some of them even cut out the uninteresting parts and made the plot compact, making easy for it to be digested without having to wade through tedious, dense prose.

Some did all of that.

Here is my list of top ten of them in no particular order…

1. The Shawshank Redemption: Rated the best movie at IMDB, The Shawshank Redemption was based on a novella by Stephen King: Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. Surprising, yes?

I read the novella by chance in an old paperback story-collection called Different Seasons. Considering the kind of stories King usually writes, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption came as quite a pleasant surprise. It left me high-spirited, but it was pretty boring as well.

And then I saw the movie some 4-5 years ago. It had none of those irritating lengthy descriptions of things which don’t matter and about which nobody cares about… except King, maybe. And it had Morgan Freeman as the narrator, which sealed the deal for me.

1. Forrest Gump: Arguably Tom Hanks’ best performance yet. And so much better than that draggy book which had some truly awful narration. Admittedly, I watched the movie first but couldn’t spot a single thing which was better done in the book no matter how hard I tried. It is amazing how someone could transform that heap of garbage to such a lovely film.

2. Fight Club: Now, this book by Chuck Palahanuik was really good unlike the previous two. Good in a sick, twisted sort of way. But the movie was even better, somehow. I actually can’t explain why. Not even to myself. Perhaps the story was more suited for a movie than a novel?

4. Schindler’s List: I read the book “Schindler’s Ark” when I was young enough to read only fairy tales. It was a dark, depressing story but remarkably moving. But movie was better. More moving and, thankfully, retaining the dark tones of that incredible novel. Not to forget the fantastic cinematography and excellent portrayal of Oskar Schindler by Liam Neeson, of course.

5. The Silence of the Lambs: This movie bested the book by the same name just by the sheer quality of film-making. Also, being a little more blunt. A spine-tingling watch. The book is also recommended, though. Especially if you liked the movie.

6. The Lord of the Rings trilogy: I can almost hear outcries voiced by Tolkien-pedants. Guys, guys, guys! Relax! I know you want my head on a spike but to tell you the truth, I too was unsure about this decision of mine. But later on, after a bit of contemplation, I decided to go with Peter Jackson’s beautiful adaptations because of many reasons. Amazing cinematography, stunning battle sequences and fantastic score are just some of those. In this case, I read the book (that huge red religious tome) first. Not to say that I didn’t like, I surely did. But once again, the prose was too dense. Also, it had those annoyingly distracting poems popping up sporadically. On a different note, I like the children-oriented, playful and lightly funny Hobbit more than the Lord of the Rings. Yeah, I’m going to cover my ears now…

7. Jurassic Park: Second Steven Spielberg’s film in this list after Schindler’s List. Based on Michael Crichton’s book. The book was pretty good, I admit, but it was little more than a jumble of a multitude events pieced together to form a misshapen lump. It was thrilling, yes, scary, even. But fell far short of Spielberg’s mind-boggling adaptation. At a time when 3D animation was still in its infancy, Jurassic Park came and shattered all expectations with its stunningly designed 3D models and high-quality CGI dinosaurs. A truly terrifying depiction of the events which materialise when those monstrous reptiles of the bygone era are thrown abruptly in today’s world with the help of advanced genetic technologies. And above all, the devastating consequences of that audacity.

1. Shutter Island: To be fair to Dennis Lehane, the author of Shutter Island, I knew what was coming at the end of the story as I began to read the book. So probably I couldn’t like it as much as I would have had I read it before watching the movie. As you well know, the magic of the story lies with the climax. Also, this book reminded me of Dan Brown in an uncomfortable sort of way…

9. The Pursuit of Happyness: Well, this film was based on a non-fiction book, a biography. I was never a fan of biographies. I didn’t even know who Chris Gardner was until I watched the movie and read his biography. Writing was strictly so-so, too. An inspirational rags-to-riches story, though, and brilliantly portrayed by Will Smith in the film.

1. The Godfather: Yes, I liked the The Godfather movie more than Mario Puzo’s book. As is usually the case, the book explained things better to me, it was far more detailed; but I don’t think I would have been as attached to the story if they hadn’t made that marvel of a movie. It followed the novel very faithfully whilst embellishing the already great story – one of the many reasons I prefer it over the book. I know many people would disagree but, well, that is just my personal opinion.

Do you know of any more examples? Do comment below.