The Desolation of Smaug - a movie review -

[zainybrain]

The 2nd movie in Peter Jackson's Hobbit series is THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG. Those gnarly dwarves with their younger (so somewhat more impetuous) wizard manager Gandalf the Gray come to the mountain where the stolen dwarven gold has been locked away by the ancient evil dragon Smaug. Now is the time when the small hobbit thief Bilbo is meant to earn his keep in the quest by stealing a specific regal jewel that Thorin, prince of the dwarves, needs to rally his people to rebuild their lands/homes. But on the way, they drop into spider's webs, hide in a werewolf nest, buy aid from Bard the smuggler in his grubby failure of a canal town, and get jailed by chilly isolationist king of the elves Thranduil (who, btw, is the father of Legolas). Not in that order.

You may thank me for that encapsulation of the through-plot of this movie since it's so full of extras and digressions that it's hard to remember, "why are they doing this again?" Especially when it's got a ton o' added plot and characters not from the book. I've heard screeches of outrage about how this isn't Tolkein, this is Tolkein-based fanfic. And yeah, I can see the point. But this is entertaining, and the warrior she-elf played by Kate from LOST is so awesome (I want to get her action figure!), that I personally feel the movie gets a pass. And besides, you know what else was fanfic and is being made into a movie? 50 Shades of Gray. So awful can this movie be?

Here's another handy thing, in case you haven't been watching TV to hear how the dragon's name is pronounced. Do this:

• Say "ouch"
  
• Add a "sm" to the beginning -- "smouch"
  
• Switch out the "ch" with a "g" - "smoug"

My particular yardstick of quality for a fantasy movie is: how good are the wigs? The LOTR trilogy had wonderful wigs, just gorgeous and realistic. This HOBBIT series is not as good in that area. Weird! Gandalf (Sir Ian McKellen) and Bilbo (Martin Freeman) are okay. But maybe because the dwarves were all supposed to fantastical in their hair and beards, the attention to detail elsewhere was shrugged off. And there were places the CGI was somewhat puppet-y. But certainly still a fun movie, even if not quite LOTR quality. Plus this series has Lee Pace (remember him? PUSHING UP DAISIES?) playing the icy and overbearing Thranduil, King of the Mountain Elves. Lee is tall and thin, and with a platinum-blond wig, he's breathtakingly gorgeous. At one point there's a close-up of his face in three-quarter view, and his (natural!) eyelashes are just killer. He does a fine English accent too; his casting makes sense of those myths about how humans get enslaved by the allure of fairykind. Yum!


I liked this 2nd of 3 movies better than the first. There were more adventures, more action scenes. The escape down the river in barrels escalated with fights and orcs and heroic assistants until you can't laugh or gasp anymore! Though I don't like her red wig, Evangeline Lily is aristocratic, heroic and active as the she-elf Tauriel. Dwarves aren't supposed to be handsome, unless they have rockstar hair and pointed eyebrows like Aidan Turner who plays Kili. Stephen Frye is a gross, calculating mayor of Lake-town. The heaps and piles of coins and treasure are amazing, and Benerback Cumberbitch adds all kinds of lizard-like oilyness as the voice of Smaug.


Once semi-warning: Where the 1st Hobbit movie came to a graceful stopping point, this one has the cliffiest of cliff-hangers! The theater was all "whaaaaa?" when the credits started. It's pretty clear what comes next, but man. What an awkward stopping place!

Oh, and look for the fantabulous Stephen Colbert as one of the spies in Lake-town! He's a Tolkein nut from way back, and Peter Jackson put him in the movie!