Whether you’re just a casual moviegoer or a fan of the book, the second film installment of Tolkien’s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug was major a disappointment. The biggest problem is that director Peter Jackson drags out the story by creating unnecessary conflict and adding more to the plot of the original story. Together, those two elements completely ruins the experience for audiences.
The movie continues the quest in An Unexpected Journey to reclaim Erobor, home of the Dwarves, currently occupied by the dragon Smaug.
Tolkien’s pleasingly simple story of adventure and personal growth is overlooked by Jackson’s drawn out action sequences such as an unnecessary long fight with the dragon.
On top of this, there was no warmth or humor in the story. Only the sense that almost everyone was out to get someone else in order to achieve their own goals, along with an overwhelming and over emphasized feeling of danger in almost every scene.
While Orlando Bloom may be handsome playing Legolas, he merely serves (not surprisingly) to add action to the movie, which distracts from the story’s original message that small deeds can still be courageous. By adding a character who wasn’t a major role in the actual book series, it seems as though Jackson is simply trying too hard to force the connection between the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and the Hobbit.
On the whole, there wasn’t really anything to love about the movie. The only thing that would make me see the final installment of the Hobbit, predicted to come out in 2014, is a sense of obligation as a fan of the book series.