The Desolation of Smaug – In contrast to the titular declaration of
Smaug there is a distinct deprivation of Smaug, fundamentally detrimental to
the dramatization of Smaug that, in its deference of the denouement of Smaug,
subsequently renders The Desolation of
Smaug a decisive disappointment of Smaug.
In the second
instalment of Bilbo’s shenanigans, my tolerance for dwarfish matters: all
things bearded and quest-bound, began to wane. Whilst many have declared this
an improvement on An Unexpected Journey,
I found the bumbling heroics (now knowingly more humorous in tone) of the
cartoonish cast of dwarfs uninteresting, bordering on tedious. Their
characters, far from seeming developed or interesting, are instead comfortably
coasting through broad and slapstick strokes of personality; one dimensional
and hard to care about. Granted, Tolkein is not renown for his nuanced
psychological sensitivity…Oishkin son of
Tibble, successor to the throne of obscurely phonetic elfish enigma is
about as far as introspection goes. However, now, without the genuinely
likeable chemistry that Peter Jackson found in LOTR and its terrific actors,
this pilgrimage of dwarfs to a mountain – despite its vertiginous climbs,
incessant chase sequences and dramatic camera swoops – becomes close to
repetitive. The feeling arises that we have seen it before and, in Lord of the
Rings, we have seen it better. Yes, it is visually stunning in places – and yes
Martin Freeman makes a brilliant Bilbo, but this outweighed by an over
indulgent length, continual and unrelenting action, a lack of emotional
connection, a surplus (excluding Martin Freeman) of the hammy, pseudo
Shakespearian and bellowing school of acting…and the irritating bloat of action
that distances us from the climactic dragon. That, and I miss Gollum. 6.5/10
