Review - The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Peter Jackson's overdrawn saga of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit continues in the ongoing trilogy's second episode, subtitled The Desolation of Smaug, which as it turns out, is not about bringing an end to air pollution in Middle Earth (I shudder imagine the size of Mt. Doom's carbon footprint). Smaug, of course, is the vain and ferocious dragon (voiced and mo-capped here by Benedict Cumberbatch) who has hoarded generations worth of stolen dwarf gold in the stony mountain keep of Erebor; the ancient kingdom which you'll recall young Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) and our intrepid band of heroes set out on an unexpected journey to recapture in last year's first installment.

The stakes heighten in this chapter, as Bilbo & Co., now well beyond the point of no return, draw ever closer to the villainous fire-breathing reptile, encountering all manner of other threats along the way. These include the usual orcs and wargs, but also a bearlike skin-changer, giant spiders (been there, done that), a menacing Necromancer, and suspicious wood elves among whom we meet Lord of the Rings mainstay Legolas. Shrewdly added to the proceedings after the first film was mildly criticized for its lopsided lack of female characters – Tolkien's fault, not the filmmakers' – is the elfin warrior Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly), an original creation of Jackson and his writing team intended to shoot a much-needed strong woman's presence into the testosterone-heavy cast. Unfortunately, she is eventually relegated to being the fulcrum of a silly romantic subplot.

Review - The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

“That seems a bit excessive, doesn't it?” Bilbo Baggins mentions to a particularly rotund dwarf carrying several large wheels of cheese through a snug hobbit hole. It's a throwaway sight gag that plays for a quick chuckle in the first third of the first third (not a typo) of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit, but this insignificant moment perfectly sums up my thoughts on the matter: a 2-hour and fifty-minute movie just for the first 100 pages of a childrens novel? Doesn't this whole enterprise seem a bit excessive?

Preceding the Middle Earth events depicted in Jackson's gargantuan Lord of the Rings trilogy by a good sixty years, The Hobbit takes its excruciating time in setting us up for the adventures of young Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman, excellent in a mostly passive role), a quiet hobbit with no desire to stray from the cozy confines of his beloved Shire. When the meddling but unquestionably good wizard Gandalf the Grey (commanded once again by Sir Ian McKellan) signs Bilbo up to join a company of raucous dwarfs on their quest to recapture their home from a marauding dragon, he is naturally reluctant. But he is finally persuaded, and the unexpected journey begins (a good forty minutes into the film, mind you).

One Category at a Time: Best Picture (part 1)

With the 2012 Oscar season now a happily distant memory, it's time to look ahead to what films might find themselves in Oscar's company eleven months from now. While it's always next to impossible to pinpoint the unassuming charmers (like The Artist) that can be molded into awards juggernauts from this far out, deciding which high-profile studio projects might tickle the Academy's fancy is easy enough, if not necessarily accurate. Here are the first five of ten such Oscar lures which I'm sure many pundits will be watching with close interest throughout the year:

The last time Joe Wright made a lavish period epic (2007's Atonement), it wound up with seven nominations including Best Picture despite a chilly critical reception. Anna Karenina ticks many of the Academy's boxes on paper, and presents an opportunity for broad support from the guilds. Sight unseen, it's as safe a bet as any.

Best of the Decade #2: The Lord of the Rings (2001, 2002, 2003)

The epic undertaking of filming Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy certainly got results. Peter Jackson fills the screen with not only spectacular images but with strong performances from well-cast actors. Each shot is beautifully framed and lit by DP Andrew Lesnie, and Howard Shore's music is both rousing and touching.

While Fellowship of the Ring is the most immediately memorable and structurally sound of the trilogy, don't watch it unless you plan to watch its two sequels shortly afterward, because only then can one truly appreciate Jackson's achievement. With The Two Towers, he faced the structural challenge of fitting three separate storylines with no beginnings and no ends into a digestible cinematic narrative. But he builds the tension equally through all the subplots, balancing suspense and exposition, right up to the hair-raising Battle of Helm's Deep. The Two Towers also features one of the best performances of the decade from motion-capture and voice actor Andy Serkis as Gollum. Serkis' embodiment and vocalization of the simultaneously despicable and pitiable creature is so astonishing and authentic, that we soon forget Gollum is a CG character at all.

And it was in grand fashion that Jackson capped off his marvelous fantasy trilogy, not that the first two parts weren't grand enough. Complaints about Return of the King's seemingly endless ending are legitimate, but when one stops to think about it, there was no other way Jackson could have concluded such a lengthy piece of film (it is a 10 hour movie after all). In that respect, Jackson ties up all the loose ends quite appropriately, giving all the characters the detailed endings they deserve.