Desolation of Smaug - A Neverending TV Show

[While I don't necessarily give anything away that you can't infer from commercials, it would probably be best to watch The Desolation of Smaug before reading.]

Tonight I took my mom to see the new Hobbit movie. As I was watching it, I couldn't help but feel like I was watching an uninterrupted, high-production TV series.

The first movie caught a lot of flak because nothing really happened. Now I had no real issue with the slow pace and lack of plot development because a Tolkien story deserves an entire movie to set up a sweeping story. Sure it took about an hour before the adventure even started, but I was happy to watch it because I knew it was a necessary process.

However, all of that assumes that the next movie goes somewhere. In the span of 2 1/2 hours, "The Desolation of Smaug" didn't really do much of anything. It started a few new subplots, but nothing from this or the previous movie got wrapped up. They walked, there were orcs to put down, a dragon to slay, and a king trying to reclaim his throne. Everything that happened in the first movie is still up in the air by the end of the second. 

Although I enjoyed the movie, I was disappointed that I spent 2 1/2 hours watching what felt like a continuation of the first movie, with no sense of completion or identity. It felt very much like a tv show, where there was an overarching story (reclaiming the mountain), but in between continuing that story there are a lot of side stories showing off the world and the people living in it. However, very little of that serves as more than a vehicle to keep the characters on screen until the season fina... er, third movie. 

Now compare that to the LotR trilogy. Each movie was part of a grand story, but they also had their own identity. The Fellowship of the Ring established characters, created the fellowship, and then split them up. One even died! The Two Towers had the establishment and completion of the Helm's Deep battle, as well as some stuff involving Frodo. The final movie was huge and capstoned the first two movies, but still felt like its own entity. They were all self-contained movies that were good in their own right, and fantastic when seen as a trilogy.

So far the two hobbit movies haven't had much happen. There have been some side quests, but no main stories have been wrapped up. The only thing the characters have started and completed is a lot of walking to various destinations, where they'll always have a zany adventure before moving on. That's not a movie, that's several episodes of a TV series. So far the two movies haven't had their own major story arc that was developed and completed in a single movie. The second movie could have cut a completely unnecessary fight involving a creature we've already seen in LotR to make room for completing one of the stories (or further explaining a tie-in to the LotR), but instead just gave us a bit of fluff that wasn't terribly exciting. Instead the 2 1/2 hour movie gets so close to completing something, only to cut to a picture of Peter Jackson holding a sign that says "Psych!"

Now you could argue that people are coming down hard because the LotR set the bar too high. While that may be a motivator for some, I do think this movie has proven that taking a single book and expanding it in to 3 movies might have been too much. We're getting a new tour of Middle Earth, but so far the movies feel like what they are - an 8 hour movie split up in to three chunks, or a marathon TV series.

Don't get me wrong, I'm loving the new trilogy. I enjoy Tolkien's world, and the endless depth of lore always leaves me wanting to learn more. I would gladly watch the first two movies again because they are packed with information about the world, and since I find Tolkien's writing to be very dry I've never been able to immerse myself in the world as much as I'd like. But despite my love for the movie series, I do think it deserve the criticism it's received regarding its pacing.

Now to cross my fingers and hope I get the first Hobbit movie for Christmas tomorrow!


See you tomorrow!

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