Smaug misses the mark…as does Peter Jackson.

REVIEWER: Matthew Snider

A director’s job is to bring the viewer into the movie, to make us believe that we are along side our hero or heroine. Suspension of disbelief is the term for this submerged feeling when in a good story, a magical story, something so real, you are there.

Peter Jackson is a king at this. His story telling skills are among the best. With the LOTR trilogy, The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey and now The Desolation of Smaug, he has been at work at it for a while. Pulling us into the stories of little people named Hobbits, hairy folks aptly named Dwarves, and flying creatures that burn everything down.

Something has gone wrong though, Peter has lost his touch, the story is no longer engrossing, it drags a bit, it should have been two films.

The Hobbit, The Desolation of Smaug is an action movie. But no more.

That is where Peter Jackson and his team has failed. The story is one of great despair, a long journey, an almost insurmountable task, all the while a light hearted adventure. This is what it was supposed to be, but it didn’t quite hit the mark.

Instead, we saw an action movie, with our favorite characters, Bilbo, Gandalf and some pretty nasty Orcs. A very fast Legolas and his love interest. Lot’s of very large spiders, a pale Orc along with a growing necromancer power, hiding in the shadows. And that was it. No connection, no substance, no care about any of them.

The substance, the connection, the “fellowship” is what truly brings together these films, you care, you live along side, you cry when they do. This film lacked all of those things. Bilbo in the mines, who cares. Thorin and the quest to reclaim what was his, ehh. The last light of Durain Day, their last hope to sneak into the mountain and it was anticlimactic to say the least. There was no one or thing to care about, nothing to focus your hope on.

The Hobbit, The Desolation of Smaug was filler.

Weighing in at almost two hours and forty minutes, it was a lot of filler. Totally crazy action scenes, empty dialogue between characters, not really a way to suck us in. The ending of this filler piece is to be no surprise but will end up making you mad non the less. It’s the perfect spot to pull you back in for more, but I would argue that the decision, the money lead decision, to make this three films has come undone.

Two films, longer films would have been the way to go, the suspension of disbelief would have been deeper, more personal, but this missed it’s mark. Peter Jackson and team missed the mark, they needed to channel Legolas’ unnerving aim on this one.

The team did succeed at the expected visual effects, the grand landscapes, but lost the storyline, the hope somewhere along the way.

I hope they find it in the end.

2 Stars Out of 5