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A Film Review of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

By: Lawrence Napoli

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The Lord of the Rings prequel films continue to expand and evolve in grandiose fashion thanks to Peter Jackson’s next chapter in his adaptation of The Hobbit.  Unfortunately, by the end of this film I had a much deeper awareness (or rather, loathing) for this prequel’s “expansive” nature due to the fact that this film shows the audience more of the same types of traveling, battling and CG generated sequences that we’ve come accustomed to for four films now.  Mind you, this is not a criticism of the extremely high proficiency with which this film was shot, performed in and presented thanks to the miracle of digital effects.  I was simply bored with the story overall.  Every minute that passed in the theatre’s relatively uncomfortable seats solidified my lower posterior cell by cell.  By the end credits I was convinced this was the longest LotR film by far (which is incorrect as that distinction goes to The Return of the King with a whopping 201 minute run time). 

The “magic” of these Hobbit films seems to be getting lost due to the fatigue of LotR familiarity and an effort to “fill minutes” with scenes rather than using them to build the plot with a series of moments that actually matter towards some climactic end.  Yes, yes, Peter Jackson will be the first to state that his Tolkien adaptations are really meant to be seen together: back to back to back.  To that I say: “Very well!  Bring me to this 9 hour, cinematic marathon!”  Oh wait, such an event would never occur under the current theatre system because they would barely squeeze two screenings in a day and more screenings means more money which is what makes the Hollywood World go ‘round.  Long story short: Peter Jackson is allowed his artistic preferences as an exceptional filmmaker, but these Hobbit adaptations are nowhere close to the self-contained nuggets of dramatic fantasy tales represented by his own Lord of the Rings Trilogy: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King. 

There is a bit of a writing faux pas to initially explain why this second Hobbit film in particular misses.  First of all, Bilbo Baggins (The Hobbit) really isn’t the main character here.  In fact, there are several gaps in this film where he is all but forgotten.  I understand that the Dwarven expedition to reclaim their home isn’t really his quest, but all of these LotR stories are about being mindful of the smaller things in life that may in fact be more powerful and important than larger ideas and conflicts that regularly consume our attention.  Plus, it’s also a neat perspective on the hero’s journey to experience it through the eyes of a weaker character (despite his discovery of a unique power).  The Desolation of Smaug is Thorin’s (the leader and most powerful of the Dwarves) journey with some timely aid of a Hobbit on the side.  Second is the inflated importance and screen presence of Orlando Bloom’s Legolas.  Don’t get me wrong, I like his character in addition to the way Bloom plays it, but his role does not advance the plot of the main characters in any way and should therefore not exceed that of a cameo appearance, much like Saruman and Galadriel in the first Hobbit.  I suspect his featured status in The Hobbit: Part 2 of 3 is only to infuse some much needed action and combat-acrobatics that Dwarves, Hobbits and Half-lings of all sorts are apparently not capable of here.  Third, the titular character “Smaug” and the scenes that feature him are absolutely captivating and masterfully played by Martin Freeman as Bilbo and the disembodied voice of Benedict Cumberbatch.  The problem is the audience has to wait almost two hours to get to that part.

Ultimately, the weakness of The Hobbit Trilogy thus far boils down to lacking some serious charm and development when it comes to character.  A group of heroes going on a journey against great odds must have moments onscreen when individuals identify themselves which endears them to the audience.  Bilbo (an excellent main character) is a recovering optimist seeking to fit in and goes one on one with a dragon and he is completely absent from half of this film.  Gandalf is the same crotchety old wizard with a tendency to leave the group the first chance he gets in order to get his butt kicked, and the audience is not surprised by any of this because we’ve seen it play out in exactly the same way as in every other LotR film.  Thorin is the angry Dwarf would-be king who’s too mightier-than-thou to have Aragorn’s (Viggo Mortensen) roguish charm but is portrayed in these prequels as the substitute for that exact character type.  And the rest of the group is comprised of supporting character #1, supporting character #2, etc.  As a collective, our heroes are simply not as interesting as Harry Potter’s classmates, as iconic as The Rebel Alliance or as diverse as the original Fellowship, and there’s no excuse for that seeing how Peter Jackson has three whole feature length films to get an audience to invest in these guys.  An attempt was made in this film to explore a subplot between Kili (Aidan Turner) and Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly), but that was literally two scenes, and apparently they are now totally in love forever.   

The Desolation of Smaugis a very beautiful film to look at.  Once again, there are plenty of breathtaking landscapes (both natural and digital) to gaze at.  Elvin combat is an exquisite ballet that defies the laws of gravity and is masterfully captured by a series of tracking shots during the river sequence.  Sauron (The Eye) reveals itself for the first time to Gandalf in an extremely terrifying way that gives some very interesting visual context as to what composes the iris.  Pro tip: The audience has never seen this detail in the original trilogy.  And of course there’s Smaug himself: who redefines what it means to depict such a mythical beast in cinematic reality.  The scale and detail of his enormity is matched only by his equally grand lair of shimmering gold and the menacingly seductive nature of his voice (thank you Mr. Cumberbatch).  The union of LotR and Peter Jackson has never failed to deliver the visual eye candy.

Performances by the cast are solid and are defined by their consistency, but no one stands out, steals scenes or delivers something truly memorable.  The exception is that the digital characters in this entire mythology are some of the best Hollywood magic has produced, and they tend to upstage their fully human costars in the LotR films.  I suppose I should not be too disappointed in the lack of a marquee human performance because the deck of characters is somewhat stacked against them.  Men and women of Middle Earth are reflections of British history from kings and nobles to peasants and pond scum.  Elves are hyper pretty people and Dwarves are ugly and stumpy.  How do any of these compare to a winged, fire-breathing calamity that’s as big as a building who’ll only give you the time of day so long as you shower him with compliments?   Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage and the rest are all fine actors, but they are mostly British people performing like British people – not exactly reinventing the wheel.

The Desolation of Smaug is a fine fantasy/adventure film that boasts much more intelligence than casual Hollywood drivel and is certainly a nice treat for the family during the holidays.  I don’t recommend this for anyone looking for more than some light fantasy fun.  This film is not a new benchmark that redefines Tolkien’s fantasy turned reality.  Chances are, you’ve seen and heard much of what’s contained within this film before, and if it were to go head to head with a comparable blockbuster such as a major comic book character film, Star Wars or even a Fast and Furious sequel, my feeling is that it would lose ticket sales to that competition (which is why we never see these films go head to head in the first place).  In one way (and one way only), I’m glad that The Hobbit Trilogy isn’t fleshing out the way its predecessor did because it puts the “multiple film per book adaptation” argument to rest.  I don’t care how many details and subplots were snubbed from any single LotR movie.  How much more did the audience need to fully understand those stories?  I don’t feel overburdened by the exposition that drags out in these Hobbit prequels; I’m disinterested in it.  There’s too much bland gobbledygook to wade through to get to the good stuff in the story.  The art of adaptation is breaking fiction down intellectually and building it back up with the concept of efficiency in mind to visually present a story that ebbs and flows while not losing an audience’s interest. 

Sure, it’s nice to have more of popular license “X” on the big screen, but we don’t need more than one Spider-Man punching Green Goblin in the face movie to understand teenage super-heroism, power and responsibility and father-son/hero-villain dynamics.  Another movie can see him fight someone else for another reason that explores a different side to his character (or every other villain to explore every aspect of his character at the same time for The Amazing Spider-Man 2).  Unfortunately, the whole film adaptation: “Part 1 of X, Part 2 of X, etc.” movement has done nothing but gain steam.  Harry Potter did it, Twilight did it and Hunger Games is going to do it.  Will this mean less concise filmmaking in the future?  Yes.  Will this frenzy fanboys and alienate everyone else?  Maybe.  Will this yield more money for the Hollywood machine?  Absolutely!  Well in that case, all is forgiven.  Hopefully Bryan Singer has his writing team diligently at work on X-Men: Days of Future Past Part 2 of 10 right now just to keep the ball rolling.

Pearl Jam Descends on Buffalo

Stop #2 for the North American Lightning Bolt Tour 2013

By: Lawrence Napoli and Cat Carlson

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So many have been eagerly anticipating Pearl Jam’s return to the touring circuit that as soon as it was announced, scoring tickets for any of the venues instantly became a hot commodity and awfully complicated if you weren’t waiting in a line at the box office or some website well in advance.  My own adventure had me perusing tickets.com with multiple laptops only to be held in a virtual waiting line for which fate alone would determine the quality of my seats.  Despite the three ring circus that process wound up being, I was pleased with getting tickets at all because Pearl Jam happens to be my girlfriend’s favorite band.  I, unfortunately, am not a “music guy” and more of a “movie guy” and was only modestly familiar with their work mostly from the early to mid 90s, but I was very excited to go to a live rock show because the word everywhere was that they always put on great shows.  As for me, only a recent addition to the Ten Club and relative novice in all things Pearl Jam; stop #2 in the North American Lightning Bolt Tour was nothing short of electrically charged adrenaline that cycled from the stage, into First Niagara Center, onto the audience and back.  It was an amazing show, and I felt so privileged to catch Vedder and co. towards the beginning of a tour with fresh legs.

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The show itself started 45 minutes late as we were all wondering how on Earth an opening band could delay the main event for so long.  As it turned out, there was NO opening band as Pearl Jam approached the stage with minimal effects and maximum fanfare.  “Light,” “light bulbs,” and “lightning” were ever present on the stage as lighting effects which were obvious references to their upcoming album Lightning Bolt, but what I wasn’t expecting was the maximum energy being exerted and sustained by Pearl Jam and Vedder himself for the duration of a three hour show.  As soon as they came out, everyone stood up and no one sat down until the last encore was taken.  What follows is an incomplete set list for the evening: just a few notables and moments my girlfriend, Cat and I found most interesting.

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Pearl Jam started out with a song from the new album called “Pendulum” which would be one of the slower numbers in comparison to the rest of the evening and followed up with “Low Light” from the Yield album of 1998.  Both songs set the mood right away and allowed the audience to ease into the concert.

Then came “Sometimes” (No Code, 1996) and “Corduroy” (Vitalogy, 1994) and anyone could clearly see Eddie was really starting to shift gears to a whole new level.  The dial was set immediately to 9 and Eddie toasts wine to the crowd.  But then another new song from Lightning Bolt strikes with “Mind Your Manners” (the first release off said album) and pushes that dial to 10 with the evening’s first really good, fever-pitched, song.

“Do the Evolution” (Yield, 1998) was the first of many sing-a-longs where Eddie was both pushing and feeding off of the crowd’s energy.  I particularly enjoyed my girlfriend’s own participation as her enthusiasm easily conducted to my own.  Eddie takes another moment to speak to Buffalo, gives another toast and promises that Pearl Jam would start pacing themselves because at this point it would’ve been invonceivable for the intensity to get any higher.

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“Immortality” (Vitalogy, 1994) is one of my girlfriend’s favorite songs and according to her is “not one of their standard grunge rock” and “more of a ballad.”  It’s the kind of song that reached fans and non-fans due to it peaking at #10 on the billboard mainstream rock charts at that time in history.

“Sirens,” another new release from Lightning Bolt was my personal favorite for the entire evening which is a much more intimate song with mellow tones and on the opposite end of the style spectrum from “Mind Your Manners.”  My girlfriend notes how this song indicates how wide the scope of this new album will wind up being.

“Once,” from PJ’s debut album Ten was a full blown love fest that got the whole crowd singing with Eddie and sometimes tagging him out all together.  All the fans know the old songs and to many, PJ’s first album still happens to be the best.

The evening goes on a bit more with a relentless barrage of song after song, when Eddie takes another time out to talk about one of his mentors, Neil Young, and the story of how the song “I Got Shit” was created.  This got a good laugh from the crowd as he proceeded to play “I Got Shit” (Merkin Ball, 1995) which is another of Cat’s favorite songs which once again reached popularity on several ratings charts from the mid 90s.

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The first encore started with Eddie addressing the audience very intimately as he thanked us all for the great energy he was receiving from the audience which, according to Cat (who was present the last time they came to Buffalo), was most certainly a vast improvement!  Vedder always tries to personalize shows to the community he’s in and mentioned how the Sabres insignia was one of the coolest looking hockey logos around – which naturally got a rise from the audience. 

Pearl Jam proceeds with “Off He Goes” (No Code, 1996) which Eddie describes as a song about what happens when you don’t get enough time at home.  Is this perhaps a self portrait?  Is this merely the price one pays for fortune and glory?

Vedder then takes another pause with the audience to share how his youngest daughter scored her first goal in soccer that day and that while he felt really bad about missing it, the crowd’s good energy and a good show so far certainly made him feel better.  It really makes you feel for talented entertainers whose professions require them to be on the global move because their art is a double edged sword of success: passion & price.  Vedder follows that statement with “Future Days,” another new song from Lightning Bolt which was a perfect bookend to that moment.

Eddie then made a very nice gesture to the ¼ of the arena that was seated behind the band for the entire evening thus far by playing “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town” (Vs., 1993).  It was another high energy, high participation song and a nice reward for a lot of people that got some pretty crappy seats, but it really made me wonder why the First Niagara Center would be so greedy to sell those seats in the first place.  Sure, it gave a bunch of people an opportunity to see the show at all, but I really hoped they paid a fraction of the price.

The second encore had Eddie talking to the audience about what the proper nomenclature is for describing a native of Buffalo, NY.  “Are you a Buffalonian?  A Buffaloite?  (Jeff interjects a Bison?).”  At this point, Vedder mentions that his favorite person from Buffalo is Vincent Gallo.  (Sigh)  I give the man a slight pass for the simple fact that Gallo is probably the only person Eddie Vedder has ever met from Buffalo.  Some people really dig Gallo’s experimental art, but I don’t care one little bit for the film Gallo is most known for in Buffalo ’66.  I haven’t seen a more depressing, self-absorbed, narrative on film that quite honestly, couldn’t paint Western New York in worse light.  Perhaps Vedder was unaware that the classy Gallo sells his own sperm on the merchandising link of his own website vincentgallo.com?  I could go on and on, but that’s a whole other article. 

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Vedder follows that particular failed attempt at personalizing to the crowd (because the Gallo reference got zero reaction from anyone but me) with “Go” (Vs., 1993).

The show wrapped up around 11pm without an appearance form the standard “Yellow Ledbetter” and instead closed with a cover of The Who’s “Baba O’Riley” (Teenage Wasteland).  This is Eddie’s regular tambourine-smashing act that had as much energy (if not more) than he had at 8:30.

This was an amazing show to experience and that’s coming from a non Pearl Jam acolyte.  My girlfriend Cat had a wonderful time as she was moving and clapping to the music all evening.  She made specific note of how this was a much better show than the last one she witnessed in Buffalo.  As an additional side note, the interactive scenery that deployed from above the stage at various times during the show was a little atypical for Pearl Jam.  It involved a tiered string of rustic-style light bulbs that seemed to evoke some kind of Tesla imagery for obvious reasons.  Eddie and the rest of the band played with them regularly as they would be lowered so close to the stage that any of them could bat them around with their hands or their guitars.  Cat predicts that Vedder will most certainly shatter one of them before the North American tour is done.

Even if you aren’t a fan of Pearl Jam, but like good rock music performed live, do your best to get some tickets for the Lightning Bolt Tour.

Pearl Jam “Lightning Bolt” is now available through iTunes and Amazon.