The Hobbit movies have a real chance to be longer than a reading of the Hobbit would take. I went to go see the second of the movies, The Desolation of Smaug, this past weekend. Not only does it show almost everything that’s in the book, it brings in a significant number of scenes that aren’t even hinted at in the book, mostly with Gandalf when he leaves the party.  Overall it’s a decent movie that tries to hard to be more than it is. Let’s check it out.

The movie starts back in time when Gandalf meets up with Thorin and convinces him to go on the journey. Then we catch back up to real-time, picking up from the end of the first movie pursued by Orcs. Gandalf gets them into the house of Beorn. Meanwhile the orc leader Azog is called to see the Necromancer. After a night of rest, Beorn loans the party some horses to speed up their travel to Mirkwood forest. Gandalf leaves them there with warnings to not leave the elven path through the forest. Of course, they lose the path and spiders attack. Bilbo’s quick thinking and the arrival of some elves (Legolas and Tauriel) save them. The movie tries to setup some romance between Tauriel and Kili, but it’s not very convincing and not that well done. The elves capture the dwarfs, but Bilbo (with his ring on) sneaks in and frees them. With Bilbo’s help, the dwarfs get into some empty casks and float down the river. The elves stop them, but then the orcs attack again. Legolas and Tauriel (along with other elves) fight off the orcs and the dwarfs are able to escape, but Kili is hurt by an orc arrow.

Then we go to Laketown where the dwarves, with the help of Bart, sneak into the city. The dwarves try to keep quiet, but they are found and brought before the Master of Laketown. They present their case and the Master supports them, against the wishes of Bard who has an antagonistic relationship with the Master and the town. The group then makes the journey to the Lonely Mountain. They believe they’ve missed the opportunity to open the secret door, until Bilbo figures it out. Then we have a chase scene through the dungeon with the party and Smaug. We leave with Smaug going to attack Laketown. Along the way we have Gandalf meeting up with Radagast and finding out that the Necromancer is really Sauron.

The biggest change from the book is that the sped everything up (and there are a lot more orc attacks). The whole time with Beorn conclude within just a couple of minutes and the elves were held in the elven village for about 10 minutes. And all the Gandalf plot seems more to tie the Hobbit in with The Lord of the Rings, than to help out the story. The elven/dwarf relationship between Kili and Tauriel seems forced and doesn’t fit in with the rest of the movie. Bard’s role is expanded (which isn’t bad), but now he knows of Smaug’s weakness (a missing scale under his left-wing) from his father, rather than Bilbo finding out from his scouting of the dragon. The revision does more for Bard and Laketown. The chase scene in the mountain is a bit overboard, but is well done. Overall it’s not a bad movie, but it seems a little more concerned with tying into The Lord of the Rings, than telling its own story. Recommended.