The Desolation of Smaug Pt. 1

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One sure thing about these 'Hobbit' movies that stands out to any audience member; fan or not, is the addition of various things. It bears mentioning again that I am a fan of these movies, and the 'Middle Earth' series as a whole. When it came to extra material in the 'Hobbit' series, I was far more forgiving than others, appreciating being able to see more of that world. It's like I said; this is the book, plus more, so I was pretty happy about it.

Having said that, 'Desolation' offers up perhaps the most controversial addition of a character, Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly). The fact of the matter is, this is one character who was never invented by Tolkien, and instead, made for the movie. To purists, this was quite dissatisfactory. And while I think she's actually a pretty cool character, I have to admit that I get two things about her presence that bothers people. For one, the obvious is that she's new, and I can see that being a bit insulting to Tolkien's work. Second, and to add to that, she can feel a bit forced as the strong, female character sometimes.

Add it all together, and in some ways, you just get the movie using her to appeal to a bigger audience and get butts in seats. 'The Hobbit', as a book, IS almost completely devoid of female characters after all. Personally speaking, though, I think she brings a lot to the table that wasn't present in the book - and it doesn't matter that she's a woman. In the book, we get that the dwarves get captured by wood elves (spoiler alert), but there's not many specifics on who they all were. So, all my brain says to her presence is simply "why not, though?" BUT, to be perfectly fair, even for me, she doesn't come without her problems either (*cough* unnecessary love triangle story *cough*).

Anyway, in comparison to the book, this chapter doesn't cover a whole hell of a lot, but does manage to stretch it out into something that's a lot of fun. As things kick off, one addition I particularly enjoyed here, was Gandalf's (Ian McKellen) meeting with Thorin (Richard Armitage) in which the Grey Wizard convinces the rightful King of Erebor to go reclaim his homeland from Smaug, as he will help him on his journey, but they will need a burglar, which, of course, is where Bilbo (Martin Freeman) comes in. Then we move along to present day, picking up where we left off, 12 months after said meeting.

The company of dwarves, along with Bilbo, are still trying to avoid a long-lasting orcish hunt, lead by Azog (Manu Bennett). Luckily, however, Gandalf finds them shelter at the home of a skin-changer named Beorn (Mikael Persbrandt); a gigantic man who can transform into a vicious bear. With his protection, Beorn ushers the group to the outskirts of Mirkwood, but Gandalf soon has to leave on more important matters. Of course, this all ties in with the ring and everything to come in 'Lord of the Rings', as I've mentioned before. The central focus of this chapter, however, is the dwarves going through the crazy, dark, Mirkwood in order to get to their Lonely Mountain.

In the book, the chapter involving Mirkwood was always my personal favourite, and I looked forward to seeing the fight with the spiders that does, indeed, take place. As hoped for, it was a great scene that was even a little bit scary; especially when you hear the spiders start talking about "feasting" and such. But nothing here is more fun than the barrel scene, which is a bit of a spoiler if i get into detail, but you'll certainly know the scene to see it. In between all that is where we meet Tauriel, and the audience starts to really get divided. I should probably mention they also throw in Legolas (Orlando Bloom) for a dash of fan-service.

I won't go into too much more detail here, but eventually, we do get to meet two more new characters as well. First, going back to the dark armies rising, Azog brings in his son, Bolg (Lawrence Makoare) to assist in hunting these dwarves. So he'll be your orc leader this evening. But more importantly, we get to meet a man named Bard (Luke Evans), whose overall role will become a little more unveiled later - but for now, he's a sort of middle-ground character. Certainly likable in various ways, but his character hasn't been developed into anything special yet. The difference between them and Tauriel being that they are active characters in the book.

Now, if you're excited to see Smaug in this chapter, I should probably mention that we're not quite there yet. However we do learn of the concept of a black arrow - the only thing that can pierce a dragon's scales. While I appreciated how the weapon was described in the film, it's a far different item in the book. Book-wise, it's really just an arrow, but in the movie, it's a large metal quarrel, designed to be fired by a "Wind Lance" ballista, specifically. I guess it makes sense for the movie to make it something bigger, but I feel like I'd have liked the "final arrow" shot better (even if it is a bit clichéd, that's just how it was in the book).

One thing I can say for the films over the book, at least to some degree, is that we get to know these dwarves a little better as far as who is who. After all, even having Thorin being the most recognizable, there's still twelve more dwarves to keep track of here. And while the majority of them do sort of remain "extra", one can now narrow down Bombur (Stephen Hunter) as the "big one", Balin (Ken Stott) as the sort of more elderly, wise character, and probably the kindest of the bunch, and Kili (Aidan Turner), who gets some genuine development here, especially having eyes for Tauriel.

I think it's safe to say that I'm far more forgiving with the addition of things than many. Remembering that 'The Hobbit' is still my all-time favourite book, I don't consider myself a purist of any sort, and see a movie version and a book version, as opposed to a movie version vs. a book version. A lot of what's brought to the screen here makes for a more well-rounded adventure, and it's probably just me, but I think Tauriel is just fine. clichés aside, there's nothing about her that truly bothers me, and all of the good parts of this completely overshadow any issues I may have with her. That said, I can easily say that despite everything here, it's the second half of this that gets really fun!

4/5

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