by Roger Bourke White Jr., copyright December 2013
The best part about this Number Two in the series is the set work. Jackson has gone above and beyond in creating sets that are impressive to look at and imaginative in their variety. The combat acrobatics are also impressive. The story is not so impressive, it's there to support the set work, which means it supports a lot of inconsistencies.
Also, lets get the calling a spade a spade out of the way: These movies are a reboot, so comments about comparing the movie series to the book are mostly irrelevant. This is "Action Jackson's" creation, not Tolkien's.
Exterior scenes of Middle Earth are once again a nice medley of New Zealand scenery. There are times when the places don't make a lot of sense -- too many great shots of ridges and hills -- but they all look good, and it works OK for me. The battling in the barrels in the rapids worked nicely, great innovation here.
The interior scenes show just what Jackson can do with a bunch of money and a free hand. I like the variety that shows up in this movie much more than what I saw in Number One. Laketown in particular was a lot of fun. What didn't work well for me was the treasure room. So... much... treasure! The slipping and sliding around in it was fun to watch, but the inconceivableness of it kept hitting me. In Tolkien's description, dragons knew their treasure hoards intimately. That wasn't possible with something this massive. And, likewise, finding the Arkenstone in it would be the proverbial needle in a haystack.
o Now the big problem: This movie suffers deeply from "Storm Trooper Effect" -- neither the orcs nor Smaug can actually hurt anything. The combat acrobatics are impressive and fun to watch, but by early in the 2nd half of the movie it is clear even puppies would be safe from these "blonds" of the Middle Earth. Which brings up a minor inconsistency: Why is the elf king getting so worried about the evil? Legolas and Tauriel have amply demonstrated that it can't damage elves!
o And related: we still have the huge inconsistency that before these movies start Smaug can wipe out an entire heavily fortified dwarf city just by showing up, but in this movie he can't deal with thirteen impoverished dwarfs and a hobbit? He spends a good hour chasing them around, can't catch even one of them. In the end they start chasing him, and he gets frustrated and heads off to vent his anger on Laketown. Very strange. If the local teenagers got word of this, looting by dwarfs, elves and human-types would be happening constantly. They wouldn't bother with the secret door, and Smaug would become grumpy indeed from the lack of sleep caused by the incessant clattering and chattering as these locals spent years hauling away that inconceivably large treasure, backpack by backpack.
This inconsistency falls squarely on Jackson's shoulders because this is a reboot, and because he's working so hard to shape this into a LOTR prequel. In the Tolkien version this is not such an issue because Erebor (Lonely Mountain) is not that extensively described and the description shows up so late in the story. In contrast Jackson starts this movie series showing Smaug simply walking in to this heavily fortified, richly endowed, BIG dwarf city and handily wiping it out to the last person in short order. Even worse, this happens while human and elf armies are nearby watching helplessly. This is a seriously ferocious Smaug we are talking about in the opening scenes. You have to wonder: What has happened to him over the years?
One solution to this inconsistency is to make Erebor a smaller place. If it is home to, say, two-to-five hundred dwarfs, not ten thousand, and has a treasure room, not a treasure neighborhood, then Smaug's ferocity can be scaled down. Another solution is to let him get into Erebor through trickery of some sort. Example: in that opening scene the dwarfs, humans and elves are disputing something between themselves, so the dwarfs are distracted and out of position, and the humans and elves at first laugh at the dwarfs' misfortune when Smaug sneaks into their unguarded city.
o Another Smaug issue: that vulnerability on his chest that will do him in next movie is only a fifth the size of his eye -- very tough to hit, especially if he's flying. It would be better to aim for an eye or put one right down that fire breathing throat. Conversely, if you really have to "hit him where it hurts", then I suggest the dwarfs figure out a way to get him dead-drunk from some all night partying at Laketown, and convincing him to sleep it off in a ditch on his way home... on his back.
o A completely different face palm was Gandalf going into Dol Guldur alone. And when he gets in there he's busy walking around quite openly, casting spells to reveal the bad guys. What was he going to do when he did reveal them? Use harsh language? Send in a litter of puppies? If he was scouting, why wasn't he sneaking? He told Radagast not to follow him. How was he planning to leave? Very strange.
o The politics of Laketown made no sense. Why the tight security? Who was threatening the place? The elves were aloof and gates and guards would be irrelevant if Smaug showed up.
And in spite of the gates and guards, those puppy-fearing orcs (well... they should have been puppy fearing) kept showing up fast and furiously all over the place, such as on the roofs of Laketown.
Let me end with another bit of good news about the movie: Jackson doesn't have a single cliff-hanger in this one. Yay! He had three in the first movie; they sure got tiresome.
This second movie is a classic in the smash-and-crash tradition of 2010's movies. It does the smash and crash real well, and much better than in the first movie. Jackson has done some wonderful set work this time. There are some imaginatively portrayed combat scenes. But the story line is filled with classic smash and crash-style inconsistencies. This is a real shame considering how deeply consistent Tokien's work is. LOTR, book version, is one of my favorite examples of doing consistency right in story telling.
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