Peter Jackson loves epic film making. He could take The Hungry Caterpillar and adapt it into a 3-hour extravaganza, bursting with eagles, spiders, an evil overlord, topped with a Cate Blanchett voice over. It has been both a blessing and a curse with Jackson’s filmography over the years, and his latest venture into Middle-Earth, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, is a return to form after the tentative first entry in this new trilogy. However, what is a fun, entertaining and exceptionally well-made film is unfortunately brought down by what seems like needless padding, forced sub-plots and an excessive running time.
The Hobbit is around 300 pages long, and a much simpler story, originally devised for children, than its successor The Lord of the Rings charting the war of a fictional world. Many were cynical and felt that dividing The Hobbit into three films would just mean more money for Jackson and Co. (which of course it does), but in his work there is undeniably a love for his source material. The only problem? He has turned a story that could be told in two hours into one that is going to be pushing nine hours in full. This means The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug has its fair share of filler, which is undoubtedly going to make purist fans as mad as Gollum when he loses his precious. Although what we see on screen is not necessarily bad, it is just questionable whether it needs to be there at all.
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