TORONTO — It’s arguably not important what critics think of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, the second chapter in director Peter Jackson’s trilogy — it will open at the top of the box office no matter what.
Picking up where An Unexpected Journey left off, the movie continues to follow Bilbo Baggins and his friends on an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor.
“Director Peter Jackson does not do things by halves, and that includes duration,” wrote Brian Viner in the Daily Mail. “The Hobbit 2, as I think we must prefer to call it, extends to two hours 41 minutes, which means that his adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s children’s book has so far gobbled up five-and-a-half hours of our lives, with the final instalment of the trilogy unlikely to err on the side of brevity.”
Also noting the film’s running time is Sheila O’Malley of RogerEbert.com.
“This middle chapter is about a half-hour too long, and the final third splits the story up into three pieces, weakening the narrative thrust that had been building,” she opined.
O’Malley had praise for the spectacle, however.
“The dragon’s lair is gorgeously imagined, an undulating and ever-changing landscape of coins and gold. There are lots of great moments: a gigantic tapestry falling from the wall in a rippling wave; huge collapsing columns; tiny walkways over the abyss; the dwarves’ visible awe at their ancestors’ ingenuity and power,” she wrote. “Throughout, you get the sense that you really are in a lost and glorious world.”
Mike Scott of The Times-Picayune in New Orleans said Smaug suggests the filmmakers “are hitting their stride.”
“Not only does Jackson’s film suck viewers right back into Middle Earth from the very beginning, but it serves as a wonderful reminder of why we fell in love with his Oscar-winning Lord of the Rings trilogy to begin with,” wrote Scott.
He said the movie does not feel as “padded” or “self-indulgent” as the first.
“The Desolation of Smaug much more effectively captures the sense of adventure of Tolkien’s beloved quest story, blending action and humor — and even a bit of romance — to create a well-paced tale that ends up being almost as satisfying as second breakfast.”
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone disagreed, writing that Smaug has “a ton of padding.”
But he described the movie as “a little less long and a little less boring” than An Unexpected Journey — thanks largely to the appearance of Smaug.
“This Smaug is a dragon to die for. Director Peter Jackson performs the same kind of miracles with the digital Smaug that he did with Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy,” wrote Travers.
“As a digital creation, Smaug is a bloody wonder of slithering fright. And Benedict Cumberbatch gives him a voice to match.”
Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly also loved the dragon, which he described as “a marvel.”
He added: “A year ago, Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey got the job done, but it was too bright and busy and noisy, with creatures that kept popping up as if out of a jack-in-the-box. The Desolation of Smaug is a more grandly somber movie, and also a much better one, with forces of boldly intense and unified malevolence.
At the Los Angeles Times, Betsy Sharkey said the movie “is infused with an eccentricity and electricity that keep most of its nearly three hours humming.”
She also singled out Canadian actress Evangeline Lilly, whose character Tauriel was written into the story.
Sharkey said some of the action sequences drag on but “the emotional arcs are as well placed as any of Legolas’ arrows.”
Manohla Dargis of New York Times noted there’s a lot to take in.
“Mr. Jackson, like many contemporary directors given enormous resources to play with, likes to pile it on,” she wrote.
“There are, once again, too many busy, uninterestingly staged battles that lean heavily on obvious, sometimes distracting digital sorcery. But there are also pacific, brooding interludes in which the actors — notably Mr. Freeman, an intensely appealing screen presence — remind you that there’s more to Middle-earth than clamor and struggle.”
USA Today reviewer Claudia Puig felt Smaug has “way too much trudging through forests.”
“The story’s power struggles seem muted in this adaptation, with greater focus on production design than character development,” she opined.
“It’s hard to care about the fate of any of these characters when the dwarfs seem so interchangeably played for comic effect. Sure, it’s a more whimsical tale than the ambitious, masterly Lord of the Rings trilogy. But when it’s not stalled on silly, it falls into slog territory.”
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