Like Unexpected Journey before it, the Desolation of Smaug has rolled out to generally mixed to favorable reviews, with many calling it the better of the two. And with a more action-oriented and faster pace it's understandable, but there is always the flip side; where Journey slowly meandered and delivered nearly every morsel from the book, Smaug races us through some chapters deliriously while extending and expounding upon others, one might say disproportionally. And while I did love the movie, and cannot wait to see it again, I can't but help wish there were more--from the book. This leaves me no choice but to anticipate next year's inevitable Extended Edition with hope of the addition of these certain scenes...
<**spoilers for sure**>
1. More Beorn
Right at the outset Desolation paces itself with a much greater orc-pursued-urgency than Journey, rushing us down the Carrock and into Beorn's
backyard. And while I was a little saddened that we did not get to see
Gandalf's clever way of introducing the dwarves two-by-two into Beorn's
hospitality, it was an obvious and reasonable instance of book-to-film
translation. However brief the Dwarves visit to Beorn’s actually was the movie
felt as if it were just a night and a meal, like an awkward one night stand. If
we could just get a little more of the big man’s hospitality, my fanboy would
be sated, another conversation between Gandalf and he about recent events,
Beorn returning from his ranging with a Warg pelt and goblin head, or just more
of the dwarves out of their element in his large home.
2. A little more Bilbo-Gandalf development
“There’s
simply not as much time for Bilbo and Gandalf to interact when they’re
running.” comments John Rateliff, a Tolkien Scholar in Smitsonian's article
about the book to film differences, touching on the sacrifice that is
made for an emphasis on action. I would have liked to see the growing
change in Bilbo's attitude towards Gandalf from the last film to this
one. Extended scenes of this nature could be placed in Beorn’s home, or
en route to
the border of Mirkwood; I think we'd all like to see how the Hobbit and
Wizard's relationship was forged upon their journey. The desperation
Bilbo and the dwarves felt at the
Wizard’s exit in the book didn’t seem quite as present in the movie,
something
easily remedied by an extra few bits of dialogue or two, particularly
that of Bilbo. I can't help but to feel that there was much more around
the already tension-fraught scene in which Bilbo nearly admitted to his
possession of the Ring to Gandalf.3. Much much more Mirkwood
I remember the chapters in The Hobbit concerning Mirkwood as having a deliberately sluggish pace to them, not only making the cursed forest seem impossibly expansive, but showing how dangerous the company's quest becomes without Gandalf's guidance. Mirkwood is a forest of illusion and temptation that the dwarves fail at resisting. Jackson's decision to portray the forest as kind of hallucinogenic trek was, I thought, ingenious, and would have been the perfect way to explain the feasting apparitions Thorin and company kept being distracted by. So I was a little disappointed by that missed opportunity.
Another scene I was sore at the lack of was the river crossing scene and the result of the dwarves having to haul Bombur's fat, dwarven ass down the paths of the forest. Any semblance of this would be all I would need; Bombur falls in magic river and doesn't wake up.
Mirkwood felt so light in the film, barely had they entered it than they were whisked away to the elven dungeons. Maybe we could get a few extra scenes of eyes watching them at night, or just the pitch black of the sunless forest floor, anything extra to make their time in the wood feel as though it is endless.
4. ...Nothing Else
You know, I keep thinking about it, about any other scenes from the book, but I can't come up with anything else that Desolation might have glossed over from the book. We just about got it all. This trilogy has already taken a lot of flak for it's having been stretched into three movies, and for better or for worse, I don't think there's anything else an Extended Edition would need. We get plenty of elves, plenty of Laketown, and plenty of Smaug. I could jump on the bandwagon with everyone and claim the movie was overlong, but truth be told I'm a big fan of the book, was absolutely thrilled to see Smaug, and by the time the movie had ended I was surprised. I was expecting the attack on Laketown to still happen, I had no idea almost three hours had already passed.
So if your going to complain about long barrel-riding scenes, or overly fantastic battles with a dragon involving some liquid gold I might try to remind you that's kind of Jackson's style (think Legolas on the Oliphaunt in Return of the King, or running from three t-rexes in King Kong). I'll admit, I thought the Rock Giant scene was a bit much in Journey, and maybe having elves and orcs come into Laketown is too deviant for the purists, but is it really so bad? Maybe if some of the reigns had been given to my writing hands I would crafted it such that the dwarves and/or Bilbo were never aware of any elves or orcs in Laketown; not so much as changing the books, but rather (like Jackson has been) adding more behind the scenes of Bilbo's narrative. Either way I'll be interested to see the writers' interviews on the dvd extras, as their explanations for adaptions and changes of the Rings trilogy are pretty solid. You'd be hard-pressed to not admit Faramir's renouncing the Ring in the book essentially did rob the story's crux of all it's evil and power, when even in the end Frodo succumbed to it. Just sayin'. I think we have to remember that our movies are in capable hands, and that The Hobbit was never going to be as good as Lord of the Rings. It just couldn't.
As each of these Hobbit movies are released there is a growing dichotomy in how audiences see the films: the book's fans and the film-connoisseurs. Whereas the movie buffs and the critics take offense at the overwrought sequences and seemingly lack of solid plot, fans of the book might find themselves simply content to be so visually immersed in Middle-earth again. In my defense of the first movie I hailed it as a kind of love letter to fans of the book, that only those who read and enjoyed it would seemingly savor every long scene from the movie, while those not familiar with the book might (and did) find it to be a slog. But for whatever reason, PJ and his team have opened Pandora's box in deciding to stretch the Hobbit into three movies. Granted, yes, you can fill in the blanks that the book left but Tolkien did not, but you also have to take creative license to fill in the other blanks, which Jackson has earned the right to in my opinion. But all that time spent with Legolas and Tauriel, while completely enjoyable and never truly unwelcome, did seem to rob screen time from other characters who are in the book. Hence my wish for the Extended Edition.
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