Post by Axalon on May 12, 2014 17:42:35 GMT -5
Don't be confused by the title. I'm not talking about the actual film that came out a few months ago, but only a part of it. This was originally going to be a super large blog about both of the Hobbit films that came out recently, but it started to get too long even for my patience and began straying from the point so I decided to focus a bit. I'll save the super blog for after the third film is out.
This is mainly concerning the dragon, and the utter desolation of said dragon. Spoilers follow.
Also, despite some of the events I am about to describe not happening in the book, no comparisons to the book will be made unless I get engaged for further conversation. This is entirely on the film's performance.
This character had a fantastic introduction. Voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch and clearly the recipient of most of the CGI budget, Smaug certainly looks and sounds great.
The problem with Smaug is that, like with a few other scenes from the book, they felt that some spicing up and stretching out was needed to hit that three film quota. After Bilbo's narrow escape the dwarves decide to take matters into their own hands. The dwarves split up into small groups since they've decided they are going to kill this dragon here and now.
This results in a Scooby Doo-esque chase (seen below) where Smaug can't kill ONE dwarf even if he tried. Which he did. For all his talk about being able to smell intruders and hear them breathe, even to the point of finding an invisible Bilbo by smell, hearing, and somehow sensing the One Ring, he fails to detect Bilbo and his dwarf friends not ten minutes later when he passes over them without noticing. Doesn't smell or hear them, and suddenly his One Ring detector seems to be broken.
That and between Smaug getting distracted every time a group of dwarves started yelling at him just when he was about to roast another group of dwarves, to Thorin running between his legs with a wheelbarrow, using that metal wheelbarrow to essentially surf on a river of molten gold without any indication that he's in any discomfort, to Thorin standing on Smaug's face and somehow making it out unscratched. Ugh.
Finally, after killing a whopping total of zero characters and not even scratching them in the process, Smaug decides he's going to go burn down Laketown. His motivation, as given in the film, is that he's deducted that the Lakemen helped Bilbo and the dwarves in their quest to get to his mountain so he's going to go show them exactly who the boss is. Also because he can clearly see Bilbo is distressed that the town is being dragged into Smaug's wrath so he spares Bilbo to endure the suffering of the town getting burned to the roots.
I think an alternate interpretation could be applied. Smaug still figures out that Laketown assisted the main characters, but chooses to go after them because he's absolutely frustrated that for some reason he can't kill a single dwarf despite destroying an entire kingdom of dwarves beforehand. He's tired of being outwitted and made a fool of, so he goes out to boost his self-esteem by attacking a mostly defenseless city.
Hey, it wouldn't be the most ridiculous thing ever.
"I am FIRE! I....am....death."
--Smaug 2013, after failing to kill a handful of dwarves and a hobbit in his house.
So anyway, I'm going to rewind a tiny bit. At some point in the running around the dwarves trick Smaug into igniting the old dwarven forges so they can start melting gold. They find a convenient statue mold to pour the molten gold into. After the aformentioned conversation with Bilbo where he's about to go destroy the town, this scene happens.
I love Smaug's reaction here. He actually stops to stare at the thing for a bit. You can tell he absolutely loves this giant golden statue, being a greedy dragon and all. Then the statue's face explodes.
The end result is that Smaug gets super pissed off as he shakes off the gold and decides to finally go burn the city down.
So why do I absolutely hate this scene? Why is the title referring to the desolation of the character, and not the title of the film?
Because Smaug was turned into a complete joke. He's outwitted by a handful of dwarves, couldn't even injure a single one of them, much less kill them, and by the end of the sequence one could argue that he's upset that he's being made a fool of and decides to go pick on an easier target. Like the nearby town full of people as opposed to a handful of dwarves and a hobbit.
This is essentially the Stormtrooper effect at work. If your character has a name, they are perfectly safe. Expect nothing bad to happen to them. That poor human city though, with its grand total of...maybe two characters with a name? Going to go down in flames. Yes, I just compared the average Imperial Stormtrooper to Smaug the Magnificent and all his other lovely titles.
I hate when villains look incompetent. It ruins any tension they can bring. Happened here with Smaug, happened to Loki in the Avengers. It doesn't help that they felt the need to introduce Sauron into the mix either, who also draws some of the menace away. It would be like after introducing Darth Maul, suddenly out of nowhere Darth Vader, the more iconic villain to the casual audience, shows up. Its the same thing with Sauron, who proceeds to break Gandalf like Bane breaking Batman. Except without the whole snapping spine bit.
Minor Nitpicks:
1. At some point between this movie and the first one, Smaug apparently had two of his legs chopped off because they wanted to redesign his look halfway through the trilogy. His new design is more like that of a Skyrim dragon (only two legs, while his wings are also his arms) as opposed to traditional depictions with four legs and a set of wings.
Theatrical version of An Unexpected Journey:
Extended version:
Like I said, minor nitpick, but I hate when films are retroactively edited. Hate it in Star Wars, hate it here. The design still looks good though.
2. Thorin Oakenshield and Smaug the Omniscient.
In the film canon, Thorin got the moniker of Oakenshield after using a big chunk of an oak tree as a shield while fighting off an orc warlord at the mines of Moria. This happens long after Smaug has kicked the dwarves out of the mountain.
How then does Smaug know his name is Thorin Oakenshield? I can buy that he knows the name of Thorin, as there are all kinds of tapestries and whatnot with the royal dwarf family and their portraits and names and stuff, but Oakenshield?
This is mainly concerning the dragon, and the utter desolation of said dragon. Spoilers follow.
Also, despite some of the events I am about to describe not happening in the book, no comparisons to the book will be made unless I get engaged for further conversation. This is entirely on the film's performance.
This character had a fantastic introduction. Voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch and clearly the recipient of most of the CGI budget, Smaug certainly looks and sounds great.
The problem with Smaug is that, like with a few other scenes from the book, they felt that some spicing up and stretching out was needed to hit that three film quota. After Bilbo's narrow escape the dwarves decide to take matters into their own hands. The dwarves split up into small groups since they've decided they are going to kill this dragon here and now.
This results in a Scooby Doo-esque chase (seen below) where Smaug can't kill ONE dwarf even if he tried. Which he did. For all his talk about being able to smell intruders and hear them breathe, even to the point of finding an invisible Bilbo by smell, hearing, and somehow sensing the One Ring, he fails to detect Bilbo and his dwarf friends not ten minutes later when he passes over them without noticing. Doesn't smell or hear them, and suddenly his One Ring detector seems to be broken.
That and between Smaug getting distracted every time a group of dwarves started yelling at him just when he was about to roast another group of dwarves, to Thorin running between his legs with a wheelbarrow, using that metal wheelbarrow to essentially surf on a river of molten gold without any indication that he's in any discomfort, to Thorin standing on Smaug's face and somehow making it out unscratched. Ugh.
Finally, after killing a whopping total of zero characters and not even scratching them in the process, Smaug decides he's going to go burn down Laketown. His motivation, as given in the film, is that he's deducted that the Lakemen helped Bilbo and the dwarves in their quest to get to his mountain so he's going to go show them exactly who the boss is. Also because he can clearly see Bilbo is distressed that the town is being dragged into Smaug's wrath so he spares Bilbo to endure the suffering of the town getting burned to the roots.
I think an alternate interpretation could be applied. Smaug still figures out that Laketown assisted the main characters, but chooses to go after them because he's absolutely frustrated that for some reason he can't kill a single dwarf despite destroying an entire kingdom of dwarves beforehand. He's tired of being outwitted and made a fool of, so he goes out to boost his self-esteem by attacking a mostly defenseless city.
Hey, it wouldn't be the most ridiculous thing ever.
"I am FIRE! I....am....death."
--Smaug 2013, after failing to kill a handful of dwarves and a hobbit in his house.
So anyway, I'm going to rewind a tiny bit. At some point in the running around the dwarves trick Smaug into igniting the old dwarven forges so they can start melting gold. They find a convenient statue mold to pour the molten gold into. After the aformentioned conversation with Bilbo where he's about to go destroy the town, this scene happens.
I love Smaug's reaction here. He actually stops to stare at the thing for a bit. You can tell he absolutely loves this giant golden statue, being a greedy dragon and all. Then the statue's face explodes.
The end result is that Smaug gets super pissed off as he shakes off the gold and decides to finally go burn the city down.
So why do I absolutely hate this scene? Why is the title referring to the desolation of the character, and not the title of the film?
Because Smaug was turned into a complete joke. He's outwitted by a handful of dwarves, couldn't even injure a single one of them, much less kill them, and by the end of the sequence one could argue that he's upset that he's being made a fool of and decides to go pick on an easier target. Like the nearby town full of people as opposed to a handful of dwarves and a hobbit.
This is essentially the Stormtrooper effect at work. If your character has a name, they are perfectly safe. Expect nothing bad to happen to them. That poor human city though, with its grand total of...maybe two characters with a name? Going to go down in flames. Yes, I just compared the average Imperial Stormtrooper to Smaug the Magnificent and all his other lovely titles.
I hate when villains look incompetent. It ruins any tension they can bring. Happened here with Smaug, happened to Loki in the Avengers. It doesn't help that they felt the need to introduce Sauron into the mix either, who also draws some of the menace away. It would be like after introducing Darth Maul, suddenly out of nowhere Darth Vader, the more iconic villain to the casual audience, shows up. Its the same thing with Sauron, who proceeds to break Gandalf like Bane breaking Batman. Except without the whole snapping spine bit.
Minor Nitpicks:
1. At some point between this movie and the first one, Smaug apparently had two of his legs chopped off because they wanted to redesign his look halfway through the trilogy. His new design is more like that of a Skyrim dragon (only two legs, while his wings are also his arms) as opposed to traditional depictions with four legs and a set of wings.
Theatrical version of An Unexpected Journey:
Extended version:
Like I said, minor nitpick, but I hate when films are retroactively edited. Hate it in Star Wars, hate it here. The design still looks good though.
2. Thorin Oakenshield and Smaug the Omniscient.
In the film canon, Thorin got the moniker of Oakenshield after using a big chunk of an oak tree as a shield while fighting off an orc warlord at the mines of Moria. This happens long after Smaug has kicked the dwarves out of the mountain.
How then does Smaug know his name is Thorin Oakenshield? I can buy that he knows the name of Thorin, as there are all kinds of tapestries and whatnot with the royal dwarf family and their portraits and names and stuff, but Oakenshield?