The Hobbit: 8 Blunders That Ruined The Desolation Of Smaug

8. Bad Dialogue And Exposition

It was right from the off I got a strange sinking feeling about this film, where we open in a pub (The Prancing Pony, where else?) to show Thorin Oakenshield surrounded by two over-the-top Very Bad Dudes, scowling at him from across the room. The following dialogue between Gandalf and Thorin is so repetitive, stating over and over about the dragon who needs conquering and nothing else, that immediately it becomes obvious how little there is to work with, yet it has been strung out across even minor dialogue scenes. The Evil Dudes€™ presence and subsequent Gandalf dialogue is endemic of the movie overall; rushing to hammer-home the most obvious notions about any given character or potential action, without building up to them. The battles and face-offs in LOTR felt earned and weighty, whereas every few minutes there is some ridiculous action-sequence kicking off in The Hobbit for the sake of 3D eyeball-poking price-justification.