The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug: A Very Short Review

By Brenda W. Clough

The besetting difficulty with the trilogy form is the middle volume. Or, in the case of The Hobbit, it’s the middle film. To inclue the new reader or viewer, yet without boring the returning fan. To be deprived of all the kickoff incidents and developing conflicts, but be denied the conclusions. To be cruelly limited by the need for some kind of unity, in the characters one can introduce, or shove off into oblivion. Pacing is difficult, plot tends to sag — it is hard!

So the...