Movie Review: “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” DVD/Blu-ray Combo Pack

The second installation of The Hobbit trilogy, The Desolation of Smaug, premiered in theaters on December 13, 2013 and has since made over $258 million dollars at the box office. It added several big names to the cast, including Orlando Bloom who returned as Legolas Greenleaf, Evangeline Lilly as Tauriel (the new she-elf – but don’t get me into that…), Lee Pace as Thranduil (Legolas’ father), and many more. It’s an impressive film, the one I prefer of the two, actually. There is said to be hours upon hours of special feature footage out there from the entire process – but you won’t find any of it on the April 8th release of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug DVD/Blu-Ray Combo Pack.

Let’s be honest, I knew that there wasn’t going to be a lot of special features on this disc, because yes, the Extended Edition of the film will be out later this year. However, on The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey DVD/Blu-Ray Combo Pack, there were a few fun featurettes. Even if they were available on YouTube (for free), it was nice to have them on the disc, to watch them immediately following the film. I was happy to see that they had included a few more this time around – but, they were for the wrong movie!

The features in this collection are Production Videos straight from Peter Jackson himself. They’re great, but they all feature scenes from the next film. Understandable, because they want to create hype moving forward. However, when I am watching a film, I want to see features from that installation. What did that mean this time around? SMAUG. Benedict Cumberbatch. There was approximately three seconds of Smaug talked about in the multiple videos included. Pretty unacceptable, if you ask me.

Why do they continue to release these if they aren’t going to at least give a little something extra? More casual fans would buy this collection if there was something worth purchasing on it. Throw us some kind of bone, WB. I still plan on waiting for the Extended Edition – or the inevitable Ultimate Box Set that is sure to hit shelves as the final film is released.

Kat Miller

I am a 40-something Ravenclaw/Slytherin from Massachusetts. I've been lucky in life and can attribute a lot of that to Harry Potter. Without it, I wouldn't have at least 80% of the things I do today, including my career & closest friends. I truly despise Sirius Black.