Last night was spent happily perusing the new and extended scenes in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.  Peter Jackson added 25 minutes wisely to a movie well-told but somewhat slight.  Some nice touches of humor have been added.  Beorn has been given more time to shine.  And that confrontation in Dol Goldur?  Significantly different . . . and I liked that scene previously anyway.  Here’s a clip from early in the movie, with its hints of things to come.

I’ve always felt that the extended editions work best in two ways: adding humor and giving more weight to “the long game” of Tolkien’s world.  And with a story like The Hobbit, Jackson has had to work a bit at weaving a darker web, helping it line up a little more with The Lord of the Rings.   The Hobbit has always run the risk of being too much like the Star Wars prequels in that both deal with a threat that would not fully reveal itself until later (and oh, the dark potential in those prequels!).  And so you have to be careful how you introduce characters and ideas, how you hint without over-extending your reach.  And so there were all kinds of little plot holes with Star Wars that, even if they were explained, just didn’t quite feel right (usually connected with “how could so-and-so not remember this or that).  That fault is also possible with Jackson’s handling of “the Necromancer.”  I can’t help but fear that he went “too far” with the Dol Goldur scene in DOS.  But I have confidence in Jackson, that he will tie things up nicely while also giving Sarumon one heck of a speech that calms Gandalf down mightily.  I suppose we’ll find out in a month and a half.