tolkiens legendarium - What deviations from the book did the movie "The Desolation of Smaug" have?

As far as I can tell that the hobbit movies don't seem to be necessarily true to the book.

For instance I have heard that duel between Sauron and Gandalf didn't happen, and that the dwarves didn't even face the dragon.

Could the deviations be that extreme? and what are they?

Answer

Here are the main deviations of the second movie from the original source material:

Tauriel - a female elf was created for the film to act as a love interest and a source of tension

Legolas - is not present in the book, but since his father is Thranduil (the elf-king of Mirkwood) it isn't surprising that he would at least appear in the movie. However, the extent to which he follows the dwarves has no reference to the book

The barrels - while Bilbo does engineer the dwarves' escape using discard wine barrels, they are sealed in and there is no epic chase by orcs at this point in the book

The mountain tombs and the duel with the necromancer - while Gandalf does disappear frequently throughout the book, it is only vaguely hinted at what he is up to

In the book, the dwarves are being pursued by goblins from their encounter in the Misty Mountains - not by orcs that have been dispatched by the necromancer.

All of the dwarves leave Laketown

Bilbo doesn't discover the door, and he is the only one who encounters the dragon - meaning the whole epic chase/fight at the end of the second movie is also a creation of Jackson

The introduction of Beorn in the book reflected the introduction of the dwarves at Bag End - and Beorn's shapeshifting form is not as prominent in the story.

Exactly how extreme you feel these deviations are, is entirely up to you. Personally, I don't think anything added to the movie was to the detriment of the original source or Tolkien's vision.

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