We’re back for another round of long walking in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. We pick up right where the first movie ended: Bilbo, along with Gandalf and Thorin Oakenshield and his twelve companions, continue east to the edge of the forest of Mirkwood where they encounter a skin-changer, are attacked by giant spiders, then captured by Wood-elves. Bilbo helps the dwarves escape from the elves, and then they follow the forest river to Lake-town, where they meet Bard, a bowman who is against the dwarves going to the mountain. After receiving help from the town, the party continues on to the Lonely Mountain, where they eventually find the hidden door into the mountain. Bilbo enters and encounters the dragon Smaug, and after a failed attempt by Bilbo and the dwarves to kill Smaug, the dragon seeks revenge by heading to Lake-town to wreak havoc again. Thus leaving the audience with a cliffhanger and a year of waiting to see the end of our long journey.
This movie is much better than the first one. It’s not as drawn out with all the uselessness that could be augured as character building information, but it never really moved the plot forward. Not to say this second Hobbit movie doesn’t have its moments, but here they are fewer and way far between. Whereas the first one seemed to suffer from timing issues with lots of gaps of nothing, this one has ramped up the action and suspense, which is what this series needed. If they had continued on the track of the last movie, this would be a complete waste of time. But with good action, fun scenes, and of course the dragon, this movie finally has most of the good pieces fall into place.
The returning cast is just as excellent as before. We already know they’re good from the last flick, but the latest movie adds some new and wonderful actors as some very interesting characters. We have the introduction of the Elves for one thing: Lee Pace plays the Thranduil, The Elvenking, who is the ruler of the northern realm. Thranduil isn’t a bad guy, but he can’t concern himself with the likes of anyone who isn’t an elf. He is king of his own little realm and doesn’t need to be bothered with the issues of the outside world, he is so blinded by his own righteousness that he doesn’t see the evil at his doorstep.
Enter his two trusted elves: Evangeline Lilly as Tauriel, and returning to the role that made his career, Orlando Bloom as Legolas. Both elves will do what the king asks without question, especially Legolas, being he is Thranduil’s son. But Tauriel has her doubts. She sees the evil that surrounds the world and wants to do something about it, but the king won’t listen, so she takes it upon herself to leave the kingdom and follow the dwarves, thus making Legolas follow her to bring her back, sending these two on their own personal journey in this epic adventure.
The only other new character that is worth mentioning is Luke Evans as Bard the Bowman. Bard reluctantly helps the dwarves, but he knows they will bring fire on his town with their actions. They of course ignore all his warnings and do what they need to do no matter what the cost to others. Bard doesn’t get much play in this movie, other than setting up his character for the next one where he really gets his moment to shine. Evans is a great actor and does wonderful interacting with Bilbo and Thorin. It will be nice to see him kick some major butt in the next flick.
But it’s the introduction of Smaug that makes the movie worthwhile. And just like all good diva’s, Smaug makes you wait until the third and final act of the movie. But he’s worth it. Once Bilbo enters the mountain, he must match wits with the dragon. Martin Freeman does this wonderfully as if he was really acting against the biggest dragon he had ever seen. Adding to the richness is the dragon’s outstanding CGI, and its voice courtesy of the talented Benedict Cumberbatch. Smaug looks amazing. He’s huge and takes up the entire screen on the theaters. Every little detail is seen, from eye movements and muscle twitching, to even a fiery glow though his scales. This is a CGI monster with tons of time spent on, because if this didn’t work, the whole movie doesn’t.
Peter Jackson has been criticized because he has gone and added way too much of his own things to make the movie longer. Some of the new things he’s added to the story do make the world richer, but do nothing to move the plot forward. For example: in this film, there is a strange “love story” that appears out of nowhere and really drags down the flick for what felt like ten long minutes. You sort of see why it was put in flick, but it’s still unnecessary. The movie is already long, why make it longer with crap that wasn’t in the book to begin with?
One of Jackson’s other faults is he doesn’t know how to direct 3D. Just because something looks cool, doesn’t make it good for a movie. There are so many shots and quick zooms in and out of woods, walls, etc., that you can get dizzy. Especially in IMAX 3D, where the whole screen is your entire eye. Someone needs to tell him to slow it down and think. It’s a big issue with these epic directors who have huge successes, that everyone is scared to tell them no, that doesn’t work. The 3D is pretty good in this, but there are so many bad choices being made for the “that looks cool” factor rather than good filmmaking decisions.
Overall, this is so much better than part one, a good action fantasy adventure even if it leaves you with one hell of a cliffhanger that just makes you want the third one now. Really good effects, wonderful acting, and just another fine adventure in the world of Middle Earth.