Director: Peter Jackson
Certificate: 12A
Running time: 169 minutes
A far better sequel, still hampered by its running time
The first Hobbit film 'An unexpected journey' was a good albeit very plodding and in the end a little underwhelming, especially when you consider the brilliance of the Lord of the rings trilogy. Thankfully the sequel is much more intense and its narrative runs much straighter, and in a more purposeful direction.
The film begins where the first one ended, Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and the company of dwarves are continuing their journey to the lonely mountain to reclaim Erebor, the old Kingdom of the Dwarves which was attacked by Smaug the Dragon. In typical Peter Jackson fashion the landscapes of Middle Earth are beautifully shot, the sets are masterfully brought to life, especially Laketown which makes its first appearance in the last third of the film. Not only does it look great but it shows the people of Middle earth in their everyday life, which is something I did like about this film, unlike in the original trilogy where outside of the main cast the people of Middle Earth were nothing but extras with little relevance.
The action scenes are a lot more exciting this time and there are more of them, one of those sees the return of Legolas (Orlando Bloom) from the original trilogy, he appears in a real roller-coaster scene in which the main characters have to escape an army of chasing Orcs while riding through a river inside barrels.
But the greatest action sequence in the entire film is the one where we finally meet the Dragon Smaug. I won't spoil it for you, but let's just say that Smaug is without doubt the greatest CGI character that I have ever seen in a film, who is wonderfully and sleekly played by Benedict Cumberbatch, each of his dialogue lines are memorable. It was worth the price of the ticket all by itself.
The visuals are exemplary as you would expect, but still I still question the Orcs being computer animated. The great thing about the original was the make up of the Orcs, which was second to none and made them genuinely menacing, with the make up gone and replaced by animation they come across as pieces of meat with little character. With that said they still look impressive and believable on screen.
Although the film title implies that it is centred on Bilbo Baggins like the first film, he is not the most important character in the film. The focus of the film is on Dwarf Thorin Oakenshield, the rightful heir to be King of Erebor, which is noticeable throughout the film, it's only when Bilbo confronts Smaug that his relevance comes into place.
With so many positives the film does have problems though, and one of them returns from the first hobbit film, the bum numbing running time. It is still too long, let's not forget the actual book this is adapted from is a children's novel which is three hundred and ten pages long, about half an hour could have been edited out.
Which now brings me onto a love triangle involving an entirely made up character called Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly), who doesn't even appear in the book. She was put in because there was a lack of female characters in the story, which is fair enough. But her involvement is for the purpose of a love triangle between herself, Legolas and Kili (one of the Dwarves). It is a completely incidental plot narrative that seems distracting and a little out of place.
I saw the film in both forty eight frames per second (3D) and in a normal screening. And I have to admit I preferred the latter, I enjoyed watching it at forty eight frames much more than I did when I saw the first hobbit film, but the level of detail can be too diverting for the eyes, it still looks like behind the scenes footage. In time forty eight frames per second might be the norm, but for the moment I still think it's going to be the exception.
Undoubtedly the positives completely outweigh the negatives, 'The Desolation of Smaug' is a spectacle of such a grandeur that it has to be seen on the big screen, and although the ending is a bit of an anti-climax it leads onto the final part of the trilogy in perfect anticipation.
Verdict-4/5
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