THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF
SMAUG:
A HEAVY IMPROVEMENT OVER ITS
PREDECESSOR WITH MORE ACTION, STRONG CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT, AND GOOD OLD MIDDLE
EARTH FUN!
By Nico Beland
Movie Review: *** out of 4
WARNER BROS. PICTURES, NEW LINE CINEMA, AND MGM
The
burning eye of Smaug the Dragon from The
Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Director
Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings
trilogy, King Kong) continues his
long awaited trilogy of films based on JRR Tolkien’s novel, The Hobbit with The Desolation of Smaug, the second installment of the series. While
I wouldn’t say it’s as good as The Lord
of the Rings: Return of the King, the film is still very entertaining and
surpasses its predecessor with more action and creativity.
Martin Freeman (The World’s End), Ian McKellen (The
Lord of the Rings trilogy, X-Men
franchise), and the rest of the cast from The
Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey reprise their roles as Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf
the Grey, and all those lovable and humorous dwarves. Orlando Bloom (Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Troy) also reprises his role from the
original Lord of the Rings films as
archer elf, Legolas, along with many other familiar faces from the popular
franchise.
Continuing the events of An Unexpected Journey, we find Bilbo
Baggins (Martin Freeman), Gandalf (Ian McKellen), and the dwarves moving
onwards with their epic quest to reclaim the Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor, and
defeat the dragon that stole everyone’s gold. Along the way they encounter
giant spiders, Orcs, arrow shooting elves, and several other dangerous
obstacles, all leading up to the fire breathing beast known as Smaug.
The
Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug may not be the best in the Lord of the Rings saga, but it should
satisfy long time fans of the original movies and Tolkien’s books, it’s
definitely an improvement over the last film. There’s plenty of action and
impressive special effects, the 3D is pretty effective, the character
development is a little stronger than the previous movie, and as a whole the
plot is much more interesting than part 1.
My only issue is when it ends, the
movie doesn’t really end, it just stops, so we’ll have to wait until part 3 to
see what happens. But that’s my only problem with the film, there’s enough good
elements thrown in there to make me forget about any of the other flaws, plus
it should be worth the wait, we only have to wait one year for The Hobbit: There and Back Again.
If you love fantasy adventures and The Lord of the Rings, you won’t be
disappointed, filled with amazing action scenes, chilling suspense, beautiful
set design, and awesome visual effects. It’s a holiday blockbuster that’s
exciting, magical, and quite precious.
And believe me, once the film ends
you will get very excited for the final chapter of The Hobbit film trilogy, it happened to me.
