The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug review

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.