The Hobbit - The desolation of smaug - Movie review

This $225 million dollar adventure fantasy epic from Peter Jackson unsurprisingly broke even just a week after its December 13th release. The middle-installment of the trilogy adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's 1937 children's novel, "The Hobbit", and also a prequel to the hugely successful "The Lord Of The Rings" film series, this 161-minute feature is certainly an ambitious one. Leisurely paced, and opening immediately with a shameless cameo from Jackson during an unnecessary flashback sequence, the action picks up where the previous film left off: with Ian McKellen leading a group of 13 dwarves, plus Martin Freeman as the plucky hobbit deep into middle-earth in search of yet another MacGuffin. Everyone does a fine job in their roles, many caked under layers of make-up, battle-axes, wigs, beards, and earthly garments... but Freeman is particularly brilliant as the title character, exhibiting the perfect amount of nervousness or trepidation with just a roll of his fingers, or a raise of his eye-brow. Richard Armitage and Aidan Turner return as gruff, but sometimes sensitive dwarves, Luke Evans is featured as a suspicious, but helpful human archer, while Orlando Bloom is shoe-horned into the script if for no other reason than fan-service, but it's always enjoyable watching him dispatch monsters with his long bow. Introduced here, and absent in the original novels is Evangeline Lilly as a elf, who develops romantic feelings for Turner; her strong female presence is a wonderful additional to the pictures, and she commendably contributes some great emotional conflict as well. Benedict Cumberbatch provides his voice and motion-capture likeness to the picture's primary antagonist, as massive, fire breathing dragon: and does an incredible job bringing the imposing and frightening character to life, to which Evans warns earlier; "If you awake that beast, you'll destroy us all!". While the story is inherently stepped in fictional mythology, it's almost annoying how many proper nouns litter this script... you've got Oakenshield, Dol Guldur, Arkenstone, Radagast, Esgaroth, Galadriel, Thranduil, Tauriel... without subtitles, or a prior working knowledge of Tolkien's universe, it can be decently confusing at times. That said however, the attention to detail does provide for an extremely realistic and believable environment, aided by expertly done special effects by the talented individuals at Jackson's "Wingnut Films". There's almost nothing here in the form of a story though... we just watch the heroes journey from one violent monster battle to the next, in sweeping wide shots that play out like an advertisement for New Zealand's lush countryside. The individual action sequences however are truly second-to-none, especially a terrific scene that has the dwarves killing orcs, and carefully tossing weapons back and forth while escaping down river in floating barrels. Or when the boys from Sherlock go head-to-snout in an awesomely fun, amusing, but also terrifying game of cat and mouse... or, perhaps more appropriately, dragon and hobbit. The PG-13 story is once again supported by a brilliant original score from composer Howard Shore, who underlines every dramatic moment with exactly the right sound. Like it's predecessors, this movie is simply too drawn-out for its own good: with a majority comprised entirely of shallow action and thrills: enjoyable to watch... but empty just the same. There's really no other way to say it... stretching a 300-page book into nearly eight hours of cinema is an egregious, unforgivable, and selfish mistake - and the entire trilogy has suffered as a result. "The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug" is an, "Undeniably fun spectacle, but lengthy." Now let's read some of your reviews, to see what you had to say about this film. Our scores for "The Hobbit 2"... a NINE and a SEVEN. Although you held off on the top-score, you all thought this picture was AWESOME, with unanimous praise going to the action sequences. A slight improvement over "An Unexpected Journey", this picture still suffers from all of the same issues - leaving me partially unsatisfied, but excited to see the third installment. I thought it was COOL.