Review 220: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug continues The Hobbit trilogy with few mishaps and overall is a great expansion of the story and world prior to The Lord of the Rings.
And it is also sure to keep audiences satisfied and eager for the final chapter.

Thorin and company have reached Lake-town and it is time for the hobbit Bilbo Baggins to fulfill his contract with the dwarves. The party must complete the journey to Lonely Mountain and burglar Baggins must seek out the Secret Door that will give them access to the hoard of the dragon Smaug. If Bilbo and the others are able to gain the treasure, will they be able to keep it? And will they discover what has become of the wizard Gandalf?

The plot is fantastic, you get the sense that it deeper and mature sense of themes, tone, scale and self knowledge like it nows what it wants to be. It shows this by moving past the need to kick start the journey (something An Unexpected Journey did spectacularly last year) and decides it to take us (the audience) on a darker, more action packed, faster paced and at times funnier roller coster.

The way The Desolation of Smaug has a deeper sense of tone and scale is that you get a stronger sense of the series theme of greed: Thorin is beginning to show his own colours and you get the sense that he may not be as nice as he seems to be...
Also the people of Esgaroth are poor and don't have much in the way of providing for their families and the master is greedy and cowardly and does nothing to help his people and wants to keep Bard the Bowman from reclaiming his title as the King of Dale.

Another way it improves on An Unexpected Journey is that it, like all the best sequels, it introduces new characters and expands it's world. New characters include Orlando Bloom as Legolas, o.k. he was in the The Lord of the Rings trilogy but since this is a prequel, he (in chronological terms) makes his first appearance here. Evangeline Lilly (whose completely awesome in this) as an elf named Tauriel, Luke Evans as Bard the Bowman, Mikael Persbrandt as Beorn, Stephen Fry as the Master of Lake-Town, and

One character who gets a considerable upgrade from the previous film is Lee Pace as Thranduil, the Elvenking of Mirkwood.

who was introduced in An Unexpected Journey but in this film, he's given a proper introduction
. However out of all these new characters Benedict Cumberbatch steals the show as Smaug, he was soooo scary and villainous and ruthless and unscrupulous and really brings a lot of character and class to this iconic villain.

New locations in The Desolation of Smaug include Mirkwood were the Elves of Mirkwood are found, Esgaroth/Lake and finally we get to the Lonely Mountain. All these new locations add to the mythology of Middle Earth and just makes the franchise and world it's set in all the more intriguing and interesting.

Writer/director Peter Jackson's direction is unobtrusive, the cinematography is gorgeous, the action scenes are non-stop, expertly staged and well choreographed (there's a fight between the company of Dwarfs and Giant Spiders in Mirkwood which is both scary and exciting and a battle across a stream wit Bilbo and Dwarfs in barrels with Elves and Orcs fighting on either sides of the streams which had me on the edge of my seat).
The special effects are amazing as usual and beautifully crafted, the score by Howard Shore is majestic and non-stop, it's better paced, the make up is rich, the props look spectacular, the production design is outstanding (new locations such as Lake-Town, Mirkwood and the Lonely Mountain look just amazing), the costumes are mystical, the sound effects are terrific and the ending was jawdropping.

The acting, once again, Martin Freeman is still cool and he definitely seemed to have matured since the first film and his interaction with Smaug towards the end is miraculous.
Ian Mckellen is also magnificent and so are the company of dwarfs, Sylvester McCoy, 
On to the new characters, Evangeline Lilly is badass as Tauriel, she adds veriety to an otherwise female cast of characters and I truly think we can view her as a feminist character.
Luke Evans is terrific as Bard the Bowman, he is a king who has been reduced to nothing but...  a bowman  due his failing to defend his people and he sees assisting Bilbo and the company of dwarfs as a shot a redemption.
Stephen Fry in his portrayal of the Master of Lake-Town is the a prime example of what I would call a corrupt dictator, he's greedy, cowardly, will do nothing to help his people and on top of that will stop at nothing to ensure Bard succeeds in succeeding him as master of Lake-Town.
However, the star performer has to be Benedict Cumberbatch as Smaug. He's the performance that everyones been waiting for and I will say fans will not be disappointed.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is a fine second instalment of absolutely great trilogy and I highly look forward to the final part, 5/5.

The Anonymous Critc.