Hammerman Ikon

Hammerman Ikon Film Guide

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
2013
***
Director: Peter Jackson
Cast: Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Benedict Cumberbatch, Evangeline Lilly, Lee Pace, Luke Evans, Ken Stott, James Nesbitt, Orlando Bloom

In An Unexpected Journey, the first part of Peter Jackson's bloated fantasy trilogy, Bilbo Baggins and the Dwarves were captured by trolls but managed to escape, then they were captured by goblins but managed to escape, and finally found themselves sieged by Orcs but managed to escape. Now Gandalf goes out to investigate the Necromancer and the others continue their journey towards the Lonely Mountain. And wouldn't you know, they are captured by spiders but manage to escape, then they are captured by Elves but manage to escape, and finally they are captured by the Master of Lake-town but manage to talk themselves out of it. Peter Jackson's mechanical adventure movie drags out the events of J.R.R. Tolkien's novel, invents new characters, and brings back familiar faces from the LOTR trilogy who were never part of the source material. The second movie is a few minutes shorter than the first one and Jackson does improve the overall tone and pacing, but it only really comes to life in the last 30 minutes when Bilbo faces the dragon. And then it ends abruptly. The story concludes in The Battle of the Five Armies.