The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

2013 • 161 minutes

About this movie

Academy Award® winner Peter Jackson continues his Middle-earth adventure following Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) who's swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome dragon Smaug. In the company of thirteen dwarves and the wizard Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen), Bilbo enters the Lonely Mountain in possession of Gollum's "precious" ring and his keen blade, Sting. With an all-star cast and the effects wizardry of Jackson's award-winning Weta Workshop, Tolkien's epic story comes to life as never before imagined.

Ratings and reviews

This is a continuation of my review of the first hobbit film, see my profile for it. For some reason this film has the highest Rotten Tomatoes score of the trilogy and I can't figure out why. Perhaps it's because I'm such a huge fan of the book, but I thought this film was awful. There are a lot of changes here from the book, and every single one of them is bad. Whether it's the forced romance or shoehorning in Azog, it's jut bad and only there to pad the movie out. I'd be ok with Legolas being in the film if his role wasn't so prominent, since him being there makes sense lore wise. The line from Fellowship about Bilbo feeling "thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread" comes to mind when viewing this trilogy. There is only two parts of this film I liked, and it's the first half of Mirkwood with the spiders and Bilbo's interaction with Smaug. However, both of these scenes are followed by the WORST scenes in the film. The offensively bad barrel scene and the ridiculously stupid gold dragon scene. There is very little positive to say about this film. Once again, Casting is spot on and Cumberbatches Smaug is great. 2/5. Very disappointing.

Pros and cons: The hobbit is defiantly not as dark, which makes it more enjoyable. I was disappointed that the orcs and goblins were not in full body makeup, but siting in a chair for 6 hours, I don't blame them.. as I look back however, I am starting to think that I like the cgi a little better, because I think that the orcs were almost not as realistic, and as an artist, I think that there are equal amounts of work both in the cgi, and makeup work. Go to the extended version for full pros and cons

…he is weak compared to the Legolas here. "Desolation" deviates from the novel more than the first movie did, starting with a flashback & a Peter Jackson cameo. While this film is a loose adaptation of the book, it takes creative liberties to further expand the plot beyond just Bilbo. However, in a movie called "The Hobbit," there's very little of our furry-footed friend in comparison to all of the side plots & characters. I love the book, I love the movie; watch it if you like, buy it if you want. 5/5