By this point, you’ve probably already decided whether you’ll be lining up for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, the second installment in Peter Jackson’s new Middle Earth-set trilogy. The first entry in the series, An Unexpected Journey, received mixed reviews, with many praising its visual effects while criticizing its length and lack of action. New TV spots for the sequel aim to convince moviegoers that the second film won’t skimp on the same kind of epic battle sequences that made the Lord of the Rings trilogy so dazzling. And with a 160-minute runtime, we’d better hope not.
The new spots don’t offer much by way of fresh footage, and the titular dragon is still hiding in the shadows, but those excited for the film will certainly be enthused to see more of Lord of the Rings holdover Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and a new Elven character named Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly). Newcomer Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans) also gets some screen time in the first spot, warning Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) that, “If you awaken that beast, you will destroy us all.” In between snippets of dialogue, we also get glimpses of the famous barrel escape, Smaug’s treasure hoard and Gandalf (Ian McKellen) using his wizard staff like a Japanese bō.
In The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Bilbo and the Company of Dwarves continue their perilous journey towards the Lonely Mountain, encountering spiders and Wood-elves before coming into conflict with the fearsome red dragon himself. Meanwhile, Gandalf recruits Legolas and Tauriel to help him battle a mysterious evil known only as the Necromancer (Benedict Cumberbatch).
Jackson is still moving forward with his ultra-sharp 48 FPS 3D presentation, even after An Unexpected Journey‘s use of the advanced frame rate divided audiences. Hopefully, The Desolation of Smaug will find better ways to utilize the super-fluid style than its predecessor.
Will you be in line for this hotly-anticipated sequel? What’s your opinion of 48 FPS? Let us know in the comments section.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug opens on December 13th in IMAX 3D.
