Yes, yes, I have my problems with the ending, and after multiple viewings, I still think there is a very awkward quality to splitting the film where they did, as so much of the second-half is putting the pieces together for something that is seconds away from happening when the movie cuts to black. But those multiple viewings have also intensified my love for everything this movie does well, which is pretty much everything else. Scene after scene, moment after moment, Peter Jackson and his cast and crew just nail this one, from the gloriously creepy, psychologically rich misadventure in Mirkwood, to the majestic evocation of Thranduil’s halls, to the perfection that is the ‘Barrels Out of Bond’ set piece, to the even more incredible realization of Laketown, on through an encounter with Smaug that is positively awe-inspiring in its scale, grandeur, and precision of craft.
Every major new character is a wild success, with Benedict Cumberbatch’s Smaug proving to be just as great a digital character creation as Gollum, and Evangeline Lilly’s Tauriel threatening to steal the show every time she’s on screen. The 13 dwarfs, so well and richly realized from the get-go, just get better and deeper and more interesting here, with Richard Armitage’s Thorin building into one of the most compelling figures in Jackson’s entire cinematic Middle-Earth. And Martin Freeman, of course, continues to be the absolute perfect Bilbo Baggins, even if I wish the middle-section of this film gave him a tad more to do. I love damn near every minute of The Desolation of Smaug, and if it does not necessarily work on its own terms as a movie – if it did, it may have been on my Top 10 – it has sold me, completely, on The Hobbit as trilogy, because with roots this deep, and foundations this strong, I think we are in for something truly great with next year’s There And Back Again.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is now in theatres. Read my full review of the film here and check out our coverage of the world premiere below.
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