Prepare for amazement. Prepare for awesomeness. Prepare for the Dragon! A year ago, the first part of The Hobbit trilogy from Peter Jackson hit big screens, and hit even bigger screens in 48FPS. And now its sequel time.
Following on where we left off in the original, our favourite Hobbit, Dwarves and Wizard continue their quest to get rid of Smaug (our bad ass dragon in slumber, under a mountain full of gold) and retrieve the Arkenstone. A task that is left to a certain Bilbo Baggins. But before our burglar hobbit can hobbit his way under the nose of our fire breathing bad ass and pick up the aforementioned heart of the mountain, he along with his companions will find themselves in all kinds of bother. Such bother, to name a few, involves Orcs, Elves, Spiders and barrels. And these are featured in absolutely spectacular, seat of your pants, set pieces.
The Desolation of Smaug runs a number of plot lines in parallel, and to his immense credit, Peter Jackson does a very decent balancing act here. There is near perfect balance throughout the 161 minute running time. And while on occasion it drags its hairy feet a wee bit, things do keep running at a solid pace.
Visually, this is stunning. The Desolation of Smaug is a far darker tale, so many of the sweeping New Zealand vistas are replaced with dark and creepy forests and general evil more or less at every turn. The set pieces which feature throughout are staggering. Special mention must go the barrel scene, which sees our heroes escape their elven prison in a bunch of empty barrels. Simply put, not only is this one of cinema's scenes of the year, it is also one of the most entertaining set pieces you’ll see this year. I could go on and on and on about the visuals and set pieces here, they really are that good. And that’s even before I get to Smaug. But before I do, just a quick note of the whole 48 frames per second. I enjoyed the look in the original, and here its the same. There really is no middle ground for 48fps. You either like it or hate it. But overall the 3D, is very well used and its more like looking into an open window in Middle Earth than anything else.
Much has been made of the fire breathing King under the mountain. And, only until he was painted onto an Air New Zealand plane, audiences really didn’t get to see the famous dragon. That aside, on screen Smaug is a site to behold. His sheer size and the amount of screen he takes up is jaw droppingly spectacular. But the real genius here is how much character and personality he has, which is an obvious side effect of having Bendict Cumberbatch lending his vocal talents to voice the dragon. And you will see alot of Smaug. The closing 30-40 minutes are real edge of your seat stuff, as Biblo finds himself battling wits with this incredibly intelligent behemoth. Its a scene that could have easily been underplayed, but no coin has been left unturned here (literally) as the finale for Desolation is one of the best of the year. Actually, I can’t think of a better finale since The Avengers!
Tonally Desolation is alot darker than the first movie. While the original had plenty of humour throughout, thats long forgotten now with only the occasional laugh making an appearance. Quite hypnotically the movie will inject a huge sense of anxiety and fear into your sub conscious. And this is the same fear and anxiety that is also experienced by our hairy little heroes, which increases as the movie goes on. Its only when the credits roll will you come to terms with what Peter Jackson has done to your headspace. Its really a unique experience and a genius masterstroke. And he also manages to do the whole “keep them wanting more”. The way this ends, you’ll want to invent time travel, because the next 12 months can’t go fast enough for “There And Back Again” to arrive in cinemas. Incidentally, this will get better on repeat viewings. With so much to take in, its once you leave the cinema that you genuinely realise how amazing this is!
The cast, as in the original are all incredibly likeable and Orlando Bloom makes a rather spectacular and welcome return as Legolas. Evangeline Lilly plays Tauriel, who was created for the movie by Jackson and Fran Walsh and while the character doesn’t appear in the original book (and here serves only to expand the world of the elves), she is surprisingly entertaining and incredibly bad ass. Whatever reservation you may have had about this character, rest assured, she is a welcome addition. Martin Freeman really steps it up here as Bilbo, in the words of Gandalf, has changed! Ryan Gage makes a solid middle earthen debut, and while Stephen Fry can be an acquired taste, he does his job well here.
Overall, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is absolutely spectacular. Find the biggest screen you can, and savour every fiery minute of this. Brilliant!
