The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Barrels Of Excitment

Director: Peter Jackson

Release Date: 2013

Rating: 12

Running Time: 160 mins

Genre: Fantasy/Adventure

Actors: Martin Freeman, Ian Mckellen, Richard Armatige, Benedict Cumberbach

Peter Jackson launches his second instalment of J.R.R Tolkien's 'The Hobbit' throwing audiences straight back into Bilbo Baggins epic adventure. We rejoin the group of thirteen Dwarfs lead by Thorin Oakensheild (Richard Armitage) and joined by Gandalf the Wizard (Ian Mckellen) and of course the Hobbit Bilbo (Martin Freeman) on their quest to reclaim the thrown of Erebor and take back the gold, now in the clutches of the ferocious dragon Smaug voiced brilliantly by the suberb Benedict Cumberbach. 

Like the Lord of The Rings films, we are given a very Peter Jackson esc portrayal of middle earth, with panoramic snowcapped mountains and other incredible shots of New Zealand that prove to be truly mesmerising for the audience. Nevertheless I don't think there's an lie in saying that if Jackson had cut some of these shots from the film, The Hobbit would be considerably shorter. Furthermore he may have been able to just make just two rather than 3 rather lengthy films that consequently are forced to leave the audience on rather cruel and abrupt cliffhangers. I think that's it's fair to add as well that maybe  if Peter Jackson hadn't included so much of his own creations in this film, and rather instead stuck loyal to Tolkeins version of 'The Hobbit' he could've easily just made two films as the book itself really isn't actually that long and was originally written in a format understandable for children. However I do have to add that when this film came to an end I was upset as I didn't feel like I was going to be able to wait another year to find out the end.

With all the extra events that were added into the film that were not in the book, it made fans of the book like myself left unaware also of what is going to happen and with all the changes and bends in the story the final outcome of this story could be very different to the one J.R.R Tolkien dreamt up.I think it's fair in saying that this is much more Peter Jacksons story that Tolkiens, but maybe Jackson felt that he couldn't retell Tolkeins story quite the same as some things can't be explained the same on a screen than they can in a film, or maybe he's just a sucker for big epic fight scenes and was trying to rake in as many audiences he could with a massive action packed adventure film. One of the biggest surprises for me was seeing Legolas (Orlando Bloom) appear in this film, purely because there was absolutely no mention of him what so ever in the book and furthermore he's now shown to be bad guy which ix completely altering fans perceptions of the elf who set out on the quest in Lord of the Rings. Something that must be said about Legolas in The Hobbit  however, is that he's still just as 'badass' and it feels like every time he appears in one of Peter Jacksons films they have to raise the bar that bit more for him. It wasn't just Legolas who was stealing all the limelight but there was also the introduction of a female elf, Tauriel, who despite being equally as cool also had no appearence in the book and had similar resemblance to Liv Tyler in Lord of the Rings playing Arwen, they may as well have thrown her in as well. And then of course there's the whole other side story going on with Gandalf which even encluded Sauron in it at one point, which I suppose in a way was good as we are now begining to learn why he actually became the eye of Mordoor in Lord of the Rings, so maybe in a way Peter Jackson is trying to add all the pieces he didn't have time to include in the previous trilogy, now he has the technology allowing him to do so.

All the way through the film I was really impressed with the effects used in creating The Hobbit and now I suppose they are able to get away with much more than they were ten years ago, but in some senses it felt that with Lord of the Rings they had to make that bit more of an effort in creating things opposed to now when they rely more on computers. Consequently found the effects in The Hobbit to be slightly cartoony given that they can just use CGI to create the Orcs, unlike Lord of the Rings where they had a massive cast of people in truly gruesome and frightening make up giving it a much darker feel. Regardless of this I found the scenery and the effects very enjoyable all the same and it was good to see the parts of middle earth we were unable to see in Lord of the Rings so in comparison, Peter Jackson has made two very different stories but both very appealing.

I do have to admit that I did thoroughly enjoy this film and it did help that I had read the book previously so I was aware of the basic storyline. But if you are a fan of the book I'd say from a film perspective it was very enjoyable and it's better to see it as Peter Jackson's film and not compare it to the book as it is different but maybe not worse. The performances by everyone are highly entertaining and it's good to see the dwarves finally getting involved in some real action rather than just washing up and singing. All I will say is keep your eyes open for barrels, spiders, Stephen Fry and a massive dragon.

7/10