Review of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) by Joseph C — 16 Dec 2014

With me saying that the first Hobbit movie was a pretty fun movie but had some underwhelming action and a slow build up , the second one starts off right were the first one left off and the entire movie is just wave after waver of action scenes.

The Hobbit : The desolation of Smaug is the second installment in the Hobbit trilogy. Bilbo , Gandalf , and the dwarves led by Thorin are still on there journey to reclaim Erebor from the dragon Smaug.

But on the way they run into a shapeshifter named Beorn , giant spiders in the forest of Mirkwood , the wood elves led by Thranduil ( Lee Pace ) the return of Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and a new character named Tauriel ( Evangeline Lily ).

Thus finally reaching to Erebor to face the dragon Smaug ( Benedict Cumberbatch ). I really mean it when I say this movie is just one action scene into another action scene. The whole scene with them in Mirkwood with the giant spiders was a really creepy scene and was really cool to watch.

I liked how in this movie the action was exciting. There was even one action scene where I laughed the entire way through not because it was funny but of how awesome it was. I've heard a lot of people say how they don't like the fact that Orlando Bloom as Legolas returned into these movies even though he is not in the book.

I think if they did have Legolas make his scene short like let him have a cameo. Don't put him involved into the story. Lee Pace as Thranduil did a really well job. If he was supposed to act like a dick then he did it well.

I didn't like Evangeline Lily's character Tauriel. Its not because of her acting I thought she did fine. It's just they put her into some stupid romance with one of the dwarves and its just not that fun or romantic to watch.

The one person who shines in this movie is surprisingly not Martin Freeman as Bilbo. But instead Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield. You really start to feel for the guy in this movie. The first movie was all about Bilbo , this one is about Thorin , so if you didn't like Thorin than you won't like this movie.

Another new character I almost forgot about was Luke Evans as Bard the Bowman. This guy gives a really good performance. His motivations are understandable and while your supposed to be routing for Bilbo and Thorin in this movie you start to side with Bard.

But guys lets get in to the real reason why we came to see this movie. Smaug the dragon. Oh my god Benedict Cumberbatch can you not be more awesome. Smaug was the Gollum of this movie. Remember when I said in the first movie that Gollum was the scene stealer of the first movie.

Yeah well Smaug is the scene stealer of the second one. The conversation between Bilbo and Smaug was really well done , the way Smaug just toys with him was so fun to watch. The dragon was really entertaining.

But in the end I liked The Desolation of Smaug a little more than An unexpected Journey. Thorin is the character that drives this movie , the dragon was amazing , the action was a lot more entertaining , and Martin Freeman is great as Bilbo but this movie does have its problems like Legolas is in it to long , Tauriel is a useless character , and the romance aspect was horribly not done well.

The Hobbit : The Desolation of Smaug gets a 4 / 5 .