The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) Movie Review

THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG (2013) MOVIE REVIEW

With the previous movie in The Hobbit trilogy being one of my favourite films of 2012, I, like basically everyone, had high hopes for this movie. So how'd it turn out? Pretty damn fine. 

Taking place after the events of An Unexpected Journey, this film continues the journey of the dwarves, Gandalf the Grey (Ian Mckellen) and Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) as they attempt to reclaim their homeland of Erebor from the ruthless dragon Smaug. Without question the thing that kept this movie going was it's impeccable story telling and just how everything ties in perfectly and it's seamless transition from page to picture. While some aspects were exclusive to this film from the book, like Legolas (Orlando Bloom) being in the story for example, the story for this film was more than reliable to the timeless source material. One of the things I really enjoyed about the story in this film was the timeless characters that are made or expanded upon. An example of this is Bilbo as in the first film, he was really afraid and was almost tempted not to come on the journey. Now in this film, he is very careful and shows various signs of leadership throughout their quest. Anyway, overall, the story for The Desolation of Smaug was by far better than the already great story of the first film and manages to tell a full story from start to end. 

Still of Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage
as Bilbo and Thorin 

As I mentioned earlier, one of the movies strongest aspects has to be the characters that are created. But this cannot be fully accomplished unless they are portrayed by a certain actor/actress, which this movie managed to nail perfectly. Each character was cast perfectly in my opinion as I cannot think of anyone in this film that did a bad job in their role, whether large or small. Martin Freeman once again reprises his role as a younger Bilbo and does it perfectly, Ian Mckellen also returns as Gandalf and of course does an amazing job as his signature character. Other actors/actresses that managed to stand out for me at least include Luke Evans as Bard the Bowman as I felt he just did such an amazing job as him as he showed such charisma as well as leadership and honour, which is what the character needed to be. Others that did really good include Aidan Turner as Kili and Evangeline Lily as Tauriel as I felt that although they had few scenes together, the chemistry that was shown in those scenes kept me wanting more from these two in particular. Now of course, we cannot talk about acting talent without mentioning the villains in this film, Smaug and the Necromancer, both played by Benedict Cumberbatch. Although he did play two villains in this film, I will only talk about the main villain he portrayed, which is Smaug the Dragon. They really did pick the perfect person to voice this villainous dragon as Cumberbatch has such a deep, eerie and menacing voice the entire time he was on screen. Another aspect I loved about this scene was the fact that he kept on taunting Bilbo by calling him such simple names like 'thief!' and 'barrel-rider!', which showed how menacing he can still be, even if he doesn't use creative insults and threats. 

Still of Luke Evans as Bard

As for the special effects, I'm not really sure what else I can say that hasn't been said before. I mean, the effects in this film are nominated for an Oscar and more than deserve to win in my opinion. Even though I cannot say much here, I will say that the stand out effects to me in the film include the barrel scene where the dwarves are riding barrels to escape a certain area. One of the biggest things that made this scene my favourite in the film was the fact that it never slowed down as while they are in the barrels, they continue to fight and take down everything in their path. Another stand out scene to me was without question the first encounter with Smaug the Dragon as the first time you see him is with Bilbo and it shows just how large he is compared to a hobbit, which also shows just how much length the special effects team went into these effects. Seriously, I'm not sure what else to say. I mean, the various locations that the group encounters throughout the film are all beautiful in their own unique way, whether it be the streets of Laketown, the mountains of Erebor or the tomb of Smaug. Overall, the special effects are some of the best of the year and more than deserve to win an Oscar for it's beauty. 

Still of Ian Mckellen and Sylvester McCoy as
Gandalf and Radagast

Overall, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is without question one of my favourite films of 2013 and continues to bring honour to the great franchise. Showing off remarkable acting, special effects and story telling, the film managed to keep me entertained all the way through, even through the 2hr 45min runtime.

OVERALL: 8.5/10