'The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug' --A Review

This was the first Peter Jackson movie I've ever seen that didn't have me twitching and shifting in my seat, wondering when it was going to end.   By my reckoning, The Desolation of Smaug ran around two hours and forty minutes or so and unlike it's predecessor, the meandering, bloated An Unexpected Journey, there's not a single minute that I would consider unnecessary in this movie.  It moves at a brisk clip, never gets boring and it's the first time that any film in the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit franchise that ended in a genuine, beautiful cliffhanger.

Don't get me wrong:  I think Jackson and Company are milking the cow that is the money making franchise of these movies for every penny they can and it's to the detriment of the book, I think, but Jackson more than redeems the meandering, bloated first movie with a stronger, more coherent second outing.  Had the first movie been as taut and as well paced as this one, I'd be feeling a lot better about The Hobbit trilogy overall.  The first movie made me wonder what the hell they were thinking, ruining a book like this by forcing what is a relatively small, easy read (compared to The Lord of The Rings, that is) into three movies.  After The Desolation of Smaug, I can honestly say that I'm looking forward to the sequel.

But it didn't get off to a strong start:  I was immediately irritated by a flashback to Bree, where Gandalf (Ian McKellan) and Thorin (Richard Armitage) meet to decide to launch the quest to retake the Lonely Mountain and Gandalf decides they need a burglar.  My initial thought was:  when the hell did they go to Bree in The Hobbit?   What are they doing?  But the flashback quickly closes and the movie picks up where the last one left off, with the company on the edge of Mirkwood, still pursued by orcs.

Gandalf finds them refuge with the skin changer Beorn- who, while disliking dwarves, likes orcs even less and given them aid to get them to the edge of the dark forest of Mirkwood.  When Gandalf finds orc graffiti on some ruins, he leaves them to investigate further (and their pursuer, Azog is summoned to Dol Gulder, leaving his son Bolg in charge of the pursuit.)  He charges the dwarves not to stray from the Elven path, but of course, as soon as Gandalf leaves, they get lost and stumble across the giant spiders of Mirkwood.

(Just as a tangent:  I really think this is where my distaste of spiders come from.  Peter Jackson being Peter Jackson means that these are gigantic, hairy spiders that are the stuff of any arachnophobes nightmare but I have to say:  he got them right.   That part of the book was always the creepiest to me and he nailed it.)

Once free of the spiders, they're promptly captured by the wood elves of Mirkwood including Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly.)   As a character, I know there's a lot of controversy about Tauriel as she's totally made up and not at all in any of Tolkein's books, but as a character, she's got more gumption that Arwen or Galadriel from The Lord of The Rings and she's likable to boot.   There's real potential they could blow this and have her be little more than a plot device to illustrate the divide between rich and poor (Legolas has a thing for her, but he's the King's son and she's not good enough for him, per the King) and elf and dwarf (Fili, who's a little taller and more handsome in that long haired, I might be in a Dwarven rock band, kind of way also has a little thing for her.) but so far, so good.  I think she works.

Where you'd think that Jackson might meander a bit, he surprises you by hitting the accelerator button.  He moves his company right along, having them escape from the Wood Elves and float down the river to Long Lake, where they meet the Barge Man, Bard (Luke Evans) who agrees to the smuggle them into Lake Town, where the Master of Lake Town (a delightful but woefully underdone Stephen Fry- hope he has more to do in the next film) spies on everyone.   Eventually, Thorin reveals himself to the town and is sent on his way with the blessing of the Master, who hopes for riches to flow from the Mountain to his town once more.

Soon enough, the company reaches The Lonely Mountain, finds the hidden door and sends Bilbo (Martin Freeman) inside the steal the Arkenstone from the Dragon Smaug.  Smaug (who is voiced with absolute perfection by Benedict Cumberbatch...  that man is Smaug.  It's like my childhood came to life right in front of me on the television screen.  And I haven't had a feeling like that since the very first Transformers movie, when Optimus Prime transforms, leans down to Shia LeBoeuf and Peter Cullen says 'Hello.') awakens and discovers Bilbo has a bit of scrap with the dwarves, gets pissed off and busts out of the Lonely Mountain to go and destroy Lake Town for helping the dwarves.   Bilbo and his friends watch in horror.

Oh, and Gandalf gets together with Radagast (Sylvester McCoy) and discovers that the Nazgul have awoken and goes to Dol Guldor, where he discovers that Sauron is back and is in dire need of some Visine.  (Undoubtedly, he'll get bailed out by either The Eagles or Galadriel in the next movie.)

Overall: This redeems the first Hobbit movie and then some!  There's not a wasted minute in this movie and it made me excited to see the next one!  I still think that this could have been better done as two movies instead of three, but while the first one just seemed to go on forever and ever, this one reminded me of the best parts of the book and what made it so great in the first place.  **** out of ****