I apologize for typos but I am writing this quickly and quite late...
There was so much hype and hope surrounding the next wave of Lord Of The Rings films and unfortunately many fans including myself felt as though the first installment of The Hobbits trilogy 'There and Back Again' fell a bit flat ( although still visually stunning and entertaining)
It would seem that Sir Peter Jackson may have listened to some critics and die hard fans and responded to some of the annoyances fans voiced from the 1st Hobbit and gave us a near perfect follow up in The Desolation of Smaug.
Even though all 3 The Hobbit films were shot at the same time, this 2nd coming felt visually warmer, keeping in the same darker tones as the original Rings trilogy.
The first Hobbit had unnecessary dialogue and unnecessary slapstick humor, Desolation looked to have taken out the unnecessary and brought us a much tighter script. Gone is childish humor and comedic relief.
The Desolation of Smaug introduces a few more characters, most notably Legolas, Tauriel, Bard, Beorn and Smaug the dragon
Stephen Colbert also makes a cameo as a spy in Laketown.
From beginning to end, the film is packed with action and adventure, there are no places for fillers in this installment.
The flow is good and the visuals are never to overwhelming as one may expect from such a huge production. The CGI and real life sets mesh very well together, and a comforting feeling came over me because, now, the visual effects reminded of a familiar world that is Middle Earth (this feeling had lacked in There and Back again in my opinion).
As opposed to the first Hobbit, Desolation has a much darker undertone, less aimed at younger children and easily fitted for a PG 13 audience due perhaps to so many heads o' flying.
Oh and many heads do fly throughout the film.
Even if Desolation doesn't necessarily stay true to the book, I for one did enjoy the added character and subplots and I am a firm believer that most viewers will not think twice about any book divergence.
'The Desolation Of Smaug' is certainly a much more complete and comprehensive installment when compared to 'There and Back Again'
An overall much more entertaining and satisfying film.
I am going off on a limb and will declare The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug to be one of the best films out of the 5 Rings releases.
After having watched the first Hobbit, my expectations were quite average, but this film was way better than I had anticipated. Each time I expected moments of cheesy dialogue or childish humor....none came.
Not that I was looking for flaws, but sometimes, as a big fan of the Rings series, it is easy to criticize every little trivial thing...I am happy to announce that I could not detect any obvious nor lesser obvious flaws.
The acting was great all around, the visuals were amazing if not the best ever in this age of hi-res technology, the dialogue was on point and removed from any fluff, the flow was fantastic and comprehensive and finally the entire movie is entertaining from the second the MGM lion jumps on the big screen.
I dare to say that even as a stand alone film, someone who is not a fan of fantasy or The Lord of The Rings would still thoroughly enjoy The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
I loved it 9/10!
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