Good Action-Packed Sequel-Better than the First

Rating: 8/10 (13 December 2013)

I saw "The Hobbit:The Desolation of Smaug", starring Ian McKellen- Magneto in the X-Men movies, Last Action Hero; Martin Freeman-The World's End, Hot Fuzz; Richard Armitage-Captain America:The First Avenger, MI5-t.v.; Evangeline Lilly-Real Steel, Lost-t.v.; Orlando Bloom-The Three Musketeers-2011, Black Hawk Down and the voice of Benedict Cumberbatch-Star Trek Into Darkness, The Other Boleyn Girl.
This is the second of the Hobbit trilogy, which is a prequel to the Lord of the Rings films, which are all based on the books written by J.R.R. Tolkien. Peter Jackson is the director. The title, 'Desolation of Smaug', refers to where Smaug-the Dragon-lives and the wastelands surrounding his home. Ian-Gandalf-leads Martin-Bilbo-and the 13 dwarfs on the quest to get the fallen kingdom of the dwarfs back from Benedict-the Dragon/Necromancer. FYI: Benedict does the voices of the Dragon and Necromancer, but they are two separate characters. Richard- Thorin-is the dwarf leader. Along their journey they cross paths with some Elfs, including Orlando-Legolas-and a new character, Evangeline- Tauriel. And when I say a new character, I mean she was written specifically for the movie and was not in the books. Evangeline is pretty bad-ass in her role, too; she has quite a few good fight scenes. Martin is a little more heroic here, too. He does get to put his new found ring to good use. In general, this movie is better than the first part, which I did like, but it was a little slow. This one is more action-packed. My only problem is the abrupt ending. It reminded me of the same thing they did in 'The Hunger Games:Catching Fire', a few weeks ago. It just stops in mid action, which is supposed to set you up for the next installment. It is rated "PG-13" for violence and some frightening images and has a running time of 2 hours & 41 minutes. It was better than part 1 and I would buy it on Blu-Ray.