Brilliant! The Best Move Of The Year!

Rating: 10/10 (17 December 2013)

Coming a year after the underrated and under-appreciated "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," Peter Jackson strikes again with the year's best movie- "The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug." After a brief prologue featuring an excellent flashback conversation between Thorin Oakenshield and the wizard Gandalf, the movie hits the ground running and pretty much never looks back. This is a much more action packed movie than its predecessor, featuring an intense giant spider attack sequence in Mirkwood Forest, a thrilling river barrel chase sequence as the dwarfs attempt to escape from Elvish captors, an intense battle between Gandalf and Sauron, and a non-stop battle with the Dragon Smaug at the end. As is to be expected, all technical credits are first rate, from the often brilliant special effects, to the stirring Howard Shore musical score, to the excellent use of High Frame Rate 3D. In addition, the film delivers some outstanding acting, with particularly good performances from Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield, Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins and Luke Evans as a well-developed and sympathetic Bard the Bowman. It is also great to see Orlando Bloom's Legolas back in action, and despite the initial controversy, the addition of Evangilne Lilly as the female elf warrior Tauriel is a welcome addition, even if she does not appear in the book. The crowning achievement of the movie, however, is the Dragon Smaug (the best dragon ever portrayed on the silver screen) and his initial reveal in the ancient kingdom of Erebor is absolutely perfect. This is followed by an Indiana Jones style climax that ends in a real cliffhanger that might irritate some. For me it just means that the final movie, "The Hobbit: There And Back Again" will launch with an absolutely incredible action sequence. Like "The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers", "Desolation" does not really have a beginning or an end, but like that brilliant movie, it is definitely one hell of a middle.