"I do believe the worst is behind us."

Rating: 7/10 (13 December 2013)

The worst of Sir Peter Jackson's Tolkien series - last year's An Unexpected Journey - is now behind us, and it was still better than most blockbusters since. The Desolation of Smaug is a rung above. Show me a more heartfelt, inventive, well cast, exciting, and sumptuously detailed realisation of a fantasy world on screen and I will eat a sorcerer's sandal.
Thankfully, a year on, fans are now in a position to be able to sift out of professional reviews the irrelevant criticisms. 'These films are too long!' Not long enough for those of us who want more Middle Earth. 'Shallow CG spectacle!' cry the same critics who just hurled five stars at Gravity. 'Three films means three times the money!' Yes - and it is money some of us are more than happy to pay.
So here we have the continuing adventures of Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) and his crew, the Company of Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage, now minus his oaken shield). Part Two of Jackson's sumptuous trilogy brings greater life and depth to John Ronald Reuel Tolkien's source novel - a tome small in width but wide in vision. The best addition is Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly), an overdue she-elf heroine, who feels like a full character lifted from literature.
The Battle of Five Armies always felt a bit rushed on the page, so after An Unexpected Journey it was apparent that this mighty mash-up would constitute the third movie. That leaves the middle chunk: the elves, the spiders, the lake, and that dastardly dragon (Benedict Cumberbatch). But, strangely, sadly, we're left without any of those merry songs.
The dwarfs aren't such a merry bunch this time around. Bilbo's final line from the last outing echoes throughout the encounters of this second instalment: chattering spiders (arachnophobics beware); a nefarious Necromancer; and a new orc-nemesis in the form of Azog's son, Bolg (Lawrence Makoare). Like The Two Towers, a shadow has descended on this story. And, like The Two Towers, a new narrative complexity is introduced: Desolation is less linear than Journey, the action leaping between story strands like elves through woodland branches.
Perhaps as a result of having (original director) Guillermo Del Toro on board as a co-writer, there are some scenes of weird horror, particularly an early sequence in Mirkwood, where VFX and editing combine to bamboozle both characters and audience. It's as if the mighty Mexican has unlocked in Jackson the playful auteur - he of Braindead, Heavenly Creatures et al - who was conspicuously absent from The Lovely Bones and reined in for King Kong.
Towers was my personal favourite of the Rings trilogy, so my expectations for this bridging instalment were naturally high and mostly met. While the setpieces - particularly the head-hopping barrels sequence - are some of the most thrilling in the Middle-earth series, thematically there's nothing here to rival the bereaved drama that we once watched unfold at solemn Edoras. But it's clear that this trilogy's unique selling point is its levity. Tolkien's tome was equally whimsical but never this witty. In Freeman we have an expert comic actor, naturally likable and fussily British; almost the antidote to the imperious Hollywood superhero.
The flaws are few and forgivable. Lee Pace's Thranduil comes dangerously close to the wrong side of salted ham. There are some odd narrative decisions late on - the intercutting between Lake Town and the Lonely Mountain kind of removes some of the tension from the dwarfs' ruckus with Smaug. It seems churlish to expect a symphony a year, but Howard Shore's score seems to be strangely lacking in variety this time around. And perhaps Alfrid (Ryan Gage) is no more than a cartoon version of Grima Wormtongue - although he and the Master of Laketown (Stephen Fry) are a fun combination nonetheless. Also, some will probably turn their nose up at the suggested romance between Kili (Aidan Turner) and Tauriel, but I found it quite touching.
All the elements of direction, performance and design combine for a joyous romp - and, better still, we've moved beyond the Shire and Rivendell to romp in luscious locations new. It's the world's most spectacular fan fiction: Jackson and co have built a giant on the shoulders of Tolkien's Hobbit. Enjoy.