The weakest of Jackson's Tolkien film adaptations!

Rating: 9/10 (14 December 2013)

'THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG': Four and a Half Stars (Out of Five)
The second film in director Peter Jackson's trilogy, based on J. R. R. Tolkien's 1937 novel 'The Hobbit'. The three films also serve as prequels to Jackson's 'THE LORD OF THE RINGS' film trilogy (which were also based on books by Tolkien). This film picks up where 2012's 'AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY' left off and once again finds the hobbit Bilbo Baggins (played by Martin Freeman once again) and the wizard Gandalf (once again played by Ian McKellen) assisting a team of 13 dwarfs, led by Thorin Oakenshield (played again by Richard Armitage). They're on a journey to the Kingdom of Erebor in order to reclaim it from a vicious dragon named Smaug (played by Benedict Cumberbatch). This chapter also stars Evangeline Lilly, Orlando Bloom, Luke Evans, Lee Pace, Ken Stott and James Nesbitt. It was written for the screen by Jackson and his usual writing partners (and co-producers on the film) Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh (Jackson's wife) as well as Guillermo del Toro (who was originally set to direct the 'HOBBIT' films). Despite all the rave reviews (from critics and fans alike) I found the movie to be the weakest of Jackson's Tolkien film adaptations.
The film begins shortly after the end of the last one (after a brief flashback of Gandalf meeting Thorin) with Bilbo (Freeman), Gandalf (McKellen) and the dwarfs still being pursued by Azog (Manu Bennett) and his army of Orcs. The team receives aid from a skin-changer, named Beorn (Mikael Persbrandt), in the form of horses and a house to rest in. Gandalf then separates from the group and promises to meet up with them before they enter Smaug's lair. Bilbo and the dwarfs must continue to elude the Orc army while also dealing with giant spiders, Wood-elves and the people of Lake-town before taking on the dragon (Cumberbatch). In the mean time Gandalf investigates the whereabouts of the Necromancer (also played by Cumberbatch).
The movie is of course visually spectacular and it does have a lot of awesome and gory action scenes (in Jackson's usual style) but there's too much pointless fighting and not enough drama and character development. It's the shortest of all the films in the series (at 2 hours and 41 minutes) but it seems like the longest (to me). Despite the movie being extremely action packed it feels incredibly slow paced (due to the story going nowhere) and really drags on. I felt the same way after seeing 'THE TWO TOWERS' for the first time (which is my least favorite film of that series) so maybe it's just the curse of being the middle movie but I think stretching this book into three (nearly three hour) films was a bad idea. Of course not from a money point of view, the first movie made a billion dollars and I'm sure this one will as well (or at least close to it) but based on artistic film merit this one fails (pretty much). It is a good action flick and a visual feast but that's about it. I'm not one to complain about filmmakers taking creative liberties, when adapting their source material into film, but this movie detours so much from it's story that it weakens the overall viewing experience, even when not comparing it to the book. 'AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY' is slower paced but I still think it's a better (and more enjoyable) film; it also at least stays true to the essence of the book. This chapter is made just to please action junkies (which it should), it does have a minor love story (involving a dwarf and two elves) but that's about all the character drama we really get here. I still enjoyed the movie (and will probably like it more upon repeat viewing, when I know what to expect) but it is disappointing and not as good as the other four films. It's funny how similar these 'LORD OF THE RINGS' prequels are to the 'STAR WARS' ones; Peter Jackson and George Lucas are very similar filmmakers!
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