An Unexpected Improvement.....

Rating: 10/10 (26 July 2014)

When you consider how brilliant the Lord Of The Rings films were, the first Hobbit movie was a bit of a let down. I was half expecting its sequel, The Desolation of Smaug to have the same flaws, as well as those classic 'middle chapter' issues. I was however, wrong. Although it did have some of the flaws seen in An Unexpected Journey, it was a huge improvement. Starting where the last film left of, we see Thorin Oakenshield's company running away from evil Azog's Orc pack. Unlike AUJ, Desolation Of Smaug gets going straight away. Within the first twenty minutes the Company are sprinting over fields and hills, desperately trying to get away from Beorn, a shape changer, who turns out to be neither friend or foe. As usual, the settings in this film are incredible, as are the costumes, makeup and prosthetics. Mirkwood was a particular favourite of mine. It was a perfect adaptation of how Tolkien described it in the book. Speaking of books, there was a few changes in DOS that weren't exactly popular. I understand translating a 300 page book and numerous appendices into a 9 hour trilogy must be hard, but even so, there was no need (in my opinion) to add Tauriel. Although I enjoyed her actions scenes, there really isn't any point of her being there. All she does is create an unnecessary 'love interest' for Kili and mess up the original story even more. The apparent love triangle between her, Kili and Legolas (who also shouldn't of been there) put a tiny bit of dampener on the whole thing. Negativity aside, Ian McKellen's faithful performance as Gandalf was as good as ever. Luke Evan's also did a fantastic job playing Bard, capturing the character exactly how I had imagined him. Stephen Fry also put in an admirable performance as the Master of Laketown. However the thing I love most of all was Smaug. Benedict Cumberbatch was perfect for the role and really deserves all the praise he gets. Not only was he terrifying, he was convincing. Overall it was a HUGE improvement on the first chapter, with plenty of action and near misses to keep you amused during the almost 3 hour run time (Goodness knows how long the Extended Editions are going to be). With this in mind, I have high hopes for the defining chapter, The Battle Of The Five Armies (Unless Jackson has changed it again....)which is being released this December.