Slice of Adventure

Rating: 8/10 (12 December 2013)

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug continues to tell JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit in this overly stretched adaptation. What makes this different from the last one is this one finally steps up to focus more on its true epic form and toning down its playful goofiness a little bit. We got a warm welcome before and now the tone has become much bombastic. And just like the last one; even though this is just a piece of a story, it's already a gigantic experience. But even with all of its rich characters, exciting action, and lengthy runtime, the audience would still beg for more. So this sequel is basically a big bite of a special meal that you've been eating since last year.
They sure know how to turn these pieces into actual movies by extending the exposition, fan service, and action to stretch out the runtime. The pacing is now somewhat less slower and the flashbacks are fewer compared to the other. It's all fun to be honest, but knowing the fact that it's a split has always been a distraction, especially when this one has a remarkable focus on the main plot. At least An Unexpected Journey had a theme for the characters to appropriately make it a distinct single story. Here, there is little else to tell and have to really depend on the next part, which is why they had to add Elvish subplots, explore more stuff around the story, and find a way to tease the audience so they won't be left out hanging. It does have a good tease, but it's exasperating when it teases too much, because you'll have to realize that this film is just a huge chunk of the adventure that slightly end up anywhere.
The direction remains the same, there's always a sense of doubt and fortitude on the fate of the main characters, which makes it very compelling. But it was the special effects that once again steals the show. The filmmakers seem to have fun playing with their technical abilities which is why the CGI continues to get excessive, but the Smaug dragon was the impressive standout that looks more threatening and terrifying than the Orcs, while the exteriors keep everything look grand and beautiful. The cast are still terrific and charismatic as ever.
Bilbo's line, "Truly songs and tales fall utterly short of your enormity", is too the best way to sum up The Desolation of Smaug. The film is wide large tremendous, if not just a fragment of an adventure. Despite of the excess, its largeness actually made the film work, it was able keep it beyond entertaining. It's still not the best way to tell its story, because this is the point of the series when anyone can admittedly say an economical single film adaptation would be indeed a smarter move. But there's really no denying how fun it all turned out. The next part, There and Back Again, will definitely end up like the first two, and all we have to do is wait (again).