I am fire..... I am death.....

Rating: 8/10 (14 December 2013)

After crossing over the Misty Mountains, Thorin must seek help from a powerful stranger before taking on the dangers of an illusioned filled forest. I
f they reach Lake-town it will be time Bilbo Baggins to fulfil his contract with the dwarfs. The party must complete the journey to Lonely Mountain and Baggins must seek out the Secret Door.
A door that will give them access to the hoard of the dragon Smaug....
After reassessing the first movie, which to be honest was a bit of a slog to get through, my expectations were not very high for this second instalment. I was looking forward to it, but this trilogy didn't really have the event feel that LOTR had..... Until now.
After a very slow opening, with a flashback, it soon goes back to what Jackson does best, event set pieces of the highest order. As soon as the group go into the forest, that's it, the film is rip roaring fun right up until the final haunting scene.
The film then is wrapped around three very impressive, and huge set pieces. The first in the forest with the spiders and meeting old friends,the second is a wonderful barrel chase, involving Orcs and Elves, and the final piece, which rivals anything from the original trilogy, when we meet Smaug.
This is stunning stuff, and Freeman excels in this part, one reason is because he's not really focused on until this part, and his fear makes his meeting with Smaug all the more urgent.
And what a creation Smaug is, as soon as he unveils himself from under millions of coins, you know instantly he will be right up there with Gollum, The T-Rex, and The T-1000, as the best CGI creations ever committed to screen.
Gandalf has his own little side story, which is very sinister, but not touched on too much, which will probably be the focus of the next film.
My only problem is that it doesn't have a lot of urgency to it, because you know a few characters that get in peril will be fine, because of LOTR.
Its a return to form from Jackson, and it has the best cliffhanger from any Jackson movie.
Well worth seeing.