The Hobbit, The Desolation of Smaug:
In the second chapter in The Hobbit saga, Bilbo and the company of dwarves are still travelling with Gandalf towards the Lonely Mountain to reclaim it from the mighty dragon Smaug. On their way, they encounter giant spiders in the dark forest, an army of orcs led by the sinister white orc Azog, and allies in the forms of the Elvish archers Legolas and Tauriel (an original new character). Soon, the young hobbit and his dwarf friends come face-to-face with the magnificent and terrifying Smaug in his lair. The film has a stellar cast, featuring Martin Freeman, Sir Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Orlando Bloom, Evangeline Lily, Luke Evans, Lee Pace, Stephen Fry, Aidan Turner, Ken Stott, Graham McTavish, Dean O'Gorman, Mark Hadlow, Jed Brophy, Adam Brown, John Callen, Peter Hambleton (who portrays Gloin, father of Gimli), William Kircher, James Nesbitt, Cate Blanchett, Stephen Hunter, Mikael Persbrandt, Sylvester McCoy, Craig Hall, Ryan Gage, John Bell, Manu Bennett (whose role as Azog is greatly diminished from the last film, although he still is a good villain), Lawrence Makoare (who plays an evil orc in this film, and appeared in Return of the King as the Witch King, despite not providing the voice for that character), Ben Mitchell, Richard Whiteside, and Dallas Barnett. The stand-outs of the film are definitely Freeman, McKellen, Armitage, Evans, Bloom, and Lily, who, despite playing a character created solely to create a love triangle (between herself Bloom and Turner) to fill time, actually does a really good job. Same with Bloom, whose character doesn't even really appear in the original book, and was added because he was popular in the original trilogy; despite all that he still does a good job portraying the character and adds a lot more action into the movie. Speaking of which the action in the film is near non-stop. Despite a slightly shorter run-time than the previous entry (and I do mean slight, only by 5 or 10 minutes), the film feels hours longer because so much happens. Now here's the question that's probably the most important: was Smaug well-done? His name's in the sub-title and we've been waiting for him forever, especially after that cliff-hanger at the end of the last film where we only got a glimpse of his eye. Well, I have to say, he was the best part of the movie, even though he only appeared for the last 45 minutes. Benedict Cumberbatch delivers yet another amazing performance. Holy shit, that guy deserves an Oscar! Using the science of motion capture and some terrific voice work by Cumberbatch, Peter Jackson and the entire FX team were able to bring Smaug to life on the big screen. Cumberbatch had to make some crazy facial expressions to capture the dragon's emotions during the motion capture process. The actor also was able to create an insanely chilling voice for the dragon, using very little digital altering. Cumberbatch seems to play really great villains in sci-fi and fantasy films (just earlier this year he delivered a great performance as the villain in Star Trek: Into Darkness). Cumberbatch also appears in another role (albeit this one is much smaller) as the Necromancer from the first role, who proves to be a greater threat than expected. Cumberbatch provides the voice and mo-cap for this role as well. Comedian and variety show host Stephen Colbert (a huge Tolkien fan and friend of Jackson's) and his family appear in the River-town as residents, and Jackson himself makes a brief cameo in the very beginning of the film (he is the first character to appear on camera) as a man eating a carrot in the village of Bree. His daughter also makes a cameo in a scene in the Prancing Pony bar. Andy Serkis also served as a second unit director. The special effects, as always, are incredible, and the action sequences, despite being very unrealistic, are extremely entertaining and very intense. This movie is one of the best films in the series, and it is extremely satisfying, even managing to top the previous entry. Despite ending on the world's biggest cliffhanger (seriously, it's like a TV cliffhanger) The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is a grand, well-written, beautiful, and stunning epic fantasy film and one of the best films of the year. 5/5 stars.
My reviews of the previous entries: http://mattcottermovies.blogspot.com/2012/12/lord-of-rings-series-part-i.html (Part 1)
http://mattcottermovies.blogspot.com/2012/12/lord-of-rings-part-ii.html (Part 2)
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