MOVIE REVIEW: THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG - Tim's Review

Tim here, and what follows is my review for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, which is the second part in the Peter Jackson movie trilogy adapted from the book by J.R.R. Tolkien. To sum up quickly my overall thoughts: The second movie is an improvement upon the first with an exciting and thrilling adventure that ends on a stupendous cliffhanger! Next year can't come soon enough.

The story is a much faster pace, which is an improvement over the slow beginning its predecessor. It opens with a prologue in the familiar Lord of the Rings local Bree, and a carrot chomping PJ cameo! It's set before the beginning of the adventure, when Gandalf (Ian McKellan) found Thorin (Richard Armitage) and incited the quest in his mind and that they'd need a burglar for the job. Cut to immediately after the events of the last one and the company of dwarves, with wizard and Hobbit, are still being pursued by orcs. This keeps them moving as they make a quick rest at the home of Beorn (Mikael Persbrandt), who single-handedly is able to scare the orcs from attacking, before they venture into Mirkwood. Here the company breaks up as Gandalf goes to explore more in regards to the Necromancer of Dol Guldur, and the company continues on their journey through the forest to the Lonely Mountain. Unlike the book we actually get to follow Gandalf simultaneously as the company travels along their dangerous road, complete with spiders, elves, the men of Laketown, and finally the chiefest of calamities: Smaug.

Without going into any real spoilers, the story is handled very well, with the deviations not being too problematic. P.J. has been quoted in Empire as saying "I'm quite enjoying deviating from the books!" Well, here in The Desolation of Smaug he makes the boldest deviations yet. Do they work? I'll hold off my final thoughts until I see the final movie There and Back Again to judge how well the deviations work. However, initial thoughts are that some work for me and some don't. There's a great moment when Bilbo (Martin Freeman) puts on the Ring to evade the spiders and can understand what they're saying, which displays some of the way in which the Ring's magic effects him. Additionally during that sequence there's a moment where Bilbo loses the Ring and desperately, and fanatically, fights off a smaller insect creature that is crawling near the Ring. "Mine!" and the power of the Ring's pull on Bilbo is displayed so wonderfully well. That was a clever and nice deviation. Then there's the budding romance between new elf warrior Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) and dwarf Kili (Aidan Turner) that's a new deviation that I will hold judgment on until it plays its course in the final chapter. There is one thing that happens here during this growing relationship that pays homage to Lord of the Rings, but I feel that it's not right here and belongs solely to The Fellowship of the Ring. You'll know it when you see it. The story has many great moments, including a Martin Freeman one after he gets the dwarves into the barrels and realizes he didn't get a barrel for himself. The barrel sequence is thrilling (with Bombur (Stephen Hunter) awesomeness), Laketown is impressive, and the Lonely Mountain is immense, and Smaug stupendous!

"An exciting and thrilling middle chapter to The Hobbit trilogy!"

The performances in the film continue to be fantastic. Martin Freeman was the perfect casting for Bilbo as he brings such humor and humility to the role. Ian McKellan continues his magnificent work as a conjurer of more magic inside the role of Gandalf as there is on display onscreen from the magicians at WETA Digital. Richard Armitage displays the most range yet as he begins to let show Thorin's family treasure madness taking form, and Kenn Scott as Balin continues to council him and remind him of his duties as a leader. Ken Scott really makes it that when rewatching The Fellowship of the Ring a tear can't help but be shed upon seeing Balin's tomb. Evangeline Lilly was a wonderful addition to the cast in a newly made-up character, and she played her scenes very well. Especially against a hauntingly majestic Thranduil (Lee Pace) and Legolas. Orlando Bloom returns to the role as if riding an oliphant, and has a wonderful moment when searching the dwarves' possessions upon their capture and comes upon a photo of young Gimli amongst Gloin's things. He and Gloin (Peter Hambleton) share a great moment that will make many fans laugh. Sylvestor McCoy makes an additional appearance as Radagast and it's a wonderful treat yet again. Too bad his screen time was so short. Hopefully there will be more of him in the third installment. Luke Evans did a fantastic job as Bard, and as well his ancestor Girion in a flashback, and added much more depth to the character than was in the source material. Stephen Fry was absolutely sublime casting for the Master of Laketown. Finally we come to Benedict Cumberbatch who played both the Necromancer and the titular Smaug. What a performance! Benedict Cumberbatch brought Smaug to life in such a way that was awe inspiring, magnificent, and a real treasure. He didn't just provide his voice, but instead gave a performance capture that lit up the screen.

Andrew Lesnie continued his breathtaking cinematography in this installment, and the stereo 3D (rigs provided by the awesome 3ality Technica) and high frame rate maintained to bring the world to life in a way that makes me wish more movies were shot this way. 3ality did some customized rigs for the barrel sequence, and the 3D during that sequence is insane. Since a huge amount of this movie is digital visual effects it's important to bring up the fantastic work of WETA Digital, and their work greatly benefitted from the stereo 3D and HFR. Smaug in particular was amazing to see in the format. Some of my favorite moments from the film regarding the stereo 3D are the snow falling during a pivotal scene in Laketown, the great expansive and empty halls of the Lonely Mountain, and the massive scale of Smaug. However, what's all this without the sound design? Dolby Atmos preserves the 3D atmosphere in the sound, and there was so much in the sound design that the world felt entirely real. I can't imagine how many coins they had to rustle with to get all those different variations. Howard Shore provided a rich score that introduced many new themes. In particular Smaug's theme was one that sticks with you for a long time after the screen had cut to black. On a technical level this is a masterpiece.

Peter Jackson did a fantastic job directing this movie, but special mention also has to go to Andy Serkis as the Second Unit Director. Together they brought the world of Middle-Earth to life with all the rest of their team with so much verisimilitude to Tolkien's descriptions. I'm extremely excited to see the next installment, and as stated earlier December 2014 can't come soon enough.

HOBBIT: PJ Facebook Blog of Last Day Recap

Tim here with your recap of Peter Jackson's Facebook Blog of the last day of shooting on The Hobbit films. It looks like it was a long day (20 hours) for Mr. Jackson and the crew of The Hobbit, but they managed to get everything they needed. As Jackson noted: "15 years of Tolkien… 771 days of shooting…"

The bullet points of information that one can gather from PJ's last day blog:
• The last day had two units (main & splinter) shooting on various stages: A, F, and K
• At midday PJ conferenced via video chat with Howard Shore for Music Spotting.
• "Spotting" involves talking through edited scenes with Howard, and figuring out everything he needs to do a first pass at the music composition - where music should start and stop, what mood it should have, themes to use, moments to punctuate. To stay on schedule, Howard needs 10 mins of cut footage every week.
• The score for The Desolation of Smaug is going to be terrific, according to PJ.
• They were a little frustrated with An Unexpected Journey because they had to revisit so many of the LOTR themes: The Shire, Rivendell, Galadriel, Gollum, and the Ring.
• This time around, apart from a couple of Ring moments, the score is all new: Beorn, Mirkwood, The Woodland Realm, Laketown, Bard and Smaug all give Howard the chance to write brand new themes, and he's knocking it out of the park!
• With Andy Serkis busy being a monkey at the moment (Caesar, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes), the directing duties for the splinter unit have fallen on Christian Rivers's shoulders.
• PJ's relationship with Christian Rivers goes back to 1986 when he recieved a fan letter from the 13-year-old school boy Christian, which happened to have drawings of wizards and dragons. By Braindead Christian joined the team as a storyboard artist, and has made all the storyboards for PJ's movies since. He became an animation director on King Kong and won an Oscar. He's now directing the splinter unit, and developing projects of his own.
• It proves that fan letters can pay off!
• The tent is where PJ has spent more time in the last two and a half years than anywhere else. He shares it with Victoria, the script supervisor, Jabez the editor, Seb, his assistant and Caro, the producer.
• Jabez and PJ try to edit previously shot scenes while he's filming.
• Caro and PJ have worked together since Heavenly Creatures.
• His big chair has a story. He used to always sit the small wooden and canvas "director's chair" until Dec, 2000, when Harry Knowles visited during the very last week shooting LOTR. Harry wasn't going to fair too well in a small chair, so the Unit guys bought a crappy old arm chair from a second hand store. When he left, and the shoot was finished, PJ tried it out and found it quite comfy. Caro had it recovered. He's used it ever since. Another good luck charm.

And that sums up what Peter Jackson wrote. Below are the pictures he posted:

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug hits IMAX 3D and RealD 3D theaters December 13^th, 2013, and The Hobbit: There and Back Again hits IMAX 3D and RealD 3D theaters December 17^th, 2014.

MUST WATCH AND LISTEN: TV Spot 6 For THE HOBBIT *AND* The Entire Soundtrack Online!!

This is a spectacularly great day in that not only do we get a new TV Spot for THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY (which is, I think, the best one yet) but we also can now listen to Howard Shore's ENTIRE soundtrack for the movie!

The TV Spot shows some of the heart of the movie - why Bilbo is helping the dwarves in their quest to regain their home. It's the meat and potatoes (errr... taters) of the movie really and while there are some minor, minor visual spoilers (character reactions and such), I think it's fine to watch.

The soundtrack is of course a spoiler. A big one. Music is such a huge component of the movie and it's LOTR pedigree that one should think twice about listening to it. I did, but it's your call. FAIR WARNING.

Unfortunately we cannot divide up the tracks for the soundtrack and you have to listen to it in it's entirety, but it's worth it - believe me. For a listing of all the included tracks, click here.

Here's the movie's storyline:
THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY follows title character Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor, which was long ago conquered by the dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of thirteen dwarves led by the legendary warrior Thorin Oakenshield. Their journey will take them into the Wild; through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs and Giant Spiders, Shapeshifters and Sorcerers. Although their goal lies to the East and the wastelands of the Lonely Mountain, first they must escape the goblin tunnels, where Bilbo meets the creature that will change his life forever… Gollum. Here, alone with Gollum, on the shores of an underground lake, the unassuming Bilbo Baggins not only discovers depths of guile and courage that surprise even him, he also gains possession of Gollum’s "precious" ring that holds unexpected and useful qualities… A simple, gold ring that is tied to the fate of all Middle-earth in ways Bilbo cannot begin to know.

THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY opens on December 14 in HFR-3D, IMAX HFR-3D, IMAX 3D, RealD 3D and 2D. Yes, you saw that correctly - the movie will be shown in some IMAX theaters in HFR-3D! Here's the list of available theaters.

Hit the jump to listen to the soundtrack and watch the new TV Spot!

*SPOILERS* Check Out The Tracklisting / Scene Sequences For THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY

Hey guys - check out the newly released listing of tracks from Howard Shore's THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY's soundtrack. We have the listings for both the Special Edition discs as well as the Standard Edition.

Keep in mind that the soundtrack listings will give away hints as to the scenes in chronological order of their happening in THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY, so SPOILER ALERT.

As per normal, Shore's take on the movie sounds gorgeous in the trailers - can't wait to hear more. Look for the soundtracks on December 11th with the movie releasing on December 14th.

THE HOBBIT SPECIAL EDITION TRACKLIST

Hit the jump for more...