Review : The Desolation of Smaug

The Desolation of Smaug 

The second of the Hobbit trilogy, has been regarded by most of the people I know, who have been a long to watch it, as an absolute joy of a film to watch. I would be obliged to agree with my friends on this case as when it comes to talking about The Hobbit in general, I've always believed it to be more enjoyable than all of The Lord of the Rings films put together.

Therefore It gives me great pleasure to talk about The Desolation of Smaug, It is an absolutely joy of a film to watch. For a film to a standard of being just under 3 hours long. This film doesn't muck about or drag out as much as the first one did. True the first one is interesting, but there is a lot of introductions being made which are very time consuming, there is a lot of friendly banter and chatter about the first one which is quite mellow and droll. The second film having got all the introductory stuff out the way, really goes into detail about The Dragon and all that business of the lonely mountain very well.

It goes along very quickly. I just thought to myself as it finished 'gosh, I can't believe I sat through what was nearly 3 hours of film'. quicker than the first film was and there's more grit to this one than there is in the first one and I like that about it a lot. It's more funnier, there were scenes in there that did make me bellow out with laughter.

The visual effects having experienced them in 3D were very captivating. The scenes with the Spiders and the Spider webs inperticular were very graphically detailed to replicate the textures and the overall feel of the place we were supposed to be in. I thought that all of the scenes with the spiders were excellent.

The best of the visual effects was obviously Smaug the dragon. Having been deprived of getting a clear glance of this beast for some time throughout the course of the movie. When we do get to see him and he's talking to Bilbo. It is without doubt so chilling and so mesmerising the effect they managed to achieve, in both the animation of the dragon and what was achieved with having to film around the creature not being there.



Gandalf is left out this one, unfortunately Ian Mckellen gets very little screen time. I suppose if you were to take away all the rest of the film and just count his scenes and all the bits he's in. I'd estimate that Gandalf is only in this film for less than half and hour. At the end we find him stuck in a cage. which is interesting, and begs the question how is he going to get out of it.

Another underused cast member for me was Sylvester McCoy. Good to have him in this film, was anxious that we'd seen the end of him. But no, fortunately I was worrying over nothing and he's back to play Radagast again. Only thing is, he's barley in it and when he is in it he's not doing anything of the up most of interest. It's like he's come along to help Gandalf, he embarks on this journey of certain death with him. Then when it's getting good he told to clear off. Hopefully this means he'll be back for the third one. fingers crossed because I am a big fan of Sylvester McCoy.



The action in this, quite a nit pick for me. I have to say that the action for me was a little to gritty and quick. You got action sequences happening very quickly, almost too quickly to get a clear understanding of whats going on as the camera is all over the place. I would just like people to be aware that some of action in this film is not pleasant to watch, but then why would it be, it's orcs dying. who cares?

The Desolation of Smaug, it's a film for me primarily based on the acting as well as an adhesive cause of visual effects some good, some not so good.

Overall I will say that it is way better than the first film. But there is doubt in my mind for the third and final film. 'There and Back Again'.

9/10

Thank You for reading this review. I hope you found it useful.

NEXT : Anchorman 2 - The Legend Continues.