The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is a 2013 epic high-fantasy adventure film directed by Peter Jackson and produced by WingNut Films in collaboration with New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures and is the second installment in the three-part film series based on the novel The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. The film was preceded by An Unexpected Journey (2012) and followed by The Battle of the Five Armies (2014); together they operate as a prequel to Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

Plot
Thorin and his company are being pursued by Azog and his Orc party following the events of the previous film. They are ushered along by Gandalf to the nearby home of Beorn, a skin-changer who can take the form of the bear. That night, Azog is summoned to Dol Guldur by the Necromancer, who commands him to marshal his forces for war, so Azog delegates the hunt for Thorin to his son Bolg. The following day, Beorn escorts the company to the borders of Mirkwood, where Gandalf discovers Black Speech imprinted on an old ruin. Heeding a promise he made to Galadriel, he warns the company to remain on the path and leaves to investigate the tombs of the Nazgûl. Upon entering the forest, the dwarfs lose their way and are ensnared by giant spiders. Bilbo sets about freeing them with the help of his recently acquired invisibility ring. He subsequently drops the ring and first begins to understand its dark influence after he brutally kills a creature to retrieve it...

Why It Rocks

 * 1) It still retains the charm of the first film, and it was considered to be a slight improvement over the first film.
 * 2) Bilbo is still a likable protagonist.
 * 3) The new villains like the Necromancer and Smaug are good, what's more, Smaug gets a much bigger and better role than in the novel, yet it still stays true to the original. Smaug is also an utterly terrifying and badass villain as well.
 * 4) Like the first film, the action sequences are still fun to watch.
 * 5) "Truly, tales and songs fall utterly short of your enormity, O Smaug the Stupendous..."
 * 6) The scene where Bilbo and his company escapes and goes onto wine barrels into a sliding river while a group of orcs fights off with Tauriel and Legolas is very fun to watch.
 * 7) The secondary characters are likable like Gandalf.
 * 8) Fantastic visual effects, with Smaug sticking out very well as he looks amazing. The spiders look great and genuinely quite creepy too.
 * 9) Much like the first film, the musical score is amazing by Howard Shore.
 * 10) Aside with Martin Freeman's performance, the cast still gives a great performance like the previous film. Benedict Cumberbatch also steals the show as his performance as Smaug, as he does an amazing job at making him sound terrifying.
 * 11) The ending make an interesting teased the third film, with Bilbo saying "What have we done?"
 * 12) "I am fire, I am DEATH!
 * 13) When Peter Jackson directed The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, he interpreted "the Eye of Sauron" as a literal giant, fiery, evil eye while the phrase was meant to be more metaphorical, and this change was met with derision by some fans. This film implies that the flaming eye in the previous films was not actually a literal eye, but rather the humanoid silhouette of Sauron, Wreathed in Flames to give the appearance of a giant eye.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The Lake-Town peoples and Alfrid are unlikable villains.
 * 2) The humor is hit-or-missed once again.
 * 3) Legolas and Tauriel never appeared in the book, so why did they added them in the movie? Although it was revealed that it was added in order to expand the world of the elves of Mirkwood Forest, and to bring another woman to the cast, which is otherwise dominated by men.
 * 4) *On top of that, Legolas can be really unlikable here in this movie.
 * 5) *Speaking of Tauriel, she is a very bland and poorly established character, which leads to parodied in the song and video "Who the 'Ell Is Tauriel?" by The Esgaroth Three.
 * 6) King Thranduil can be unlikable.
 * 7) The scene where Bilbo kills a baby spider over the One Ring may be unsettling to viewers.

Reception
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug received mostly positive reviews from critics, audiences and fans of the book, receiving praise for its performances, musical score, action sequences, production values, and visual effects. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 74% approval rating with an average rating of 6.80/10 based on 250 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "While still slightly hamstrung by "middle chapter" narrative problems and its formidable length, The Desolation of Smaug represents a more confident, exciting second chapter for the Hobbit series.". On aggregate review site Metacritic, the film has a score of 66 out of 100 based on 44 reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. According to CinemaScore polls the film received an "A-" from audiences.

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Trivia

 * Actress Evangeline Lilly, who plays Tauriel, had been a fan of Tolkien since she was 13.