Starring: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Benedict Cumberbatch, Luke Evans, Orlando Bloom, Evangeline Lilly, Lee Pace, Cate Blanchett, Stephen Fry, Ken Stott, Graham McTavish, William Kircher, James Nesbitt, Stephen Hunter, Dean O'Gorman, Aiden Turner, John Callen, Peter Hambleton, Jed Brophy, Mark Hadlow, Adam Brown
Certificate: 12
Genre: Fantasy
Awards: None
So it's chapter two in The Hobbit trilogy and Blibo Gandalph and the dwarves still have to make it to the lonely mountains. This time the big bad villain spot is not Gollum, it is the terrifying Dragon Smaug (motion-capped by the brilliant Benedict Cumberbatch). Smaug is everything we have been waiting for and more. The immense size of him is stunning, but his best feature would have to be his voice. This villain is clever and calculating, and that is what makes him the most formidable foe in the film.
The other villains are all given bits to do. Gandalf (McKellen) has to sort out the necromancer (also Cumberbatch) while many Orc captains try and catch up with the dwarves. Legolas (Bloom) is also back and this time he is not so nice, having not met Gimli or Aragorn yet, but the nastiest elf award has to go to Lee Pace's Thranduil, Legolas' father and king of the wood elves. He thinks of nothing but himself and has a large dislike for dwarves.
Speaking of dwarves, there are still too many of them for each to be seen as an individual character. Some stand out of course, Balin (Stott), the kindly old one; Killi (Turner) the one who fancies the elf and Thorin (Armitage) the main one who really isn't that nice. The others all blend into one big bundle. I actually only just noticed one dwarf and thought he might have been absent during the first film.
Keeping all these weird and wonderful characters together, Martin Freeman is still absolutely perfect as Bilbo. It may be Thorin's quest, Gandalf's problem or the world at stake but the audience's main worry is Bilbo's safety.
The Desolation Of Smaug feels darker than An Unexpected Journey and the world is starting to resemble that of The Lord Of The Rings. Yet it is still more cartoon-like and I've come to embrace that. It was adapted from a children's book after all.
*****Brilliant
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