{"id":2717,"date":"2013-12-11T18:01:01","date_gmt":"2013-12-12T02:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qgp.ykq.mybluehost.me\/cinephiled\/?p=2717"},"modified":"2013-12-11T18:07:03","modified_gmt":"2013-12-12T02:07:03","slug":"desolation-smaug-ups-action-humor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/desolation-smaug-ups-action-humor\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: &#8216;Desolation of Smaug&#8217; Ups the Action, Humor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When it comes to Peter Jackson, there\u2019s probably one thing on which we can all agree: The dude loves him some J.R.R. Tolkien.<\/p>\n<p>The New Zealand director\u2019s filmic adaptations of Tolkien\u2019s <i>The Lord of the Rings<\/i> trilogy were either too faithful or they weren\u2019t faithful enough, depending on your own love of\/perspective on Tolkien. But no one could say he didn\u2019t put his heart and soul into those productions.<\/p>\n<p>His equally ambitious, three-part cinematic take of Tolkien\u2019s single-volume <i>The Hobbit, <\/i>have the same share of highlights and problems<i>. <\/i>For better or worse, the first film in the latter trilogy, <i>An Unexpected Journey, <\/i>strayed dangerously close to becoming the movie that was skewered by the Kevin Smith-written characters in <i>Clerks 2<\/i>: There was a <i>lot<\/i> of walking. So much of it, in fact, that the naysaying complaints about material \u201cpadding\u201d \u2013 to facilitate three movies \u2013 seemed perfectly valid.<\/p>\n<p>Luckily, the second part, <i>The Desolation of Smaug <\/i>is a considerable improvement on its predecessor. Oh, there are still a lot of scenes featuring characters walking. But they seem briefer and more relevant to the action, and the bits of necessary humor are not so dopey, juvenile and lowbrow (the flatulence and other bodily secretion humor in the first Hobbit was a low point for the Jackson-Tolkien adaptations to date).<\/p>\n<p>Better yet, there seems to be more action this time around. It\u2019s much more thrilling and is, again, pertinent, necessary action. And the character moments just work better in this installment. It\u2019s almost as if Jackson and his talented cast shook off the first film\u2019s dusty, crusty layer and got down to business. (The three films were actually shot consecutively, so it only <i>seems<\/i> that way.)<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/The-Hobbit-Desolation-of-Smaug-gold-pile-620x400.jpg\" rel=\"lightbox[2717]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2718 aligncenter\" alt=\"The-Hobbit-Desolation-of-Smaug-gold-pile-620x400\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/The-Hobbit-Desolation-of-Smaug-gold-pile-620x400-512x330.jpg\" width=\"512\" height=\"330\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/The-Hobbit-Desolation-of-Smaug-gold-pile-620x400-512x330.jpg 512w, https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/The-Hobbit-Desolation-of-Smaug-gold-pile-620x400.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><i>The Desolation of Smaug <\/i>certainly doesn\u2019t waste much time getting back into the action \u2013 well, it does after a quick, bread-breaking flashback sequence that features the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and would-be Dwarf king Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), and fills newcomers in on what they need to know about the story so far.<\/p>\n<p>Thorin and his party of fellow Dwarves are hoping to make their way to the Lonely Mountain, to reclaim Thorin\u2019s throne and reunite their scattered people. But the path is perilous. While they\u2019ve survived an attack by orcs in the Misty Mountains, those threats (and others) are tracking them through Mirkwood Forest.<\/p>\n<p>Things look even more imposing once they actually get to the Lonely Mountain (if they even do). The fierce dragon Smaug (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) lies in wait, protecting his ill-gotten treasure. But Thorin and Co. have one secret weapon: the title character, Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), whom they believe will be able to burgle his way into the Secret Door, into Smaug\u2019s lair.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Gandalf, has sensed there are dark forces building, and has left our heroes on their own, so he can confront this additional threat head-on.<\/p>\n<p>As he did with the <i>Rings <\/i>cast, Jackson has to juggle a huge ensemble. But he does manage to give most of his cast their time and even shines a spotlight on a couple of breakout (or even returning) characters. Evangeline Lilly (TV\u2019s <i>Lost<\/i>) kicks a surprising amount of butt in her supporting performance as an elf warrior, while Orlando Bloom seems to be enjoying himself more than usual, reprising his role as Legolas.<\/p>\n<p>(Lilly\u2019s Tauriel just might be <i>the <\/i>female cosplay costume for next year, while males can try their hand at Legolas\u2026 or the less-fit ones can settle for being Freeman\u2019s slightly less heroic Bilbo.)<\/p>\n<p>Both Lilly and Bloom are front-and-center for the film\u2019s best action sequence, one in which they take on an orc army, chasing them across rocks, rivers and a forest, as well as over the tops of some Dwarf heads. Though even this pales in comparison to the highly anticipated, very tense and intense Bilbo-Smaug confrontation. (Cumberbatch appears to be echoing the late George Sanders; his Smaug has the same intonation and menace of Sanders\u2019 Shere Khan, from Disney\u2019s <i>The Jungle Book<\/i>.)<\/p>\n<p>And yes, the film does leave off on a cliffhanger note, to make us anticipate next year\u2019s third in the trilogy (<i>There and Back Again) <\/i>even more. But it feels less like a cheat than a similar scenes did in the recent <i>Hunger Games <\/i>sequel, and more like the still-delightfully soul-crushing one in <i>Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>Jeff Michael Vice can also be heard reviewing films, television programs, comics, books, music and other things as part of The Geek Show Podcast (<\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thegeekshowpodcast.com\/\"><i>www.thegeekshowpodcast.com<\/i><\/a><i>), and can be seen reviewing films as part of Xfinity\u2019s Big Movie Mouth-Off (<\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BigMovieMouthOff\"><i>www.facebook.com\/BigMovieMouthOff<\/i><\/a><i>).<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When it comes to Peter Jackson, there\u2019s probably one thing on which we can all agree: The dude loves him some J.R.R. Tolkien. The New Zealand director\u2019s filmic adaptations of Tolkien\u2019s The Lord of the Rings trilogy were either too faithful or they weren\u2019t faithful enough, depending on your own love of\/perspective on Tolkien. But [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":2815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16,99],"tags":[31,594,749,751,328,270,750],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Review: &#039;Desolation of Smaug&#039; Ups the Action, Humor - Cinephiled<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/desolation-smaug-ups-action-humor\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Review: &#039;Desolation of Smaug&#039; Ups the Action, Humor - Cinephiled\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When it comes to Peter Jackson, there\u2019s probably one thing on which we can all agree: The dude loves him some J.R.R. Tolkien. The New Zealand director\u2019s filmic adaptations of Tolkien\u2019s The Lord of the Rings trilogy were either too faithful or they weren\u2019t faithful enough, depending on your own love of\/perspective on Tolkien. But [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/desolation-smaug-ups-action-humor\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cinephiled\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cinephiled\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BigMovieMouthOff\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-12-12T02:01:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-12-12T02:07:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/The-Hobbit-Desolation-of-Smaug.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeff Michael Vice\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@JeffMichaelVice\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Cinephiled\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeff Michael Vice\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/desolation-smaug-ups-action-humor\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/desolation-smaug-ups-action-humor\/\",\"name\":\"Review: 'Desolation of Smaug' Ups the Action, Humor - Cinephiled\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/desolation-smaug-ups-action-humor\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/desolation-smaug-ups-action-humor\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/The-Hobbit-Desolation-of-Smaug.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-12-12T02:01:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-12-12T02:07:03+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4a40f2c344ca429bd78eb836b98847bf\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/desolation-smaug-ups-action-humor\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/desolation-smaug-ups-action-humor\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/desolation-smaug-ups-action-humor\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/The-Hobbit-Desolation-of-Smaug.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/The-Hobbit-Desolation-of-Smaug.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":500,\"caption\":\"The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/desolation-smaug-ups-action-humor\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Review: &#8216;Desolation of Smaug&#8217; Ups the Action, Humor\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/\",\"name\":\"Cinephiled\",\"description\":\"Movie Reviews, Interviews and Analysis for Film Lovers\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4a40f2c344ca429bd78eb836b98847bf\",\"name\":\"Jeff Michael Vice\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/df298a98bd693bea56d0730dd55517bc?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/df298a98bd693bea56d0730dd55517bc?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"caption\":\"Jeff Michael Vice\"},\"description\":\"Utah-based movie writer and all-around smart aleck Jeff Michael Vice can be read reviewing films, television programs, comics, books, music and other things for the Big Shiny Robot! 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