Director: Peter Jackson, Main Cast: Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Orlando Bloom, Evangeline Lilly, Lee Pace, Benedict Cumberbatch
We pick up the story of our brave 13 dwarves plus a hobbit and a wizard exactly where we left a year ago. This time around they meet Beor the skinchanger, evil giant spiders while walking through the Mirkwood, get captured by the elves, arrive by very unusual means at Esgaroth on the Long Lake and finally get to Erebor. Most of the times Bilbo is the one who saves the day while Gandalf has gone south on his own mission against the dark power that is growing in Dol Gurdul a.k.a the Necromancer. In this second installment Peter Jackson takes far more liberties from the original story and there is an excess of orcs and elves for my liking, yeah they look cool when they fight but after a while it gets irksome. I find even more irritating the whole part about Gandalf, it feels kind of deja vu (Isengard, Saruman etc., right?) and too much an add on that has no support from Tolkien, even if we consider the appendix in the Lord of the Rings (White Council and such). Anyway we finally see the dragon and that’s something! The cast does a great job, the costumes, settings and special effects are gorgeous but I’d cut 20-30 minutes of the film and the 3D is completely useless, no point to it. I’d expected better, hopefully next year we get a grand finale. —6/10
Ramblings of a cinephile 