In the second part of THE HOBBIT film trilogy
(continuing
from Part 1: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY), the company of 13 dwarves, Bilbo Baggins
(the Hobbit), and wizard Gandalf journey into the Elfish forest known as
Mirkwood and reach Erebor to have Bilbo steal the Arkenstone. In THE DESOLATION
OF SMAUG, they may face
more challenges as they encounter elves who want nothing to do with the outside
world as the forces of Sauron grow and Gandalf may have to take a journey to
Dol Goldour to find out about the mysterious Necromancer. Meanwhile, Legolas
(along with Elf warrior
woman crush Tauriel) becomes involved in the fights against the Orcs who are
hunting the dwarves. Also Smaug makes
himself known as the universe of THE HOBBIT continues to develop in the second
film which is an improvement over the first one.
THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG is the middle segment
of THE HOBBIT
trilogy directed by Peter Jackson which adds a few things to the story not in
the novel like Legolas and Tauriel (a character created for the movie) as they
work to connect these films to THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy. The New
Zealand countryside continues to be awe
inspiring and the production design is top notch from the Elfish kingdom
of Mirkwood to Laketown to the
vaults of Erebor. The only downsides
with THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG are the cliffhangers which the film ends on (and
waiting for another year to resolve everything) and the battles on the river
with CGI Orcs and Elves (which are painfully
obvious when they switch between real to CGI
during that sequence). Smaug is an
impressive digital creation with a deep menacing voice performance form
Benedict Cumberbatch.
The second installment isn’t as padded
as AN UNEXPECTED
JOURNEY and it really flows as it introduces more characters and moves the
story along. I expected the second part
to end somewhere later and not with the mother of cliffhangers. Before this
movie, Peter Jackson usually
didn’t leave THE LORD OF THE RINGS films and AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY on big
cliffhangers. He usually left it at a
place where the current threads are wrapped up (like the Fellowship breaking up
at the first LOTR, the siege of HELMS DEEP ending in THE TOWERS, and the
company of dwarves seeing Erebor in the far distance at the end of AN
UNEXPECTED JOURNEY).
The Extended Edition adds 25 minutes of new and
extended
scenes. They do add more depth to the
movie and additional character development
SPECIAL FEATURES:
DISC 1-
Audio Commentary for the extended edition with
Peter Jackson
and Philippa Boyens
NEW
ZEALAND: HOME OF MIDDLE EARTH- PART 2-
DISC 2-
THE APPENDICES PART 9: INTO THE WILDERLAND: THE
CHRONICLES
OF THE HOBBIT- PART 2 (5:00:26)- it
is an extensive behind-the-scenes documentary of the second part of THE HOBBIT
film trilogy
OPENING/ A WARM WELCOME/ A BUSINESS OF STATE/
SHELTER ON THE
LONG LAKE/ IN THE HALLS OF ELEVEN KING (the
highlight are a couple of unfinished deleted scenes)/ FLIES & SPIDERS/
QUEER LODGINGS/ ON THE DOORSTEP/ INSIDE INFORMATION/ DOWN THE SWIFT DARK
STREAM…/ BARRELS OUT OF BOND/ A CHANCE MEETING (additional filming/ pick-ups)/
EREBOR REKINDLED (Focusing on making an ending and climax for the second film)/
…INTO THE FIRE (a preview of THE BATTLE OF FIVE
ARMIES)
DISC 3-
THE APPENDCIES PART 10: THE JOURNEY TO EREBOR
(5:05:51)-
SUMMONG SMAUG: LAST OF THE FIRE
DRAKES (1:16:31)-
THE LAST AND FIRST DRAGON
(26:36)- look at how many versions they went through to develop the look for
Smaug where conceptual artist John Howe saves the day
CONVERSATIONS WITH SMAUG (24:50)- a look at the
mo-cap and
voice performance of Benedict Cumberbatch
INTO THE DRAGON’S LAIR (25:36)- working
under the gun to
finish the final shots of Smaug while doing pick-up voice performance from Mr.
Cumberbatch
THE PEOPLE AND DENIZENS
OF MIDDLE-EARTH (1:11:48)- a look at
the various new characters of the second film in THE HOBBIT trilogy from
sketches, costume fitting, casting, and more.
BEORN: THE SHAPE-SHIFTER (25:28)
THE SPAWN OF UNGOLIANT (16:49)
THE MEN OF LAKE-TOWN
(30:17)
REALS OF THE THIRD AGE:
FROM BEORN’S HOUSE TO LAKE-TOWN (1:34:07)
BEORN’S HOUSE (26:40)- a look how they
shot the exterior of
the house on location and shot the inside on a
stage
MIRKWOOD FOREST
(17:00)- a look at how they created
the Mirkwood set, the webbing, and digital finished it off
THE WOODLAND REALM (21:05)- a behind-the-scenes
look at all
the sets, partial sets, green screen, and digital set extensions they used to
create this underground woodland realm
LAKE-TOWN (29:55)- a
behind-the-scenes look at how they rebuilt the Lake-Town set inside and on the
studio back lot five times
THE MUSIC OF THE HOBBIT (1:00:54)
OVERTURE: MUSIC OF THE WILDERLAND (21:36)- a look at writing an entire score of new themes
for the second film
1ST MOVEMENT: THE WORLD OF MEN (20:25)- recording the score in New
Zealand
2ND MOVEMENT: IN THE HALLS OF EREBOR (20:25)- breaking down the score in
separate
segments because they didn’t know how long some of the final scenes would be in
the final edit.
Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy
FINAL ANALYSIS:
The
extended edition expands The Desolation of Smaug, but the right treasure for
this second movie in THE HOBBIT trilogy is the extensive ten hours of
behind-the-scenes extras on discs 2 and 3.
This movie review is ©11-16-2014 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted
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