Peter Jackson's overdrawn saga of
J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit continues in the ongoing trilogy's
second episode, subtitled The Desolation of Smaug, which as it
turns out, is not about bringing an end to air pollution in
Middle Earth (I shudder imagine the size of Mt. Doom's carbon
footprint). Smaug, of course, is the vain and ferocious dragon
(voiced and mo-capped here by Benedict Cumberbatch) who has hoarded
generations worth of stolen dwarf gold in the stony mountain keep of
Erebor; the ancient kingdom which you'll recall young Bilbo Baggins
(Martin Freeman) and our intrepid band of heroes set out on an
unexpected journey to recapture in last year's first installment.
The stakes heighten in this chapter, as
Bilbo & Co., now well beyond the point of no return, draw ever
closer to the villainous fire-breathing reptile, encountering all
manner of other threats along the way. These include the usual orcs
and wargs, but also a bearlike skin-changer, giant spiders (been
there, done that), a menacing Necromancer, and suspicious wood elves
among whom we meet Lord of the Rings mainstay Legolas.
Shrewdly added to the proceedings after the first film was mildly
criticized for its lopsided lack of female characters – Tolkien's
fault, not the filmmakers' – is the elfin warrior Tauriel
(Evangeline Lilly), an original creation of Jackson and his writing
team intended to shoot a much-needed strong woman's presence into the
testosterone-heavy cast. Unfortunately, she is eventually relegated
to being the fulcrum of a silly romantic subplot.
