The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)

“I am fire… I am death” – Smaug

Number of Times Seen – 1 (31 Dec 2013)

Brief Synopsis – The continuing adventures of Bilbo Baggins and his Dwarf companions in their quest to reclaim their land from the dragon Smaug.

My Take on it – I have been psyched to see this movie for months and am VERY glad I finally got to see it.

What an amazing way to end 2013!!

I love visiting Middle Earth and this new chapter once again shows us the genius of Peter Jackson (and friends) as they reveal to us another chapter in the saga of Bilbo Baggins original journey.

This one doesn’t give us Gollum, but we finally get to meet Smaug and Benedict Cumberbatch does an excellent job doing the movements for the dragon as Andy Serkis did for Gollum,

I still find it hard to keep track of all the individual Dwarves but it was interested that we find out that one of them is Gimli’s father and he actually shows a picture of his son to Legalos foreshadowing their future friendship.

I love when movies find ways to reference other movies and they did it great here.  When the Dwarves reach Lake Town, there are a group of spies at work and they use similar signals to each other as was done in The Great Escape (1963).  The best part about that reference is the fact that the first spy is none other than Stephen Colbert who for years has been alluding to a cameo in Middle Earth since he is a HUGE fan.

This movie is great, but will be much better a year from now when the final chapter is released and then we will be able to see the full vision of Jackson and co. and even better once the extended versions of all 3 are released.

Bottom Line – Excellent movie that is unfortunately still a “work in progress”.  Cant wait to see all 3 movies together to see the complete picture. Highly Recommended!

Rating – Oscar Worthy

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