Peter Jackson, director/producer, continues the Hobbit's saga with Part II. Bilbo, masterly portrayed by Martin Freeman, and Co. reach their goal of arriving to the Lonely Mountain where they must confront the dragon Smaug.
Jackson is a genius but creates substandard second parts to his trilogies. The Hobbit movies are a prequel to J.R.R. Tolkien's epic work the Lord of the Rings, also an MGM franchise. In this Part II, our hero, Bilbo the Hobbit, travels with dwarfs and the wizard Gandalf (Ian Mckellen). They are on a mission to wrest the dwarven kingdom of Erebor from the dragon that vanquished them, who lays resident atop the treasure horde inside the Lonely Mountain. Jackson again does not cease to amaze us by recreating a Middle Earth that nobody else dared even try. The creatures, worlds, and characters from the books are pure Tolkien--I've read each one.
What Jackson lacks is continuity. I cannot believe that he leaves us hanging at the end by not revealing Smaug's fate until Part III! Peter spent too much screen time fighting the dragon, making Smaug less ferocious. Jackson finally introduced some of Tolkien's excellent prose in Part 1: An Unexpected Journey, just to shut it out again. The evil Necromancer, aka Sauron, looks like a Harry Potter smoky devil. He copied enough parts in The Lord of the Rings movies from the animated films, like cloning Elrond the half elf in Hugo Weaving--only I could notice that.
I lay this on the Winning15 yd Line. Jackson still thrills us with great acting choices like the Master of Laketown (Stephen Fry), Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly), and transcending CGI characters.
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