I am on record as being rather ambivalent about the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy that Peter Jackson fashioned a decade ago.  They are certainly well made movies, but I cannot connect with them in any meaningful way.  Middle Earth fantasy is just not my cup of tea.  Now he’s doing the same kind of thing with J. R. R. Tolkien’s introductory novel, The Hobbit, breaking up the book into three separate movies. While that doesn’t excite me, I must admit that I am enjoying this trilogy more than the earlier one.

The Desolation of Smaug brings Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) and his pals to a dark mountain where they face a dragon with a creepy name (really, who would name a dragon Smaug?).  Lots of other stuff happens, too, with a highlight being the barrel sequence that allows the dwarfs to escape from both the elves and the Orcs. Then, as the story ascends to a pinnacle of suspense with Smaug on the offensive, the screen goes black and we must wait another year for the conclusion.

This reminds me of The Empire Strikes Back, which followed the remarkably fun first Star Wars movie (now known as A New Hope), built upon its characters and themes and left us all hanging after two hours of movie magic.  I loved Empire — I believe it to be the best of the series — and was thrilled with how it finished leaving everyone wanting more.  The Desolation of Smaug follows the same path and finishes the same way, at just the right moment.

It is probably true that these Hobbit adventures are not as good as the earlier trilogy. They aren’t as complex, dense, action-packed or cryptic.  Yet I like them more; the characters are more accessible, the pace isn’t as strained and there seems to be much more humor.  I like this one a great deal and I’m genuinely looking forward to the third and final installment.  ☆ ☆ ☆.  31 December 2013.