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Movie delves into second section of book

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey made it’s debut December 2012, exciting fans all over the world. While some were disappointed with the movie adaption, still many eagerly awaited to see the second part in the trilogy of films.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug uses the book more as a guideline when it comes to storyline. While it followed the basic plot, many aspects of the story were changed and new characters introduced.

Realizing that the movie is going to be quite different from the book, it’s actually quite enjoyable and arguably better than its first installment.

The movie opens with Thorin (Richard Armitage), the leader of the company journeying to the Lonely Mountain, talking with Gandalf in a inn. It is before Thorin has decided to organize the journey to the mountain, and Gandalf urges him to take a group and reclaim the mountain and his kingdom.

Fast forward to where the first movie left off: Bilbo, the dwarves and Gandalf are blazing a trail forward while trying to avoid the orcs following them, who’s sole mission is to kill them all. Running from the orcs, they find themselves taking shelter in another’s home, Beorn, while planning their next path, planning to journey through the forest of Mirkwood, where unknown dangers and perils await them.

Beorn (Mikael Persbrandt), the skin-changer who can appear as a man or a bear was introduced in the movie. While the way the group met him and came to stay in his home was not the same as their meeting in the book. However, seeing Beorn’s home and design was still fantastic.

While I wish more time was spent in Beorn’s home, his design and home itself were great. The most noticeable thing about Beorn was how they designed his eyes while he was in human form. They are distinctively wild, obviously animal-like, adding to his bear-like design

The Desolation of Smaug revealed another great character: Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch), the dragon in the Lonely Mountain.

Smaug was one of the things I was most excited to see, and I was not disappointed. My mouth fell open in awe upon seeing the dragon. His design is fantastic, with reptilian elements about him, as well as being distinctly like a dragon and being able to show emotions almost like a human could with his expressions.

The movie balances its funny moments with more serious ones, with some un-realistic but hilarious comedy moments, such as some of the barrel scenes as the dwarves and Bilbo’s (Martin Freeman) escape from the Mirkwood elves’ palace.

One thing I appreciated was showing the affect the one ring had on Bilbo which added to the movie. Freeman wonderfully depicted the corruption of the ring and Bilbo’s horror as he realized what the ring is doing to him.

New characters and characters who were not in the book made appearances in the movie as well. Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and a new character, Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly), debued in the film.

Despite not being in the novel, the characters added to the movie and helped along the storyline, since it didn’t follow the book as closely as the first film.

The movie has vast differences from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, with many event changes and added battles. Attending the movie and expecting it to be different and not a carbon copy of the novel made the experience a more gratifying one.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug runs at 161 minutes and is rated PG-13 for extended sequences of intense fantasy action violence, and frightening images.

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For more reviews, read the Dec. 10 article, CMT performs heartwarming ‘Beauty and the Beast’.