THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG – Peter Jackson

With the change of Winter here and finally leaving us and summer is so close we can smell those BBQ’s cooking and feel that summertime heat almost here, so does the changing of movies in theaters and on DVD. April is the turning point, the Summer Blockbusters aren’t quite here yet (that officially begins 1st of May traditionally) and April wraps up the last of the previous years releases.

This weeks big DVD release is the last of the big blockbusters of 2013, The hobbit: the desolation of Smaug. This is the second film in the “prequel” trilogy to the the Lord of the Rings franchise.

This latest adventure in the world of Middle Earth takes place right where we left off from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey from 2012. Bilbo Baggins, Thorin and his band of Dwarves, and the Wizard Gandalf are all back and on their mission to retrieve the Arkenstone at Lonely Mountain from the dragon, Smaug and reclaim their homeland the Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor. Along the way, they are pursuited by the evil Azog and Bolg, they seek help from skin-changer Beorn, meet Thranduil Elvenking, and fight off very large and deadly spiders. Their adventure takes them all over Middle Earth from Mirkwood Forest to Lake Town to Lonely Mountain where their search for the Secret Door to retrieve the Arkenstone and do battle with Smaug himself alone while Gandalf is at the evil ruins of Dol Guldur! To find out how this second adventure ends, I recommend The hobbit: the desolation of Smaug.

Once again this second installment to the Lord of the Rings franchise is directed beautifully by Peter Jackson. His on-location filming in New Zealand is amazing and even tho there is a lot of CGI effects, he still makes everything from the characters to the different lands all look so beautiful and detailed. All the original cast is back like Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Aidan Turner, and Orlando Bloom just to name a few. I enjoyed this installment and look forward to the final piece to this franchise, The Hobbit: There and Back Again which comes out December 2014.