![]() The very idea of loquacious dragons invokes memories of old British TV Listerine ads and whimsical Disney films but the scene between Smaug and Bilbo is well-handled. Their verbal jousting – in between moments of fire-breathing – provides the film with its longest sequence in which two characters actually talk together. ![]() Here, his antagonist is Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch), a very well-spoken and conceited dragon whom he encounters deep inside the Lonely Mountain. In the first Hobbit film, he was pitted against Gollum in a battle of wits. He has an everyman quality that the dwarves lack. ![]() The one character here who is given at least some depth and complexity is Bilbo, for whom the journey here is a rite of passage. It starts confusingly, ends abruptly and doesn’t even begin to tidy up all its own loose ends but Smaug still has enough spectacle, sleight-of-hand, action and lyricism to enrapture most viewers. For all its use of 3D and digital technology, this is an old-fashioned romp at heart – a piece of pure cinematic escapism. Jackson gives us rousing, matinee-style action, which rekindles memories both of old Ray Harryhausen creature-driven fantasies and of Douglas Fairbanks swashbucklers. Nonetheless, what makes it palatable is the relish with which it is served up. With more than a dozen principal characters and a stringy plot that pulls in all sorts of different directions at once, Smaug is sometimes very gristly fare, indeed. It is every bit as difficult to digest as its predecessor. ![]() ![]() The Desolation of Smaug is the meat in the Hobbit sandwich – the middle part in Peter Jackson’s gargantuan, three-film adaptation of J R R Tolkien’s slender novel. ![]()
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