Ok, yes, it's totally because of the elves. And that badass barrel sequence with the dwarves and the orcs and the elves. Between Orlando Bloom, Lee Pace, Luke Evans, and Evangeline Lilly's cheekbones, this movie had enough sharpness to cut diamonds. I also finally noticed Stephen Colbert's cameo in Laketown this time.
Originally posted 23 Dec 13. Nominated for: Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Visual Effects
There was a lot going on in this movie. There were dwarves and elves and orcs and giant spiders, a room full of gold, iron arrows, and Stephen Fry. No wonder they needed two and a half hours.Bilbo (Martin Freeman), Gandalf (Ian McKellan) and the dwarves are still trying to get to the Lonely Mountain. The secret door will only be revealed on the last day of autumn so they have to hustle. They are on the run from a pack of orcs and decide to cross through the Mirkwood Forest. Gandalf suddenly remembers some urgent business he has to take care of with Radegast (Sylvester McCoy) and trusts the rest to stay on the Elf Road, the only safe path through the woods. Unfortunately, the landscapers have not been by recently and the dwarves wander into the webs of giant spiders. Bilbo uses the handy-dandy gold ring he found in the goblin tunnels to turn invisible and save the others. Then the elves show up, led by Legolas (Orlando Bloom) who hates dwarves, and Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) who might make an exception for Kili (Aiden Turner). After all, he is tall for a dwarf. Legolas' father, Thranduil (Lee Pace /dreamy sigh) is willing to make a deal with Thorin (Richard Armitage) for the elves' assistance in return for a cut of the dragon's treasure but Thorin is still mad Thranduil turned his back when they asked for help years ago and says no. Bilbo breaks them out of elf prison in barrels and they sail down to the human settlement of Laketown.
With me so far? Ok.
Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans) thinks helping the dwarves will only bring down destruction upon their city, but the Master of Laketown (Stephen Fry) can't see past the dollar signs (or whatever the hell currency Middle Earth uses) when Thorin offers to make their town a trading center again. This is where the party starts to break up, however, as Kili took a poisoned arrow to the leg during their escape and can't go on. Three of the other dwarves stay behind to look after him. The rest head up to the mountain. Bilbo discovers that trying to walk across a sea of gold coins quietly is damn near impossible, even if you are invisible, which doesn't mean as much to a creature that uses its nose as much as it uses its eyes, like a dragon. Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch) is less than enthused that there is a hairy-footed thief running around his bed, even if he is impeccably mannered.
For a middle entry, it's solid. It may have even been better than the first film. It ends quite abruptly in order to have something left for the third movie, but as long as you're expecting it it's not too jarring. There are still too many dwarves to keep up with, although I rather liked Aiden Turner getting more of a part this time around. Plus, any scene with Orlando Bloom or Lee Pace is automatically going to be a winner. When they had one together I nearly swooned out of my chair. I just want to braid their hair. Is that weird? I want to say that's weird.
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