After the dragon Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch) is finally brought down by the brave Bard (Evans), dwarf king Thorin (Armitage) claims his rightful throne atop Smaug's vast pile of gold, which makes him so greedy that he refuses to honour his promise to either Bard's now-homeless humans or the elf leader Thranduil (Pace). So Thorin calls in a dwarf army to protect him against the assembled elf and human forces. Meanwhile, hobbit Bilbo (Freeman) tries to get Thorin to see reason, while Gandalf (McKellen) realises that there's a much bigger threat on the way.

The first half of the film leaps around as people clash and square off for ever-bigger battles while soap opera subplots gurgle underneath. The romantic triangle between elf leader Legolas (Bloom), his intended Tauriel (Lilly) and her dwarf true love Kili (Turner) adds tension and passion. The opportunistic weasel Alfrid (Gage) adds some comic relief, although it's never clear why Bard trusts him so much. And the central push and pull between Bilbo and Thorin is very nicely played by Freeman and Armitage.

These personal side stories are far more engaging that the massive build-up to war, as two armies of orcs and their various monstrous cohorts descend on the mountain to stake their claim. Even as Bennett gives the lead orc Azog some properly angry physicality, orcs never feel very villainous: they're killing machines without any sense of morality. So it's never in doubt who will win the fight, and watching thousands of digitally detailed warriors go at it is only interesting for a few seconds.

Even so, the characters who come to life have a complexity that makes them engaging. So what happens is thrilling, horrifying and sometimes achingly sad. And as Jackson brings the story full-circle, there's a sense of easy satisfaction. And it's intriguing that in the end the hobbit's internal journey is far more compelling than all of the epic-adventure Jackson drafted in from Tolkien's appendices and indices. Which kind of explains why Tolkien left that material where he did.

themes, strong violence

5.Dec.14