free instals The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

When Jackson announced he was going to adapt Tolkien’s 300-page novel into three films instead of the originally announced two, fans grumbled about studio greed and artistic indulgence. The same cannot be said for the bulk of Smaug, a bloated, dawdling and distended adventure that throws in so many extraneous characters and subplots, the eponymous hero - Bilbo Baggins - is edged off the screen for large chunks of time. It’s a showstopper.īut another part of what makes the sequence so memorable is that it also advances the story: It matters. The action is sprawling and comes at you from all angles - there’s so much happening, your eyes don’t know where to look - and director Peter Jackson throws in some terrific slapstick as a bonus, leavening the furious excitement with laughs.

The setpiece is as fun and rousing as anything in Steven Spielberg’s canon. There is one thrilling, rib-tickling sequence in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug: A group of dwarves, riding inside empty wine barrels over rushing rapids and waterfalls, fends off an attack by an army of orcs with the help of bow-and-arrow-wielding elves.

Free instals The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug