We knew that with the premiere of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug last week that the first official reviews were just around the corner. Well, they’re now officially in, and the verdict is…
According to Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, this installment is a vast improvement from the last time. This is a welcome relief to many of us geeks, because many found the first installment of the Hobbit an endurance test to get through. At the same time, we can’t forget that the first Lord of the Rings movie had to introduce a lot of characters as well as set up the whole story. Once that was out of the way, it was right into the action with The Two Towers.
It was also great to see the Lord of the Rings movies getting better with every installment, and we’re hoping this will be the case with The Hobbit films as well. We’re hoping these reviews will be a good indication of this, because Variety writes that “after a bumpy beginning with An Unexpected Journey, Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy finds its footing in this much more exciting and purposeful second chapter…the saga gets fully under way at last.”
The Hollywood Reporter feels that “nearly everything about The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug represents an improvement over the first installment. “ And again, much like the first movie to the second, the Reporter tells us, “Jackson gets the drama in gear here from the outset with a sense of storytelling that possesses palpable energy and purpose.”
The Guardian also weighed in with a similar rave, reporting that Jackson has “picked up the pace…This second episode commences with a narrative whipcrack – and then we’re off, at a tremendous gallop.” Citing an old summer camp song, The Wrap also headlined their review, “Peter Jackson’s second verse is better than the first.”
