THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG

The story continues where it left off a year ago in the "An Unexpected Journey". Directed by Peter Jackson, the ending to the trilogy should be shown by end of 2014 to complete J.R.R. Tolkien's novel on the adventures of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins as a prelude to "The Lord of the Rings" novels.

Starring Ian McKellen as the white wizard Gandalf, Martin Freeman as Bilbo, Richard Armitage as the dwarf King Thorin, Orlando Bloom as the Woodland elf Prince Legolas, Evangeline Lilly as the female Woodland elf warrior Tauriel, Luke Evans as Bard the Bowman, Aidan Turner as the dwarf Kili and so on, this is one movie not to be missed if you caught the first installment and crave some a continuation of adventures through the enchanted forests.

There is also the English-speaking dragon Smaug which seemed kind of strange and out of place to me. Well, the story is long so I won't attempt to write about it. One thing to note though was Tauriel's character and the budding romance between her and the elf Kili were never in the books and were created in this story to introduce a female character to the male dominated story.

Bilbo

Thorin

Bard and Legolas

Tauriel

King of wood elves Thranduil

Kili

Smaug the fire breathing dragon

THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY

This is another trilogy that precedes "The Lord of the Rings". Starring Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Cate Blanchett, Andy Serkis etc, it tells the story of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, at a time before chaos and darkness set upon the Middle Earth.

The wizard Gandalf tricked Bilbo to go on an adventurous journey to help a remaining team of thirteen dwarves, who were from a prosperous kingdom of dwarves from the Lonely Mountain until Smaug the dragon stole their treasure and drove them out and indirectly caused the downfall of the kingdom of dwarves after a battle with the Orcs. Along the journey, they encountered stone giants, goblins, elves, Gollum and met the white council comprising Lord Elrond, Galadriel and Saruman.

As expected, Cate Blanchett was so mysteriously and charmingly beautiful as the mightiest and fairest royal elf from Middle Earth. Andy Serkis had a much larger part as the Gollum in this movie, compared to the earlier "Lord of the Rings". I don't know which part of Gollum's face is real and which is fake but I must say Andy Serkis was brilliant as before as the ghoulish and emaciated creature who was once a hobbit until he was corrupted by the infamous ring. In real life, Richard Armitage is not a dwarf but as the courageous King of the dwarves, he has a charismatic and commanding presence.

It was a long draggy movie but in order to watch the entire trilogy, I guess it is essential to endure this unexpectedly arduous journey of ups and downs.