THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG
Director: Peter Jackson
Cert: 12A. Running time: 161 minutes
In contrast to the first part of Tolkein’s story, the second instalment The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug concerns itself with the connection between greed, obsession, decay and darkness.
The film recognises evil in the human heart, and so the epic battles are not only between armies, but within the characters themselves. It also raises the question of whether the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, and ultimately affirms the value of the individual. At one point, Gandalf (Ian McKellen) says of the shapeshifter Beorn: ‘The only enchantment he is under is his own’.
