The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

The second film of the trilogy. The company is on the road. To reach the mountain they must first cross a forest and then a town on a lake. They lose their way in the forest. There are spiders, and Bilbo uses the ring seriously for the first time. Elves catch them and lock them up. Bilbo makes an escape plan and the company goes down the river in barrels. That section is the best constructed sequence in the film. Barrels, current, arrows and a fight all advance at once. A smuggler helps them at the lake town. Bard has a past of his own and an account to settle with the dragon. From there the film enters the mountain. Bilbo is sent in alone and Smaug wakes inside the heap of gold. The conversation is the centre of the film. The dragon speaks without being seen, then emerges slowly, and Bilbo is both frightened and stalling. What the narrative is interested in is not treasure but a sickness: how gold changes people and dwarves is repeated throughout and becomes visible in Thorin. Smaug was produced from an actor's voice and movement capture; the performance was recorded in a studio and the whole tone of the character comes from it. Tauriel is not in the book. She was written for the film, and the love line added around her became one of the series' most criticised decisions. The film cuts off in the middle and continues in the next one. Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Evangeline Lilly, Orlando Bloom, Luke Evans and Benedict Cumberbatch are in the cast. Peter Jackson directed. Who it is for: anyone watching the trilogy; this is its fastest film. Who it is not for: anyone expecting the book; the added lines are not in the text and the ending is left completely open.