LO HOBBIT: LA DESOLAZIONE DI SMAUG: PROSEGUONO LE AVVENTURE DI BILBO BAGGINS, ORA IN VIAGGIO CON IL MAGO GANDALF E I TREDICI NANI, GUIDATI DA THORIN SCUDODIQUERCIA. LI ATTENDE UN'EPICA BATTAGLIA PER LA RICONQUISTA DELLA MONTAGNA SOLITARIA E IL PERDUTO REGNO DEI NANI DI EREBOR

Bilbo, Gandalf e i 12 Nani capitanati da Thorin Scudodiquercia - la Compagnia -, una volta che sono riusciti a sopravvivere all’inizio del loro viaggio inaspettato, continuano ad andare verso Est, persistendo nella battaglia per la riconquista della Montagna Solitaria ed il perduto Regno dei Nani di Erebor. Il viaggio però non sarà privo di pericoli. E mentre Gandalf è costretto a separarsi dalla Compagnia per affrontare prove più importanti da solo, sulla loro strada i Nani incontrano, tra gli altri, Beorn il cambia pelle, uno sciame di Ragni Giganti, padroni assoluti della minacciosa foresta di Bosco Atro, ma anche gli Elfi Silvani di Legolas. Una volta poi che Bilbo e i suoi giungono a Pontelagolungo, eccoli giungere infine alla Montagna Solitaria, dove si troveranno ad affrontare il pericolo più grande: il Drago Smaug, la più terrificante delle creature; una di quelle che non solo metterà a dura prova il

loro coraggio, ma anche i limiti della loro amicizia ed il senso del viaggio stesso. Impaziente a riprendere quel che è suo di diritto, Thorin Scudodiquercia non attende Gandalf e decide così di inviare Bilbo a rubare l'Arkengemma dal drago.

Dopo Lo Hobbit: Un viaggio inatteso, il regista premio Oscar Peter Jackson torna in sala (e verrebbe da dire che Natale sarebbe altrimenti…) stavolta con Lo Hobbit: La Desolazione di Smaug, secondo film della trilogia dall’adattamento del popolare capolavoro di J.R.R. Tolkien, “The Hobbit”, e che sarà poi completato il prossimo anno con l’atto finale de Lo Hobbit: Racconto di un ritorno. Dopo il successo di pubblico (ma le recensioni piuttosto grigie) del precedente capitolo, liberato da una zavorra che aveva costretto il regista a “spiegare” un po’ troppe cose perdendo di fluidità (essendo quello il naturale prequel del Signore degli Anelli, aveva giocoforza dovuto presentare tutti i nuovi personaggi

della Compagnia che si sarebbero messi in cammino verso Erebor), stavolta la musica è decisamente diversa e il cambio di passo - più di ogni cosa - salta subito agli occhi. Il proseguimento delle avventure di Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), in viaggio con Gandalf il Grigio (Ian McKellen) ed i tredici Nani, guidati appunto da Thorin Scudodiquercia (Richard Armitage), che si poggia su una sceneggiatura dello stesso Jackson scritta con Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens e Guillermo del Toro, è infatti una avventura molto più coinvolgente e carica di pathos rispetto al precedente film. E anche se resta il fastidio “visivo” nei suoi primi 15 minuti - effetto diretto questo dei 48 fotogrammi al secondo invece dei tradizionali 24, soluzione scelta dal regista per la maggiore qualità dell'immagine e che ad una prima impressione fa sembrare lo schermo cinematografico un enorme schermo televisivo, con un iperrealismo alquanto straniante e che crea

agli occhi, come accennato, un effetto quasi disturbante -, passata la prima reazione, ci si rende conto invece che l’effetto è causato dalla fluidità per un sovrannumero di fotogrammi. È, in sintesi, un modo diverso di “leggere” l’immagine. Esattamente come fa Jackson con Tolkien e invece che sfoltire il materiale di partenza lo amplia perfino e gioca al rilancio: dalle scene con il mutapelle Beorn, che diventa uomo o orso a piacimento, passando per il tetro Bosco Atro e i suoi incredibili Ragni Giganti, fino all’arrivo alla Montagna Solitaria, dentro alla quale vive l’abbagliante Drago Smaug, il neozelandese si diverte finanche a fare il regista da soap-opera - torna infatti il mitico elfo biondo Legolas con il volto di Orlando Bloom, affiancato dalla bella Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly), personaggio inventato di sana pianta e che diventerà una conturbante attrattiva perfino per uno dei Nani in un eccesso multirazziale assente in Tolkien

-. Un modo tutto suo di venerare il maestro Tolkien, ma anche di reinventarlo. Jackson ingurgita infatti un capolavoro letterario, lo mastica bene bene e infine lo risputa (un po’ come fa il drago del titolo col fuoco) sotto forma di capolavoro cinematografico. Viene da dire che il vero “viaggio inaspettato” è questo Lo Hobbit: La Desolazione di Smaug, mentre il precedente si era fermato al check-in.

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.

If “An Unexpected Journey” felt like nearly three hours’ worth of throat clearing and beard stroking, the saga gets fully under way at last in “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” the similarly massive but far more purposeful second chapter in Peter Jackson’s latest Tolkien enterprise. Actually shorter than the first film by nine minutes, this robust, action-packed adventure benefits from a headier sense of forward momentum and a steady stream of 3D-enhanced thrills — culminating in a lengthy confrontation with a fire-breathing, scenery-chewing dragon — even as our heroes’ quest splits into three strands that are left dangling in classic middle-film fashion. Jackson’s gargantuan undertaking can still feel like completist overkill at times, but that won’t keep the Middle-earth enthusiasts who pushed the first “Hobbit”

film past the $1 billion mark worldwide from doing the same with this Dec. 13 release, which should see Warners’ and MGM’s coffers overflow like Erebor’s.

Although Jackson’s “Hobbit” pics have maintained an impressive visual continuity with his incomparable “Lord of the Rings” trilogy (technological upgrades like 3D, Imax and high frame rates notwithstanding), the fundamental difference between these two series may be as simple, yet instructive, as the contrasting stories they tell. Whereas the “Rings” movies felt as pure, vital and heroic as the Fellowship’s mission itself, this three-part prequel can’t help but seem like a more mercenary endeavor as it drags out Tolkien’s slender tale of a band of dwarfs seeking to reclaim a lost fortune. Good and evil are still very much at stake, sometimes grippingly so, but even the staunchest Tolkien loyalists may feel they’re on an overly protracted journey to an inevitably less exciting destination.

Still, “The

Desolation of Smaug” reps a major improvement on its predecessor simply by virtue of picking up at a more eventful place in the narrative, and as scripted by the returning team of Jackson, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Guillermo del Toro (who was slated to direct at one point during “The Hobbit’s” troubled production history), the film immediately evinces a livelier pace and a heightened sense of urgency. The writers’ key structural innovation here is to incorporate material from “The Quest of Erebor,” one of Tolkien’s supplemental “Unfinished Tales,” starting with a prologue that flashes back to a secret early meeting between the noble dwarf Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) and the gray wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen). Together these unlikely allies lay out a plan to recover the powerful Arkenstone and reclaim the dwarfs’ underground kingdom from the clutches of the foul dragon Smaug.

Crucial to their success will be the participation

of Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), the mild-mannered but resourceful Hobbit chosen to accompany Gandalf, Thorin and 12 other dwarfs to the Lonely Mountain, as recounted in “An Unexpected Journey.” The story proper resumes with the travelers receiving shelter and supplies from gruff skin-changer Beorn (Mikael Persbrandt) in preparation for their trek through the black forest of Mirkwood. It’s here that Jackson pulls out the first of many stops: When Gandalf departs on a private errand, Bilbo and friends are left to do battle with an army of hideous giant spiders, in a scene so creepily visceral (especially in 3D) that it makes Frodo’s tussle with Shelob in “The Return of the King” look like a romp in the Shire.

The sense of danger rarely flags as the company is rescued and imprisoned by the forces of Thranduil (Lee Pace), haughty king of the Wood-elves and father of a familiar face, the

dashing warrior Legolas (Orlando Bloom, reprising his old role with a more impetuous air but the same deadly aim). Middle-earth purists will find plenty of cause for griping here, not merely because Legolas never appeared in the original novel, but because the screenwriters have taken the further liberty of devising an entirely new character, the elf warrior Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly, almost a dead ringer here for Liv Tyler’s Arwen), as a tentative love interest for Kili (Aidan Turner), probably the tallest and most handsome dwarf in Thorin’s party. The problem isn’t that Jackson has dared to tamper with Tolkien’s sacred text, but rather that he has done so to relatively minor effect; although these character additions are meant to up the dramatic stakes and foster a sense of continuity with the “Rings” movies, the emotional gains are minimal.

In pure action terms, the picture’s indisputable high point arrives when Bilbo leads

the dwarfs on a daring escape from Mirkwood, floating downriver in barrels while fending off some particularly vicious orcs; it may be a Roaring Rapids-style theme-park ride in the making, but the sequence is thrillingly sustained, orchestrated with a giddy B-movie exuberance that feels like vintage Jackson. From there, things settle down somewhat as the travelers, aided by a wily bargeman (Luke Evans), smuggle themselves into Laketown, a strikingly designed waterfront village that suggests an old English variation on Venice. Overseen by a drunken, venal master (an unkempt Stephen Fry), this once-thriving center of commerce has fallen on hard times since Smaug took over the nearby Lonely Mountain, although the depressed villagers retain their hope in an old prophecy foretelling the dragon’s demise.

At a certain point, “The Desolation of Smaug” becomes a veritable treatise on the different geopolitical factions of Middle-earth: the elves with their hostile, isolationist stance; the humans

of Laketown with their desire for prosperity, democracy and ethical governance; and the dwarfs with their yearning for a once-glorious ancestral homeland. It’s weighty, not especially stirring stuff, but necessary insofar as it foreshadows the showdown to come in next year’s “The Hobbit: There and Back Again”; in similar fashion, Gandalf’s secret mission, adapted here from “The Quest for Erebor,” plays a crucial role in anticipating the events of “The Lord of the Rings.”

But the strongest point of connection between this adventure and those yet to come is the Hobbit himself, specifically his growing fascination with the mysterious artifact he acquired in “An Unexpected Journey.” Even at this early stage, the ring’s insidious pull is unmistakable, and Freeman allows a few dark shadings to creep into his otherwise charming embodiment of Bilbo Baggins, whose gradual transformation from reluctant tag-along into stealthy and reliable asset helps sustain viewer engagement through the

picture’s occasional laborious stretches. The journey builds to a suspenseful peak as Bilbo finds himself eye-to-eye with the imposing Smaug himself (voiced in seething, unctuous tones by Benedict Cumberbatch), even if their drawn-out confrontation and the dragon’s endless monologues dissipate the tension somewhat en route to the cliffhanger ending.

As ever, in terms of logistical mastery and marshaling of resources in service of a grandly involving bigscreen entertainment, one couldn’t ask for a better ringmaster (so to speak) than Jackson. There’s an unmistakable pleasure in being transported back to his Middle-earth, in being cushioned by the lush strains of Howard Shore’s score and dazzled by the elaborately detailed sets created by production designer Dan Hennah and his team, seamlessly integrating Weta’s topnotch visual effects. Although Andy Serkis’ inimitable computer-aided performance as Gollum goes missing this time around, the actor once again serves as second unit director, as he does on the

other two “Hobbit” films as well.

The New Zealand landscapes look as majestic as ever in Andrew Lesnie’s richly textured lensing, which retains all its dreamlike luster in the standard 24-frames-per-second version screened for review. It’s hard to imagine the 48fps version, which drained so much of the magic from “An Unexpected Journey,” doing much to enhance the experience here, especially given the marvelous tactility of the imagery, from the layers of gossamer webs in the spider-attack sequence to the mountains of gold shifting beneath Bilbo’s feet in the Erebor sequence. In these scenes, the immersive, eye-tickling quality of the 3D is especially apparent, though there are also a few in-your-face sight gags — an arrow flying through the screen, a bumblebee hovering close enough to swat away — that exemplify this particular trilogy’s rough-and-tumble spirit.