Four words: movie of the year. “The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug” definitely overshadowed the first movie and lived up to the original book.

“The Hobbit” was originally a book written by J.R.R. Tolkien and now created into a three-part movie series directed by academy-award winning Peter Jackson, who is a brilliant director. “The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug” continues the story of a wizard, a hobbit, and a band of dwarves led by the dwarven prince, Thorin, to reclaim a lost kingdom taken over by a fierce dragon named Smaug.

As a huge fan of J.R.R. Tolkien’s books and especially “The Hobbit,” one reason I absolutely fell in love with the movie is because the actors executed their roles so well. Orlando Bloom, who plays Legolas, did a much better job performing this character than he did in the ‘Lord of the Rings” trilogy, which has surprised me. Of course, Sir Ian Mckellen hasn’t lost his touch playing the old funny wizard Gandalf.

Action was intense and even if you already read the book, scenes will still make you grip your seat pondering at what is going to happen next. While watching the movie, there’s a lot of background you get that explains some of the things that happen in “The Lord of the Rings.” The movie also takes a mysterious and ominous tone because main character Bilbo Baggins is in possession of the one ring, which is what the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy was based off of, so there’s scenes emphasized with it and it’s pretty cringing.

Personal favorites were any scenes where the characters get chased by some sort of beast, whether it was gigantic wolves, orcs, elves or a giant dragon. Of course, while the dwarves and Bilbo are on an epic quest to seek out their home and face the mighty dragon while Gandalf disappears to go on his own journey. The book had its main story and then there were bigger things going on in Tolkien’s world which made his work so fascinated and interesting and I think the movie covered that exceptionally well.

Probably one of the best things ever is the astounding graphics and animation put into this film. If I ever saw a dragon in real life, I’d know what one would look like, thanks to this movie. In fact, I bet the dragon, which was briefly shown in the trailers, is what caused so much hype for this movie. Don’t worry, whatever you saw in the trailer is 100 times better in the movie.

Sadly, the running time of this movie is 161 minutes and it’s not that long, for I could watch 500 minutes of content from this movie, and the way it ended will make anyone angered because you’ll want to see more. This movie is for anyone; and if you’ve seen “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, you’ve got to see this movie for it will drive you crazy.

by KALEEN SINGH