Best Video

Watch the promising trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

The first Hobbit movie was attacked for its slow pace. This sequel may set things right.

Financially, last year's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was an absolute smash, grossing over a billion dollars at the global box office. But critically, the film was tepidly received, with numerous critics complaining that director Peter Jackson had stretched Tolkien's slim children's novel to the breaking point by spreading it across three movies. When a film's low-budget, 1978 animated version is rated higher than its $200 million-plus blockbuster adaptation, it's clear that something is rotten in the state of Middle-Earth.

With that in mind, it's no great surprise that the new trailer for the second movie in the ongoing Hobbit trilogy serves primarily to show off all the things that separate this sequel from the first Hobbit movie. The sequel may be called The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug, but this trailer features surpassingly little of either the titular hobbit or the titular dragon. Instead, the first part of the trailer highlights the return of our old Elvish buddy Legolas (Orlando Bloom), who has developed an infatuation for his beautiful companion Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) — a character wholly invented for the films. Callbacks to the more acclaimed Lord of the Rings trilogy abound; even Sauron makes a brief appearance.

It's not until the end of the trailer that we see our Hobbit hero Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) and the dragon Smaug (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) go head-to-head. "Thief. Where are you?" growls Smaug as he hunts down Bilbo among his piles of gold. "Come now. Don't be shy. Step into the light."

It's a well-constructed trailer that's sure to excite fans of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but it raises a few questions. How will the new Elvish characters fit into the narrative? How will Peter Jackson tie The Hobbit's narrative into his Lord of the Rings films? And how can they possible milk another movie out of this simple story? We'll find out when The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug hits theaters in December.

Recommended

The buzziest films from Cannes 2023
Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Scorsese, and Lily Gladstone attend the Killers of the Flower Moon premiere at the Cannes Film Festival
Briefing

The buzziest films from Cannes 2023

Jamie Loftus recommends 6 works with creative conceits
Jamie Loftus.
Feature

Jamie Loftus recommends 6 works with creative conceits

The daily gossip: May 26, 2023
Keanu Reeves
Daily gossip

The daily gossip: May 26, 2023

'The Little Mermaid' remake's biggest changes to the original
Jonah Hauer-King and Halle Bailey in "The Little Mermaid"
Briefing

'The Little Mermaid' remake's biggest changes to the original

Most Popular

Disney hits back against DeSantis
Entranceway to Walt Disney World.
Feature

Disney hits back against DeSantis

What the shifting religious landscape means for American politics
Ballot box
Talking point

What the shifting religious landscape means for American politics

Censoring ideas and rewriting history
Copies of banned books from various states and school systems.
Briefing

Censoring ideas and rewriting history