The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
★★★ — The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit was published in 1937 as a relatively slim, self-contained children's adventure, a story built on warmth, wit, and the unlikely heroism of a small creature from the Shire. By the time Peter Jackson and his collaborators were finished with it, that single novel had been stretched across three films with a combined runtime of well over seven hours. The Desolation of Smaug, the second instalment, arrived in December 2013 and picks up with Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf, and the company of dwarves pressing on towards the Lonely Mountain to reclaim their homeland and its treasure from the dragon Smaug. The film was produced by New Line Cinema, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and Jackson's own WingNut Films, the same broad partnership that had backed the Lord of the Rings trilogy a decade earlier, and carries all the production weight you would expect from that combination: grand sets, enormous visual effects budgets, and a running time of 161 minutes that made no apologies for its ambitions.
Jackson, of course, has spent the better part of his career in Middle-earth, and his comfort in this world is both a strength and, some would argue, part of the problem. You can see the same confident hand that shaped The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, another of his New Zealand-shot epics, and the energy he brought to King Kong, a similarly large-scale spectacle. He has always been a director who thinks in sequences rather than scenes, and Desolation of Smaug is, among other things, a showcase for set pieces. The film introduced the character of Tauriel (not present in Tolkien's original text) and expanded the role of Legolas, bringing back Orlando Bloom alongside the returning Ian McKellen as Gandalf and Martin Freeman as Bilbo. Richard Armitage leads the dwarf company as Thorin Oakenshield, and Benedict Cumberbatch provides both the motion capture performance and the voice for Smaug himself, the dragon whose presence gives the film its title. It is, on paper, a polished but unremarkable continuation of a franchise that already knew its audience well.
What the film had going for it in terms of star power was considerable. McKellen had been playing Gandalf since 2001, and by this point the role fitted him like an old coat. Freeman, meanwhile, brought a very particular brand of flustered, grounded everyman quality to Bilbo that had won over audiences in the first film. Cumberbatch's casting as Smaug felt, at the time, like an inspired bit of voice work, given his reputation for a certain reptilian precision in his delivery. The film was arriving into a crowded late-2013 market, but the Hobbit brand was more than strong enough to carry it to considerable commercial success. Whether it was strong enough to justify what Jackson actually did with the material was, predictably, a conversation that started on opening weekend and has not quite stopped since.
The Desolation of Smaug is like a rich, overstuffed meal, delicious in bites, but you’ll regret finishing the plate. The film’s visuals are jaw-dropping (Smaug’s lair alone is worth the price of popcorn), and Benedict Cumberbatch’s dragon is a masterclass in smug, slithery menace. The barrel escape sequence is ludicrous but fun. Jackson still knows how to stage a chase. But then… the romance. Tauriel and either Fili or Kili (still not sure who’s who under all that hair) feels like a studio exec scribbled “add YA love triangle” on a napkin. It’s jarring in a story that should be about dwarves, dragons, and Bilbo’s cleverness, not angsty elf-dwarf drama. And Legolas cameo so random it just felt like pure fan service. The film’s biggest sin is stretching Tolkien’s middle chapter into something it’s not, a sprawling epic. The Lonely Mountain looms forever, and every chase feels padded by… more chases. It’s beautiful, bombastic, and occasionally brilliant, but it forgets the cozy heart of The Hobbit . Still, Smaug himself is worth the ride. Just skip the love subplot and pretend Thranduil’s eyebrows are the real dragons here.
For me, that tension between spectacle and substance is what I keep coming back to when I think about this one. Jackson clearly loves this world, and that affection is visible in almost every frame, but love alone does not always make for a disciplined film. The third instalment, The Battle of the Five Armies, would push many of these same frustrations even further. Desolation of Smaug sits in the odd middle position of being the most visually inventive of the three Hobbit films while also being the one most determined to be something its source material never was. Smaug is genuinely one of the great screen dragons, and that counts for a lot. But a great dragon does not a great film make, and the padding around him is, at times, very padded indeed. Come for the fire. Bring a book for the elf-dwarf feelings.
Rating: ★★★ | Year: 2013 | Watched: 2025-06-05
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) on YouTube
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Peter Jackson: King Kong (2005) · The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014) · The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) · The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
More with Ian McKellen: The Da Vinci Code (2006) · X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) · X2 (2003) · The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)
More from New Zealand: What We Do in the Shadows (2014) · Mortal Engines (2018) · King Kong (2005) · 'Aho'eitu (2015)
More from the 2010s: Wonder (2017) · Beautiful Boy (2018) · The Witch (2015) · What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
More fantasy: Viy (1967) · Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025)
More adventure: Alice in Wonderland (1951) · The Eagle (1925) · Louisiana Story (1948) · The General (1926)
