The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)

Peter Jackson pushes on his with his uber-epic 9-hour adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” with “The Desolation of Smaug,” a near-three hour action epic that -– behold, wonders –- improves from last year’s “An Unexpected Journey.” That film played crazy indulgent as it OD’d on “Lord of the Rings” nostalgia (Frodo checks the mailbox!) and eye-roll flashbacks. Here we again follow young Hobbit Bilbo (Martin Freeman) now in the middle of his adventure helping 13 dwarves recapture their mountain home from the monstrous dragon Smaug. (Smaug is voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, making this a love-fest for BBC’s “Sherlock,” where Freeman is Watson to Cumberbatch’s Holmes.) Jackson and his team ramp up the action and add new material including a Errol Flynn-era Robin Hood-like female elf, played by Evangeline Lilly of “Lost.” Despite past grumblings of Jackson re-working Tolkien, this addition is welcome. I can’t recall a single female in the “Hobbit.” This middle chapter still is too long, far too “LotR” obsessed, and I still couldn’t care if most of the dwarves died by dragon fire, but Freeman carries it. He dazzles strong with physical comedy that could stand beside Chaplin. B