Spoilers beware!
(Also, please be aware that gender and race will be discussed, as per my usual shtick re: reviews. Just because Tolkien is the father of my work doesn't mean I will suspend my expectations when it comes to storytelling.)
This film, I believe, outstrips its predecessor by a fair margin.
There, I said it. Despite having been a fan of Tolkien's work since I was less an hobbit-sized myself, and despite having clear memories of being incredibly angry about the alterations made in the original movie trilogy (despite them being, over all, very minor), I think this movie is one of the best Tolkien adaptations made so far, falling only short to Return of the King.
Desolation gives us glimpses into the parts of Middle-Earth's history that The Hobbit in its novel form cannot, by virtue of the medium. This is the reason that the Hobbit movies are to be a trilogy, and it is wonderful to see it at last brought to life on the silver screen. As a fan of the story-behind-the-story, who knows going in that Sauron and the Necromancer are one and the same, and subscribes to the theory that the Arkenstone is the Silmaril cast with Maedhros into the earth, I got to see more of Middle-Earth than I could have ever dreamed.
Of course, the movie makes some major additions, particularly that of Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly), elf-captain of the guard in Mirkwood. The intention, according to the snippets of interviews I've seen, is to add a female character into the 'boy's club' that is Middle-Earth, and I have to say that Tauriel is probably the female character a fair few girl fans from the turn of the century were aiming for when they wrote their self-insert fanfiction. She is a hero in her own right, a cosmopolitan elf who knows that King Thranduil's (Lee Pace) policy of isolation cannot hold. Between that and her interest in Kili (Aidan Turner), she leaves the forest, hunting the orcs of Azog that are intent on destroying Thorin Oakenshield's party. She feels as well-rounded and developed as any of the male cast in this movie, and more than Legolas does in the first three films put together. While we could have done without the love triangle, Legolas's interest in her is ultimately doomed to mean nothing -- neither is Tauriel interested in him, nor would Thranduil allow the match if she were. It's a subversion, I think, of what so many fans were afraid of when her character was announced more than two years ago.
Of course, there is still the problem of the overwhelming whiteness of the main cast. The background extras in Laketown are far more diverse than in pretty much any other Middle-Earth locale we've seen, but when they created Tauriel, they had an opportunity to go a step further, one that they did not take. It's an unfortunate propagation of a genre problem that has its genesis in Tolkien's work, in part because the genre of high fantasy draws its tropes and conventions pretty much directly from his work. They also had choices, I am sure, in casting Bard of Laketown, but they once again go for a white British guy -- who is an excellent actor, sure, but still. The what-could-have-beens lie heavy here.
Nevertheless, the film has righted its pacing issues in this installment; everything moves much faster from the jump in Desolation than it did in An Unexpected Journey. The narrative immediately hits it stride and barrels along (occasionally literally) at a fast pace, yet never quite feels rushed. It is immersive and engrossing, and I'm heavily impressed.
Regarding the acting, Martin Freeman's Bilbo Baggins is still as good as can be expected, coming from the previous film with the One Ring and a newfound courage. This is less the hobbit's movie, though, considering the plot generally hangs itself on the political tensions that he cannot affect -- though he often finds himself a spanner in the works, moving outside the system and outside sight the way that he so often does.
The character arc that matters most in this movie, instead, is Thorin's. Richard Armitage is fantastic at showing his character's intensity and slow, inevitable decline into the madness that, in the books at least, will kill him at the Battle of the Five Armies. His quest for the Arkenstone, and the way that it affects him, more than anything is what convinces me that the gem is one of the three that threw Beleriand into the turmoil that destroyed it in the First Age. Thorin is volatile and charismatic and, as the movie progresses, more and more clearly doomed, and Armitage's acting is the primary thing that gets it across.
Lee Pace's Thranduil is probably the most vibrant secondary character, though, from the first moment his eyes appear on screen. The most powerful scene, in my opinion, is the one that Thranduil and Thorin share, their cataclysmic personal powers both ratcheting up the tension almost unbearably. They invade each others' space and talk of feuds far older than them -- well, maybe not older than Thranduil, but feuds that stretch back to the destruction of Doriath, which hangs like a ghost in the scene, old and tattered. Thorin is of the line of Durin, and Thranduil is implied to be of at least partial Noldorin descent, when he judges Tauriel a few scenes later for being a lowly Sylvan elf -- and it is the Noldor who have the most problem with dwarves over the course of the rest of Tolkien's lore.
If you can't already tell, I would say that Desolation is very much a movie about politics, and politics much muddier and less clear-cut than that of the previous trilogy. The dwarves are not merely re-installing a King -- they are altering a socio-political landscape, and the film makes that much, much clearer than the book ever did. The Laketown scenes make this the most clear; the Master of Laketown is a politician first, concerned with keeping his own power. Bard is concerned with the welfare of his people. Thorin is concerned with reclaiming the mountain, and is willing to offer wealth and power to whomever can help him. The Master of Laketown, of course, is more than willing to help them -- and the people, starving and suffering, are all-too-willing to help as well, when Thorin says that his wealth will come flowing out of the mountain again when he is returned to his throne. Only Bard is afraid of the threat the dragon possesses, and so his arguments are ignored.
To speak of the dragon, Benedict Cumberbatch's voice acting for Smaug is impeccable, and the art and CGI required to make Smaug look absolutely real are intense. The scenes between Smaug and Bilbo are absolutely magnificent to watch -- especially the psychological games Smaug plays with regard to Thorin's obsession and his lack of care for Bilbo; with the first film in mind, and all of the development within it of Bilbo and Thorin's complicated relationship, the idea that Thorin cares more for the Arkenstone than for Bilbo is a painful, yet utterly realistic one.
The music and cinematography are once again flawless, bringing Middle-Earth to life again onscreen, but I can't think of anything new or revolutionary regarding them. To be honest, this movie belongs not to the trappings but to the writing, which has one again been utterly on-ball.
Overall rating? 3.5/4 stars, because, again, they could have done more with diversity and didn't.
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