First things first; where do we stand here at Entertainment Affair on “Middle Earth” fandom?  Well, let’s just say The Lord of The Rings trilogy is the closest thing we've gotten since the original Star Wars trilogy (J.J. Abrams, I hope you're reading this) on “well crafted, can’t watch enough times” epic fantasy films.

Now, after a rocky start with the first Hobbit film, “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” reinvigorates and might be putting this trilogy (“The Hobbit: There and Back Again” pending) as the closest thing to “The Lord of the Rings” we’ve gotten since… well,  “The Lord of the Rings”.  Yes, THTDOS (let's call it that from now on) is that good.

Bilbo (Martin Freeman) and Gandalf (Sir Ian Magneto McKellen) return as our favorite Hobbit/Wizard duo in their quest to reclaim Erebor, the dwarf homeland. Starting exactly where the first film left off THTDOS does not need to build up on anything. At almost three hours (I could have watched an extended edition of five hours at this pace) the film starts taking off like a rocket and barely ever slows down. As director Peter Jackson said in a recent press conference, “You know the good thing with a middle film is you don’t have to set things up, you literally do just… you can just drop into the story because we’re, you know, assuming that no one’s going to see this film if they haven’t seen the first one.” No setup, no musical washing dishes number (Yay!). Just pure adventure from start to finish.

The trilogy slowly but surely seems to be maturing into its own comfort zone. Something that not even the almost perfect Lord of the Rings trilogy did. A huge welcome and unexpected addition in this film is the interesting love triangle involving Orlando Bloom’s character Legolas, whom we are beginning to learn a lot more of. Co-writer and producer Phillipa Boyens says, “It was interesting with Legolas because one of the things that we were trying to do was he hates dwarves in The Fellowship of the Ring. There’s this animosity, there’s this whole kind of — that had to have come from somewhere. What was it about? And we wanted it to make it a little bit more emotional than just – I don’t like them.”

Enter our new favorite Elf in Middle Earth… Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) who might have some feelings… for a dwarf. This storyline, and Tauriel’s character represents one of the many liberties I completely support in adapting the book into not one, not two, but three films. When I saw the first Hobbit film, my biggest concern was that it felt way to bloated with unnecessary scenes to fill the almost three hour duration. I was really worried then about the rest of the trilogy. But to my pleasant surprise, the additions (at least in this film) are organically and perfectly linked to all of Lord of the Rings lore. Evangeline Lilly could not had explained this any better, “I just think that they were very brave and very right in saying we won’t do that to the young female audience who come and watched our film. And not just the young female audience but even a woman of my own age, I think it’s time that we stop making stories that are only about men especially only about heroic men and I love that they made Tauriel a hero.” Yes, we love our butt kicking heroines like any other film nerds but we do know how completely underdeveloped female characters are in genre films.  But Tauriel has a great arc, that most likely will pay off in the finale (cannot wait 12 months for this!!) of the Hobbit trilogy.

Another thing that I was not expecting to happen in the second film (spoiler if you haven’t seen the trailer) is that we actually get to see Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch) for a big portion of the film. I assumed, from the trailer, this character was going to show up at the end and they were leaving all the cool dragon stuff for next year but again… I was wrong. We spend plenty of time with Bilbo as he tries to mingle his way around what is arguably the biggest, scariest dragon ever seen on screen. The voice work and animation is superb. Apparently the final result was not only accomplished by the great voice modulation that Cumberbatch gave but from the precise and articulate motion capture performance he did. “One of the ways I did it was to try to squeeze my legs together just forgetting the fact that they were legs, trying to feel that as an elongated body, crawling on the floor on my elbows and using my hands as claws and sort of over-articulating my neck and shoulder to the delight of any [physiotherapist] who was unlucky enough to try and heal me afterward and yeah, just throwing myself at it with a kind of kid-like imagination and their brilliant expert guidance and it was a really fun way to work.”

Final thoughts on the film: It gives me hope that this trilogy was not done in vain or to cannibalize on the brand, when all is said and done, it looks like the Hobbit trilogy will now be able to stand next to its progenitor. Finally, a prequel trilogy that actually enhances the main one!! We get to see parts of Middle Earth (better known as New Zealand) that we’ve never seen before. We keep meeting new and old characters and we get slowly introduced to all the backstory elements that launched the Lord of the Rings trilogy in all force more than ten years ago. The only thing I would’ve liked to see in THTDOS was at least a scene with our favorite ring worshiper. The film doesn’t miss him, but not having a “Precious” moment, is like not having R2-D2 or C3PO in a Star Wars film.

And that ending? We’ll let’s just say that I can consider the ending of this film the best cliffhanger on film since “The Empire Strikes Back”. It seems like this was by design. “You know, I mean I remember when I was, I would have been what – about 17, 18, 19 years old? I remember The Empire Strikes Back had a big cliffhanger ending and it was like three years before the next one came out. I mean we’re being pretty generous. One year,” said Jackson.

Prepare to be left cold, and excited at the same time when this movie cuts to black at the end and be part of a collective gasp in the theatre. If the third film is as good as this one, I would like to imagine that Mr. Jackson will be true to his word when he jokingly said before the interview started that they might have to make a fourth one. Bring it on Peter, bring it on. P.S. - Please… more Tauriel.

THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG in 3D and 2D in select theaters and IMAX on December 13.