'The Hobbit' review: 'The Desolation of My Senses'

Evangeline Lilly hits the target in "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug."

Maybe it was the late hour, since I chose to attend a midnight showing of "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smoag."

Or maybe it was the audience - mostly Mount Holyoke College coeds who laughed at seemingly inappropriate moments, like nearly every close-up of Legolas (Orlando Bloom). Oh, is that a spoiler? At this point, does it matter? If you've been paying any attention at all - or, heaven forbid - are old-fashioned and actually read the J.R.R. Tolkien books, nothing about these movies should surprise you. It's not the plot that you go to see, after all - it's how director Peter Jackson pulls off his telling of the story.

But "The Desolation of Smaug" fails to live up to the standards of its predecessors. That's no crime, for sure. But it is a shame because we have come to expect so much from the denizens of Middle Earth.

The good news - Gandalf the Gray is back. Ian McKellen again works magic as the wizard. The problem is, he's pretty much alone in this category. We've already seen him smirk, heard him mutter dark warnings under his breath and watched him wield his staff in battle in the previous films. He's good, no doubt about it. But the character cannot carry the movie any more than Gandalf can win the fast-approaching war in "Smaug" alone.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug New Poster Released

First Promo Photo For The Hobbit 2: The Desolation of Smaug

Here is a photo of Martin Freeman as Bilbo in what appears to be a very bad position laying on Smaug's horde of gold.