‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’ Trailer Looks Epic

Almost exactly a year since the release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the follow-up is set to debut. Once again directed by Peter Jackson, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug picks up immediately after its predecessor, continuing the journey of Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit, who reluctantly teams up with a group of Dwarves and the great wizard Gandalf to retrieve their gold from the vicious dragon Smaug.

The majority of the cast from the first film returns, Martin Freeman (Sherlock), Ian McKellen (X-Men), and Hugo Weaving (The Matrix) to name a few, but the more exciting news is the additions to the cast that include Benedict Cumberbatch (Star Trek Into Darkness, Sherlock), returning LOTR’s star Orlando Bloom, and Fast & Furious 6 villain Luke Evans. The trailer’s a bit long, coming in around 3 minutes, but it does a pretty stellar job of showcasing the scale of this film. While I wasn’t that excited before, this trailer’s finally convinced me. Check it out:

This trailer is pretty awesome, but what scares me is the trailer for the first Hobbit was pretty damn good too. Going into that knowing this series was set up for a trilogy, I found I was able to simply enjoy it and have fun, without looking for an actually fulfilling story. That worked cause it was simply setting up the characters, but at the same time, it led on that it’d be this epic journey, when in actuality it was a small adventure. This again looks to be an epic journey, and hopefully it can skip the exposition of teaching us the characters, and move past seceding the story to preserve for the third film. Also, the addition of Cumberbatch is always welcomed. Even in voice alone, he is a force to reckon with, and makes me that much more excited for the film.

Lastly, it’ll be interesting to see the ticket sales this time around for the HFR (48 Frames per a second) because last year people were selecting to see it that way to check out this “new form of cinema”, but this time they most likely have an opinion on it (and most likely negative). To me, I didn’t mind it too much, I thought the scenes of character’s faces and of the landscape were beautiful, but the special effects stood out like a sour thumb, and the majority of people I’ve talked to really disliked it.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is due out December 13th.

SDCC 2013: Benedict Cumberbatch Talks Sherlock, Plus ‘The Fifth Estate’ Trailer!

During the Sherlock Comic-Con panel yesterday, after briefly touching on his role in the new Star Trek, and of course his work in the upcoming The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug, and finally his upcoming film The Fifth Estate in which he plays Julian Assange, Benedict Cumberbatch gave out a bit of a spoiler when it comes to Sherlock.

See in the last episode of season 2 of Sherlock, titled ‘The Reichenbach Fall’, Sherlock falls off a building. It is very sad and very emotional and very mysterious because obviously there is a season 3 and even more obvious, Sherlock is alive so how did he do it?

Benedict Cumberbatch himself tells us how:

Bonus Martin Freeman!

It’s such a shame that the feed went out. I suppose we’ll just have to wait for the premiere of Sherlock‘s season 3 in 2014. You can check out the important parts of the panel here. Now let’s take a look at Cumberbitch Cumberbatch as Julian Assange in The Fifth Estate trailer:

It’s going to be another big day at SDCC so be sure to check out all of our coverage here!