Last year’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey — the prequel to the trilogy The Lord of the Rings — was quite a success at the box office (it reached about $1 billion, or 6.09 billion yuan, worldwide). But honestly, it was a little boring and, at 169 minutes, very long.
作为“指环王三部曲”前传，去年的一部《霍比特人1：意外之旅》票房大卖（全球票房达10亿美元，合60.9亿元人民币）。但说实话，这部片子有点无聊，169分钟，太冗长了。
The second part of the trilogy The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is a little less long and a little less boring. That’s because after almost three hours of setup in the last installment, we finally get some action. It’s time for the group of Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) and the 13 dwarfs, led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) and the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen), to win back the Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor.
“霍比特人三部曲”第二部——《霍比特人2:史矛革之战》则稍微精简有趣一些。 经过第一部近三个小时的铺垫之后，我终于可以大饱眼福，欣赏下动作戏了。这回，比尔博•巴金斯（马丁•弗里曼饰）与由“矮人王”索林•橡木盾（理查德•阿米蒂奇饰演）带领的十三矮人军团，以及巫师甘道夫（伊恩•麦凯伦饰演）一同展开旅程，重新夺回孤山矮人王国。
Director Peter Jackson throws us right into the action, with the group fighting giant spiders, orcs, and the biggest villain, Smaug, the dragon.
在导演彼得•杰克逊的执导下，巨型蜘蛛、半兽人以及“大反派”巨龙史矛革悉数登场，群斗场景令观众犹如身临其境。
The battles are visceral, physical and sometimes also funny. They demonstrate the best of the film’s technical excellence: Imaginary creatures come to life, fantastic worlds are realized, and breathtaking sequences prove what an accomplished action director Jackson has become.
这些战争场面在带给人们激烈的感官体验的同时，偶尔也会笑料百出。这些场景都展现出该片在技术上的绝对优势：鲜活的怪兽精灵、逼真的奇幻世界，再加上险象环生的惊险剧情，都证明了彼得•杰克逊是位有才华的动作片导演。
Smaug looks incredible and Benedict Cumberbatch’s voice adds to the creepiness and horror. Of course, Smaug’s monologue with Baggins is a highlight, although the film spends nearly a half hour with monotonous would-be action of little consequence before coming to a hasty end.
巨龙史矛革看上去很是吓人，而这个令人战栗的庞然大物则由“卷福” 本尼迪克特•康伯巴奇来配音。尽管片中用了接近半个小时的篇幅来展现一些无关紧要、单调乏味的动作戏后，就草草收场了，但不管怎么说，史矛革与巴金斯的对手戏还是一大亮点。
For fans of special effects and quality action sequences in a fantasy setting, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is a perfect choice. But compared with any chapter of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, it feels a little empty.
对于特效迷和科幻动作迷来说，《霍比特人2:史矛革之战》是个绝佳选择。但同“指环王三部曲”的任何一部相比，该片都显得有些苍白。
The Lord of the Rings trilogy was about more than just action and incident. It talked about friendship and courage, and the characters often captured our hearts. The Hobbit falls short on character work and story development, without offering a real reason for us to care if Baggins and the dwarfs succeed in their journey.
“指环王三部曲”中，不只有刀光剑影和意外频发。它探讨了友谊和勇气的主题，而片中角色也极具感染力。“霍比特人”系列则在角色刻画以及剧情发展方面表现得差强人意，无法给我们提供一个去关注巴金斯和矮人军团此行成功与否的真正理由。
That said, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is already better than The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Hopefully the final chapter next year can pull out something truly spectacular, otherwise The Hobbit trilogy will likely be remembered only as a footnote to one of the greatest cinematic accomplishments of our time.
即便如此，与《霍比特人1：意外之旅》相比，《霍比特人2:史矛革之战》要好得多了。希望明年的最终篇能够交上一份更令人叫好的答卷，否则“霍比特人三部曲”很可能只会成为当代最伟大的银幕巨制——“指环王系列”的一处注脚而已。