In an excellent case of corporate synergy, it seems as though Warner Bros. is attaching the first, full trailer of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug to next week’s release of Man of Steel. However, if you’re not planning on making Man of Steel part of your weekend plans, the trailer will debut online on Wednesday June 12, at 10 am PDT. This will be our first look at the second installment of Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy, the director’s second trifecta of stories from Middle Earth, and according to reports, this won’t be a mere teaser either, the trailer will be two-and-a-half minutes long.
In The Desolation of Smaug, Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) and the company of dwarfs continue their journey to the Lonely Mountain and the inevitable confrontation with Smaug, the dragon who took the dwarfs’ home and gold. The film will be released in theatres on December 13, 2013 while the final part of the trilogy, There and Back Again, will be released on December 17, 2014.
But as we await the trailer, one wonders what kind of reaction the next film in The Hobbit trilogy will be greeted with. While the first film made over $1 billion worldwide, it still received a 65 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 59 per cent rating on Metacritic. An Unexpected Journey also received only three Academy Award nominations, a far cry from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King’s record-tying 11 wins in 2004. On top of that, there was a lot of discussion about how well the movie was served by the technological advance of 48 frames per second, did it really add anything to the finished film? Was it more a distraction? Is that why I feel like throwing up my lunch right now?
Still, there’s a lot of faith in the work of Peter Jackson and his team in bringing the worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien to life. Despite the mixed feelings, no one’s not going to want to see this in December, so expect an equally big box office reception for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug when it comes out this holiday season. Who knows, maybe they worked out all the kinks with the 48 fps? Maybe the story gets better as Thorin’s company puts the Misty Mountains in the rear view. Maybe the new trailer will make us very excited indeed.
Check back next week as we’ll post the trailer as soon as it’s available.