New in Theaters: ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’

Finally, the Lonely Mountain

For anybody who had just about given up on Peter Jackson’s ever-longer-seeming series of J.R.R. Tolkien films, there comes the improbably namedThe Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Who knows how next year’s final installment will come off, but the secondHobbitfilm mostly chucks aside everything that was wrong withAn Unexpected Journey and relocates the joy of storytelling. Plus: Benedict Cumberbatch as Smaug.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug opens everywhere this...