The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug The middle part of Peter Jackson’s 'The Hobbit' trilogy returns us to the Middle Earth that Tolkien created, but that Jackson has made his own. We see the Dwarves, led by Prince Thorin (Richard Armitage) continue their journey to to the lost Kingdom of Eribor, aided by The Hobbit (Martin Freeman) in their midst, and it's though we never left them. On the one hand, it’s jam-packed with back-story, side-story, apes and dark shapes, grotesquely-sized spider, scharacters with strangely-sculpted ears, and assumes our familiarity already with this whole environment. On the other, with 161 minutes of screen time, it’s also a surprisingly leisurely stroll.