The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey especially in the early going." Kate Muir of "The Times" gave the film four out of five stars, saying Martin Freeman "perks up" the film as Bilbo Baggins and that Jackson's use of 48 frames per second 3D technology gives the film "lurid clarity". Dan Jolin of "Empire" gave the film four out of five stars and thought "The Hobbit plays younger and lighter than Fellowship and its follow-ups, but does right by the faithful and has a strength in Martin Freeman's Bilbo that may yet see this trilogy measure up to the last one" and he stated that "There
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Guldur towards the Lonely Mountain. Back inside the mountain, during a long chase, Bilbo and the Dwarves rekindle the mountain's forge using Smaug's flames to create and melt a large golden statue of Thrór, hoping to bury Smaug alive in the molten gold. They do so, but Smaug emerges from the gold, storms out of the mountain and as Bilbo watches in horror. Some characters in the film are not in the novel, but created for the film. Legolas appears in Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, but not in the novel "The Hobbit". Additionally, Peter Jackson makes a cameo