Review of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) by Viet Phuong N — 19 Dec 2014

A much better film than the first part, mainly due to the lengthy and very well-choreographed action-packed sequences (especially the "river battle" sequence is so well-choreographed that it felt like a Jackie Chan-ish Hong Kong film).

The acting, though, is terrible, from the leading actors like Orlando Bloom (he is truly terrible!) or Evangeline Lily (equally terrible!) to the supporting "dwarves". In a whole, the film is very, very entertaining but the sense of epicness is nowhere to be found, maybe because of the numerous disruptions in story development and plot incoherence - this is funny here because it is told that Peter Jackson had to make this "third" one to cover the broad range of topics of "The Hobbit", but its story, although easy to understand to one who has never read the book - like me, is full of unanswered questions and unnecessary details (that I feel can be totally eliminated for the sake of storytelling coherence).

Anyway, I have never been a fan of the "Lord of the Rings", so my disinterest with this film's subject may affect my view of the film in a whole. Still, a very interesting film to watch and a perfect bait for the third and last part of the trilogy, which I will surely watch, thanks to this excellent part.

If only the acting had been a little bit better...