Review of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) by George B — 01 Feb 2016

Having watched Battle of the Five Armies twice I can quite comfortably say that this is the most superior of the trilogy, though it does not reach the quality of the Lord of the Rings, mostly.

Where An Unexpected Journey is too long and devoid of action, but contains lots of story and Battle of the Five Armies is the complete opposite, Desolation is the best at balancing action and story.

Good: The main battle sequence, the barrel scene is (though rather fanciful) an innovative piece of filming and glimpses at the quality of fight scenes such as Balins Tomb or Amon Hen in Fellowship. Smaug, voiced brilliantly by Benedict Cumberbatch is spine-chillingly real, and the series of sequences in Erebor with Smaug are possibly the best in the trilogy. Tolkiens beloved story is followed fairly accurately, and the beginnings of setting up the Lord Of the Rings are put in place.

However, certain scenes, in particular the Beorn part of the story are rather skimmed over quickly, but hopefully that will be put right in the extended edition.

Tauriels addition is nice but unnecessary, and most likely the result of some complaints that there are no women in the movie.

The only other real problem is the annoyingly tense cliffhanger at the end, which can be satisfied at the beginning of Battle of the Five Armies. This is more like it Peter, almost back to your Middle Earth best.