Review of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) by Normyp — 16 Dec 2013

This was a lot better than the first part of the Hobbit trilogy, mainly because we had a bit of romance, a bit of live action for once and some scenes which weren't constantly CGI which was a relief. The best scenes in my opinion were near the end and the scenes between Killi and the She-Elf.

In my opinion, there was a bit too much CGI, I much prefer real sets but for the Orcs the CGI was perfect because it felt like they were actually fighting monsters not just men dressed up as monsters.

The Orcs were perfect in my opinion, just a shame they have too much elven language, I much prefer the Orcs to act stupid and speak english than speak in this poetic manner, okay it's fine for the white orc because he's badass but his little grunts should speak english.

The CGI, although a lot of it, was probably the best I've seen in a film, it really allowed the filmmakers to create more of a fantasy world instead of just showing us New Zealand, which isn't bad by the way.

I found it thoroughly entertaining but The Hobbit works and flows best when it's just trying to be its own film. When you clearly hear lines and jokes copied from LOTR it's kind of cringey, they don't need to please LOTR fans they need to just clear their heads and focus on the story at hand.

Either way, great film just hopefully for the next film we'll see more real sets and action sequences in places like Helm's Deep, like an out door set, they're so cool.