Review of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) by Mole2807 — 17 Dec 2013

A positive response to harsh criticism.

This film in all its glory does feel like a middle chapter of a trilogy. Though Jackson opens the movie, reappearing as his carrot-eating-cameo that bags a few laughs from LOTR movie fans in the theaters; its opening is weak. The movies ending is frustrating for anyone in the audience, but that's just because the films content is so good! The film fails to sustain any real structure so to any viewers who haven't seen the first installment or the LOTR movies, will struggle to follow the plot.

Although this film has its weak points it is a vast improvement on the first, firstly; there is tons more action, gore and evil. Then there's the CGI (best seen in the 3D format) which in this movie has some of the best achievements; Smaug is a masterpiece and is definitely worth the wait, and the orcs are truly brought to life when seen in 3D. Though there are some parts of the movie that have clearly been weakly written, this fresh take on evil and hatred festering in MiddleEarth outweighs these few flaws and gives Tolkien fans and Christmas cinema-goers what they need to restore their love for MiddleEarth on the big screen.

Look out for the spider scene in Mirkwood; for anyone who has read the book, they will realize how hard it must have been to write that scene with the spiders talking. For people who hadn't read the book this scene could have turned out to appear a little cheesy but Jackson and his team have succeeded and made the scene work better than any other in the movie!

Stronger writing and this movie could have been up there with 11 Academy Award winning, Return of the King...the film is satisfying; full of action, plenty of fantastic CGI eye-candy and a good performance from the entire cast.

8 out of 10, now wait for There and Back Again.