The Hobbit : The Desolation of Smaug

[funthing29]

A Peter Jackson film from Tolkien’s mythology will always be a sight to behold but this IMO is the weakest out of the 5 films so far. It is not a bad film per se it just feels like filler between the opener and closer of The Hobbit story.

It was patchy overall with too many (unnecessary) subplots and the story lacked fluidity. Bilbo was almost relegated to the background and had little in the way of characterisation. While I did enjoy the barrel fight scenes and the sequence with Smaug at the end unfortunately the film as a whole felt like a succession of set pieces.

Visually impressive but overly long and uneven. 6.5/10.

I watched the extended version of An Unexpected Journey over the weekend and that has lent me new appreciation of Desolation of Smaug. The first film sets up the story well but spends far too much time doing so and not much really happens (even more noticeable in the 3+ hour version) compared to this film where it seems much faster paced with non-stop action. DoS is by no means perfect - it is dragged down by too many sub plots and some of them ridiculous (an elf/dwarf romance – seriously?!) but on reflection I may have been slightly too critical. I am going to rewatch DoS in a few weeks and I suspect I will raise my score at that time.

I watched this again yesterday at the BFI IMAX and I did enjoy it more on repeat viewing. It is full throttle action and not weighted down with exposition like the first one but is still hindered by surplus sub plots. As I predicted, I am increasing my score to 7.5/10.

[brettie]

Hot and fire..y 9.9

[Tinpar]

Finally... having cancelled two trips to see this! Going today... yay :)

[Yogayay]

I saw this yesterday at my local odeon. I really enjoyed it. I don't think it is as good as the first 3 lord of the rings films but I still think all the films are brilliant. The three hours or so flew by for me whilst watching it

[dabotsonline]

I watched this at the BFI IMAX and thought it was ace. The big screen and 3D really helps to emphasise the gigantic scale of Smaug. For the chase sequences, Peter Jackson was clearly re-using some of the techniques he used in King Kong, but it didn't come across at derivative.

[RickyRaj]

Liked this film, good action, story cast and the dragon was fab. Preferred this to the first one. 8.5/10.