Full Movie Reviews
Rating of
N/A
Schön düster
cinegeek.de - wrote on 03/18/2016
Gute Fantasy Filme sind rar. Für mich stellt es jedes Mal einen Glücksfall dar, wenn ein neues gelungenes Epos das Licht der Welt erblickt! Wer einmal die Treppe herunter steigt in unseren (zweiten) DVD Ausstellungs-Raum, dorthin, wo ich die Sektion Fantasy aufgestellt habe, der wird merken, wie schwierig es ist, noch etwas zu entdecken. Der erste Hobbit gehörte für mich nicht zu diesen seltenen Lichtblicken. Nun kommt also der zweite Teil der Reise: The Desolation of Smaug. In dem Moment, da wir die Konfrontation von Bilbo Baggins (Beutlin) und dem Drachen Smaug (der mit der fürchterlichen Stimme von Benedict Cumberbatch spricht) erleben, hat mich dieser Mittelteil bereits überzeugt: Peter Jackson ordnet die einzelnen Elemente, er baut emotionale Spannung auf - er findet zurück …
Rating of
2.5/4
"The Desolation Of Smaug" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 12/08/2015
Bilbo and his dwarven entourage finally make their way into Lonely Mountain to confront Smaug and retake the Arkenstone. The seemingly endless journey of Bilbo Baggins continues very much in the same vein as the previous film. The first act in particular is just another fantasy road movie punctuated by action sequences that play out like a level of Crash Bandicoot but when the motley gang reach Laketown and encounter Bard, things get a little more interesting. Stephen Fry and the voice of Benedict Cumberbatch are nice additions to the supporting cast, Evangeline Lilly makes a fine action heroine and the fact that they actually reach their destination means the film has rather more dramatic momentum than the original. As a result The Desolation Of Smaug is rather better than An Unexpected …
Rating of
3.5/4
Move over Draco, Smaug's got you beat!
Indyfreak - wrote on 07/23/2014
Now that's more like it, Peter Jackson! This is the Hobbit movie I bet everyone was expecting to see back in 2012. The epic scope of the adventure is finally realized this time around.
The reappearance of Legolas is a definite fan-service but he's still cool. His new friend Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) is a complete badass but as a female character, she's still unfortunately shackled to a hackneyed love story and it's with one of the dwarves! This setback is counterbalanced by the long awaited appearance of Smaug (voiced by Sherlock) who is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!
In short, having a bigger story, better action, and a supporting cast that you actually remember is what makes "The Desolation of Smaug" vastly superior to the marvelously made but still meandering first installment.
Rating of
4/4
Recaptures Everything Great about LOTR
JmsWlkns - wrote on 01/01/2014
The news that three new movies were going to be made by the same crew that had made the modern masterpieces known as the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy certainly set a high bar for the quality of the pictures to be made. This to me seemed unrealistic, considering three movies were going to be made from a book about as big as your average DVD case. That said, I had expected better than "An Unexpected Journey". The movie lacked literally everything that had made the original Trilogy great: the use of special effects to make fantastic rooms, landscapes and creatures of extraordinary grandeur, great acts of heroism in the face of absolute hopelessness, and the success of the most unusual individuals against impossible odds. That being said, "The Desolation of Smaug" recaptured everything great …
Rating of
2.5/4
all show little substance
smeagol - wrote on 12/29/2013
As a big fan of the lord of the rings i was looking forward to the hobbit trilogy. i actually liked the first hobbit movie. it was more like a childrens film with lots of humour etc but i still enjoyed it.
This 2nd one in the trilogy was a bit of let down really. i found the start boring. and as some critic said about the first movie its hard to care about the quest here . talking dragons like talking dogs i just find silly. what i noticed was how dated this film looks compared to the lord of the rings that was made 10 years ago..
its just hard to care about any of the characters. none of the dwarfs die its so far fetched the fight scenes. even the orcs are not as scary looking as LOTR.. theres no real hint of danger even wiith bibo and smaug it was silly as were the words the dragon …
Rating of
2/4
Review: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
MikePA - wrote on 12/28/2013
Blah. I hoped for more from "visionary" filmmaker Peter Jackson, who enthralled audiences with his beautiful, epic, and emotional Lord of the Rings trilogy 10 years ago. Since than he had made King Kong, which is, in my opinion, his best film ever. In 2009, he released The Lovely Bones, which was wrecked by critics and audiences (can't really go against them for that). Now he's pulled a George Lucas and created CGI-reliant prequels to The Lord of the Rings. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was actually kind of fun - delivering thrills, laughs, and a LOTR series highlight with the Gollum sequence.
Now, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug came out. Besides the dumb title, irrelevant characters and plot threads, shitty CGI, cartoony action sequences, and the loss of our main hero, …
Rating of
3.5/4
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
KingInTheNorth - wrote on 12/25/2013
AFter a terrible "An unexpected journey" expectations to this one were high, like really high. Fortunatly, Peter JAckson lets his awesomeness do magic.
So "An unexpected journey" was... well.,... I mean, come on, there was singing!!! Great job to cut this out! Another improvement was that this movie is far more serious than the first one. However, there were some parts thta really annoyed me. (They drived me crazy) A huge problem with the movie were the billions of sometimes unnecessary storylines. They make the movie more exciting and they are rising the tension, but they really change nothing of the main-story. For example the storyline wiith this bear/troll/big-foot. He said he will …
Rating of
3/4
Smaug Serves Up More Smoke Than Fire
Chris Kavan - wrote on 12/16/2013
You know what they say - it's deja vu all over again. While I felt that Peter Jackson's second effort in The Hobbit franchise was a bit of an improvement over the original film, I just can't rate it any higher than Unexpected Journey - and for much the same reason. Once again, even though the pacing is a bit better, the movie still felt too long - it's not a movie that flies by - at least it wasn't for me. A lot of people were also upset about adding an all-new character into the mix (Evangeline Lilly's Tauriel elven warrior) - and while I don't object to the character, I do object to the way they just had to spin it as a love triangle.
What this film gets right is Smaug - the depiction of the great dragon has to be one of the best put on film. Both in design and in Benedict …
Rating of
4/4
Brilliant! The Best Movie Of The Year!
Norrin - wrote on 12/14/2013
Coming a year after the underrated and underappreciated “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” Peter Jackson strikes again with the year’s best movie- “The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug.” After a brief prologue featuring an excellent flashback conversation between Thorin Oakenshield and the wizard Gandalf, the movie hits the ground running and pretty much never looks back. This is a much more action packed movie than its predecessor, featuring an intense giant spider attack sequence in Mirkwood Forest, a thrilling river barrel chase sequence as the dwarves attempt to escape from Elvish captors, an intense battle between Gandalf and Sauron, and a non-stop battle with the Dragon Smaug at the end. As is to be expected, all technical credits are first rate, from the often …
Rating of
3/4
Muddled Middle Still Boasts Impressive Feats
Unknown - wrote on 12/14/2013
I found 'The Desolation of Smaug' to be slightly disappointing in some respect. Aside from a few fantastical action scenes, it was mostly filler. The story rambles on in many different areas, cutting from the main quest to show us a bevy of new characters and situations that I didn't much care for. All of these needless additions take away from the fun and brief adventure that originally was 'The Hobbit' novel. This is supposed to be Bilbo's story, but here he becomes just another side character with a use. I actually enjoyed 'An Unexpected Journey' more even though half of it was pre-journey. It felt completely Bilbo centric and contained more of the spirit of the Lord of the Rings by doing so. Still, this was an entertaining effort. The production is marvelous, some great …
