Rating of
3/4
Muddled Middle Still Boasts Impressive Feats
Unknown - wrote on 12/14/13
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 scenes are present, and it does move kinda swiftly through it's massive run-time. Here's hoping the forthcoming 'There and Back Again' can close this trilogy on a higher note and maybe reclaim some of the novel's appeal.
