Search - Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug [Blu-ray] on Blu-ray

Daniel W. from LANSING, MI
Reviewed on 9/23/2015...

After the rather boring opening movie, the Hobbit moves into Phase 2 of the story. It starts off great as we meet Beor the Changeling (which is oddly cut rather short for a movie that should be, at best, 2 movies. They couldnt have stayed here longer? But I digress.....) and after that we get the best sequence in the trilogy, Mirkwood. From the aimless wandering and the Spiders, it really is a fantastic strip of film. The scene where Bilbo retrieves his ring from a spider actually generates the best acting scene as well as we see Martin Freeman go from relieved, to confused and then to the horrible realization that this ring has somehow taken hold of him. Masterfully done. And from that high, we go to maybe the lowest point of the trilogy. The Elves. The taking of the Dwarves to the Elvish jails is not bad but then comes the start of maybe the most ridiculous romance on screen in quite some time. Its silly and not anywhere close to believable. Great fantasy directors would be well advised to stay away from doing romance in their movies. (Im looking at you George Lucas) And from there we get the ridiculous river chase and from there it never really recovers. By the time we get to Dale we have lost interest. Even when we get the big reveal of Smaug it doesnt elicit the awe I thought it should have.(Although a better voice than Benedict Cumberbatch I could not think of. Great choice!) This is a really disappointing way to end this movie, especially after such a splendid start. Plus with the continued linking of this movie to LOTR (the appearance of Legolas even though he was never in the book) that surely helps drag it down. Once again, disappointing.