Like with the first film, I am more than willing to step over creative liberties and narrative flaws because Jackson once again allowed me to spend time in Middle Earth. If you didn't care for the first one, don't torture yourself and stay home. You won't like it. If you don't like drawn out fantasy epics, stay home. You won't like it. If you like Tolkien, thought the first film was flawed but ok, you'll probably have a pretty good time as it is a much smoother ride than the first one. If you're an infantile Tolkien fetishist that loves high fantasy adventure like me, you'll love the everloving crap out of it.

This unintended trilogy is not an adaptation…

A Movie A Day 2013: Day 344

The Good: Two things: the spectacular barrel sequence and Smaug.

The Bad: Desolation of Smaug is a bloated and exhausting 161 minutes. Dialogue is often eye-rollingly cheesy. Acting is a bit shaky—Lee Pace leads the charge here as the Elven King, hamming it up like he's in a LotR parody. The love triangle between Legolas (Orlando Bloom), Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly), and Kili (Aidan Turner) feels tacked on. Legolas and Tauriel are given many moments to showcase their badassery—and it is cool at first—but all the arrow-shooting and sword-fighting quickly become repetitive and tiresome. Worst of all, the sequel continues the trend of its predecessor of being built on deus ex machina. You could…

When The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey premiered on silver screen as the first in a trilogy of films based on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, the response it received was mostly positive to mixed. The majority of criticism was targeted at the needless expansion of a single film story into three features but, in my opinion, it did commence this latest Middle-Earth adventure on the right note and, despite its sluggish pace, provided a largely satisfying experience.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is the second chapter of The Hobbit film series & picks the story right from where it was left off in An Unexpected Journey. Continuing the adventure of Bilbo Baggins who's accompanying thirteen dwarfs on their quest to reclaim…

My issues with the first film (in a review as long as the movie).

We’re back for round two of Peter Jackson’s flabby fantasy saga as Bilbo Baggins and his band of diminutive dipshits continue on their exhaustingly long quest to reclaim the Lonely Mountain from the scaly clutches of Smaug the dragon. Oh goodie! I totally understand why people love JRR Tolkien and Jackson’s rendering of Middle Earth but I’ll be rather thankful when I never have to visit the damn place again.

The Desolation of Smaug is a rather curious movie that manages to solve some of the problems from the ponderous first film but in doing so create a whole heap of new issues. It is still…

Before I start off my review I want to say that I really liked The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. It was my #9 film of 2012. It certainly wasn't without it's flaws though. Boring at times, the tone was childish at times, etc.

I pretty much feel the exact same why about The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug as I did with the first one. I really liked it, but it's not something I consider great. There was a scene that was really great, but outside of that scene the movie is just good. The scene I'm referring to is the barrel scene, that was epic awesomeness lol. There are a few other scenes that are really good, but a…

Two things mark Jackson’s exorbitant and bloated expansion of Tolkien’s The Hobbit as fine, rollicking blockbuster cinema: sets and setpieces. Neither is new to Jackson’s vision of Middle Earth; both were perfected in his Lord of the Rings films, but they appear again here in reduced but still effective form. When they aren’t bandaged together with a very poor substitute of CG, the sets here are gorgeous and magnificently crafted: the sick trees and sticky cobwebs of Mirkwood, the gracefully expansive curves of the Elven kingdom, the ramshackle and decrepit Lake Town, the coldly chilling spires of Dol Gildur... the list goes on. Incidentally, every action setpiece that occupies these physical spaces is much better stuff than most of what…