Wonderful series

Rating: 9/10 (18 March 2014)

I love this series. Many times I've watched this series. I'm bored watching again. The cinematography was perfect and the character development was extraordinary. The film was very well paced and at no point did i believe the film was too short or that I felt rushed during the movie. There is nothing wrong with that. For me, this is the most beautifully looking film I've seen this year. The cinematography and camera shots were fantastic. It's not all bad of course, so although Peter Jackson has been caught up in the special-effects machine, he still shows his talent for the spectacle with one action scene that sees the dwarfs escape Mirkwood and a micro army of rampant orcs in barrels down a river. It is a silly, overblown set-piece, but it proves funny and thrilling, a genuinely exciting highlight within one of the film's most drawn-out chapters. Also, Smaug himself doesn't disappoint. Although he's entirely CGI, the giant beast is entirely real and, thanks to Benedict Cumberbatch, uncomfortably menacing. His exchanges with Bilbo are the movie's best moments, as they both try and outsmart each other with words and tricks. Which makes it all the more disappointing when the film movies into yet another overwrought action scene.