An overall great movie, with an unexpected disappointment

Rating: 8/10 (14 December 2012)

The complaints about it being too long are ridiculous, and I now see how they can split it into three movies. From what I can remember, I do feel like they stuck pretty close to the story in the book, which I always appreciate. They actually strayed further from it in Lord of the Rings. The story was good and almost everything about it I liked. My main beef with the entire movie is that I feel that visually the creatures were better done and grittier looking in The Lord of the Rings. The orcs have a different body shape that doesn't make you think "Oh hey they could have been elves once" like they used to...and frankly they just aren't as creepy or "scary" looking as they were. A lot of it has to do with them being completely digital...and to my eye, I can easily tell they are which is a huge knock for me. Gollum was done excellent though, so you just know they spent more time making him perfect. My disappointment is that after 10 plus years...visually the movie should have been better in every way, and as far as creature generation it just isn't beating the use of prosthetic in the old movies.
On a more positive note....Thorin is awesome. I have never been a big fan of dwarfs in any fantasy series, but they really made me like Thorin. Bilbo was also done very well, and Gandalf not surprisingly was excellent. I really loved everything added including showing the Dwarven kingdom at its peak, and the attack by Smaug. I also loved every second in Rivendell and the council was probably one of my favorite overall scenes. Elrond, Galadriel, Saruman, and Gandalf all did an excellent job acting and really building the tension in the story that up to that point was slightly lacking.
And finally, the epic build to seeing Smaug in full was excellent. Smaug is the dragon of all dragons, and the dragon that all dragons since have been based off of to some extent.