It ruins it, precious

Rating: 5/10 (30 January 2015)

The third installment of a famous film saga usually either triumphs or fails spectacularly. It is the latter in this case.
This film truly disappoints, especially when compared to The Return Of The King. Not the least of which is its complete detachment of the joy, purity and epic feel of the Lord Of The Rings.
The added swear words, painfully lengthy battle sequences, lack of deep emotional moments and the prolonged scenes of a scowling, semi-maddened Thorin just scraped out any goodness that was in the trilogy.
Smaug falls after twenty minutes, random, unimportant creatures appear out of nowhere for war and worst of all, Bilbo takes a back seat throughout the whole battle. He doesn't even get use his sword, Sting, despite the poster showing him brandish it, ready for a battle he will never go to.
An Unexpected Journey was quite entertaining and playful. The Desolation of Smaug started to wear thin until the introduction of the title character, the majestic and terrifying Smaug. But this one, as a sole movie, simply had no particularly interesting scenes. I only watched it for my love of the characters, and the exiting moments of the first two. But I won't be watching it again in a hurry, that's for sure.