Smaug is better than the sum of its other parts

Rating: 6/10 (29 January 2014)

I want to give it an 8, but that's just because the third act leaves a lasting impression that makes you almost forget many of the flaws in the film, which I'll begin with.
One major issue is that the movie is hard to look at. Being a hardcore Lotr fan, the cgi orcs looked horrible compared to the gritty make-up wearing actors from the original trilogy. I understand the Hobbit story is more cartoony by nature, but cgi was overused to the point of stupidity. Even all of the scenery and structures look bad and every shot seems overexposed.The Hobbit trilogy had a much bigger budget than the original, and it's clear they were too trigger happy with their money. Also, one thing I noticed was the overuse of decapitations/headshots to try and make you forget how cartoony the movie was. The fighting just looks like Legolas dancing around a green screen. Also, out of the 5 films made so far, Desolation deviates from the book the most, continuing the storyline of Azog, who I hated since the last movie, and Tauriel. Adding a female elf to a male dominated movie is a change I don't mind, but her love story with Kili seems forced. Lastly, the pacing was very odd, with some parts going to fast and others too slow. I assumed that would happen considering one book is being dragged out over three movies so I was ready for that.
Now for the good things. The acting was great as expected, and I enjoyed the dialogue driven scenes more than the many action ones. Smaug, with the talents of Benedict Cumberbatch, is amazing. I thoroughly enjoyed the scenes with Bilbo and the dragon. The ending was great, although it does worry me how they plan on executing the 3rd film. And of course we all love Gandalf, even if he wasn't in it for much. It's hard not to compare the new trilogy with the original, but even so, it is an enjoyable film the problems I had were mainly personal preference over visuals. Overall, Desolation of Smaug is definitely worth watching if you like fantasy movies or just want to see an awesome dragon.