Peter Jackson﻿ kills the story with an endless series of battles

Rating: 6/10 (16 December 2013)

"Stories are the most important thing in the world. Without stories, we wouldn't be human beings at all."
The Hobbit is not a battle. It's a story. A brilliant, beautiful story. The Desolation of Smaug is, in contrast, an action movie which bears little resemblance to the joy of the book. The mesmerizing chapter in the House of Beorn? Forget it, Mr Jackson doesn't want to waste time with such crap. Bilbo's stealth endeavors and hopeless situation in the Elvenking's halls that you live through with the characters for weeks? No way, we need to rush to yet another battle scene.
On and on, the viewer is being robbed of any chance to emotionally connect with the story. I'm very sorry for everyone who hasn't read the book because you must be totally confused what (and why) the hell is going on. In the end, you can stay assured about only one thing: that there's another battle just around the corner (and that some elves are gonna come out of nowhere to slay the orcs).
For me, it's the most useless movie of the five LOTR/Hobbit installments. Let's hope the battling nature of the last one will make up for this misstep at least a double times.