A little disappointing, but still good

Rating: 8/10 (10 December 2013)

Let me start this review with a cliché: I am a HUGE fan of The Lord of the Rings movies. I saw the first film when it was released in 2001 (I was 11 back then). They are my favorite movies and have made me what I am today - a student studying film.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was the movie I waited for years and years. I always knew it couldn't be as great as LOTR films were, but I hoped it to be decent. And it was. I thought it was maybe a little too long and had some unnecessary moments. In my opinion, the LOTR movies are better than the books, so I am not a Tolkien purist. Thus I didn't mind all the "made up new scenes" PJ added to the movie - actually I loved most of them.
Now after waiting for a year, the second part of the trilogy is here. I saw it in HFR 3D in a midnight screening here in Finland. The Desolation of Smaug starts *** SPOILER SPOILER *** with a prologue from the Village of Bree, where Gandalf meets with Thorin, wanting him to claim Erebor back. I think this was a very nice beginning for the film, and you can actually see a familiar face from the Fellowship of the Ring eating carrot again.
After this, the actual story continues where it ended in the first film. The company is followed by bloodthirsty Azog and his wargs, and the dwarfs seek refuge from Beorn's house. Beorn is an interesting character in the book, but unfortunately there's only little of him in the film. That's a pity as the actor seemed good.
The Mirkwood was something awful in my opinion. The CGI looked so god damn fake (especially on the trees) I wanted to cry. I don't think it was the 48fps making it look so bad - The Unexpected Journey looks at some points bad from Blu-ray. You have to but wonder - what on earth have they done right with the LOTR films over 10 years ago to make them look so brilliant and real? Is it really that nowadays CGI just looks crappier? I don't know, but the CGI on the Mirkwood looked bad - and this bothered me time to time with different scenes throughout the whole film (especially in Gandalf vs. Sauron). Have they not have had enough time to finish all the shots? Anyways. Let me not bother you with boring whining about CGI. Legolas is back, and that's a good thing. I think his character is nicely introduced in this film. His father seems to be like an douchebag, and Legolas is clearly fond of Tauriel - a new character played by Evangeline Lilly. Tauriel is, without a doubt, a pointless character. Yes, she is Legolas' love interest, but she crushes on Fili (or was it Kili? I always mix those two!), and that is something so dull! Tauriel's scenes are dumb and they make the movie look bad. Especially the overlong chat in the dungeons and the King's Foil scene... WTF?! The battle scenes look great, and I loved the barrel scene. The choreography was outstanding, and extremely fun. I think that's a good thing considering The Hobbit is a movie based on a children's book. You could see Peter Jackson's old splatter film maker imago popping up time to time, but those scenes were made with good taste.
The Laketown was very nicely done with all the detailing, and Luke Evans did a great job being Bard. Erebor looked as great as it did on the prologue of the first film, but now we got to see the dragon and his mountains of gold (about the CGI; this scene looked most of the time great, but the melted gold was awful!). Benedict Cumberbatch made a terrific performance as the voice of Smaug. The theater trembled when he spoke and that gave me some serious goosebumps! I liked the Smaug scene, even though it was way too long with a "little" battle. And now comes even bigger spoiler, about the ending - so don't read forward if you don't want to know how it ends! I was so sure before seeing the film that the movie was going to end in the death of Smaug. But it didn't. The ending came rapidly and a bit unexpectedly, at least to me. The movie ended in the scene where Smaug is seen flying towards the Laketown. After thinking this for a while, it is a good ending. It has cliffhanger, and the Smaug is in the last film too by ending second film like this. The third film would not have made much sense if it would have only the the Battle of Five Armies.
All in all, this is a good film that could have been better. Some scenes are just so pointless you have to but wonder them. This is, by far, the funniest Tolkien film made to date. You have to laugh at least to the Gimli joke. Peter's directing is great, but the film could have been better, if some scenes would have been saved for the extended edition. Actor's are all top notch, as you'd expect. Only big complain I have is CGI. It really does look bad at some points. HFR films looks awesome, as does 3D. This is a nice film that you have to see in theaters!