Into these woods I wouldn't like to go.

Rating: 8/10 (5 September 2017)

But you've got to go through the woods to get to the mountain to slay the dragon, and what a venture it is. I wouldn't want to face the giant, blood thirsty spiders who will argue with each other after bundling you up before they go for your blood. I wouldn't want to face the various creatures who also dread the dragon but refuse to help the dwarfs (lead by the handsome and fearless Thorin) and the ring wearing invisible Hobbit Bilbo Baggins. Anxious to tell wizard Gandolf about the ring, Bilbo simply says he's found his courage. He'll find a lot more than that before this adventure is over.
Even worse than these human looking creatures with dark souls filled with prejudices, there's also the demonic looking creatures who serve the dragon, a heroic female (Cate Blanchette) and a cursed creature whose form keeps changing against his will. It was established in the first film the judgmental prejudices between dwarfs and hobbits, bonded together because of a common cause, a metaphor if ever I saw one for a reason that humans must band together to fight the evil human dragons who threaten to destroy peace and freedom today.
There literally is a sequence where Bilbo and the dwarfs go over some dangerous falls in barrels, nifty action battle sequences, and of course, middle earth enemy #1, the dragon Smaug. I've had mixed feelings about these often loud fantasy franchises, whether too set in the world of the dark arts or so over the top with computer generated special effects. So I keep these in perspective and am overjoyed when like this, they are actually highly above average. It's difficult to realize where live action filming begins and computer generated effects begin, but as long as there's characters you genuinely root for, then I am in favor of them. Most of the rest, not so much.