Feels more like filler than an actual movie

Rating: 7/10 (14 January 2014)

After being pleasantly surprised by the first movie I was probably anticipating this movie a little more and in a way was somewhat let down. Where in the first movie Biblo seemed to dominate the action, in this film it seemed as if he had slipped a little further to the back and a number of other characters began to move to the front (such as Legolas, Tauriel, and Bard). Okay, Bilbo still plays an important role, but in a way it felt as if this film simply exists to tie the other two films together, and I am still struggling to understand how Peter Jackson is going to turn the third film into a full length feature. Mind you, if this film is anything to go by, I suspect I already know the answer to this one.
The reason I say this is because there are a couple of scenes in the movie that had somewhat been dragged out a little too much, and also that seemed to be a little obsolete. For instance, there is the scene where they are hurtling down the river in barrels and we have two of the elves running along the banks killing bucket loads of orcs. Mind you, in the book we do not actually have the Dwarfs being relentlessly pursued by the orcs (and also Legolas does not actually appear until the first book of Lord of the Rings). The other scene involved the fight with Smaug in the Lonely Mountain, particularly when they set up an elaborate trap to immerse him with gold. It seemed that this was going a little overboard, especially those of us who know that Smaug does not actually die in the Lonely Mountain. This, however, is left for the final movie.
This wasn't a bad movie, and Jackson has added a lot more to the story than was originally there. For instance the who situation in Laketown where the town is being run by a tyrant and has numerous spies out watching the population has been added to the film (as have the whole thing about the orcs). However he has also borrowed some of the story from Tolkien's other writings, such as the rise of the necromancer in Dul Gulder, as well as Radagast the Brown (who is mentioned in the stories but we do not actually encounter him). The thing about the Wind Lance is also an addition.
One of the themes that seems to run through this movie this is the idea of how greed is destructive. We see this in Thorin Oakenshield and we see this in the dragon as well. We all know what is going to happen to the dragon, and those of us who have read the book also know what is going to happen to Thorin. However, I will not spoil the ending here (though I may have already done so, but then this is why I marked this review as containing spoilers). What we don't know is how Peter Jackson is going to end it, though I suspect, based on the title of the third movie, that Biblo manages to get home.