A step in the right direction

Rating: 7/10 (12 April 2014)

After seeing the first Hobbit I had no real interest in seeing anymore. But after a boring night and an offer of a £1.50 rent I thought I'd give the sequel a go, and to be honest I was pleasantly surprised. It's still a way of the depth and quality that the lord of rings offers but it's definitely a step in the right direction for the hobbit trilogy. There were aspects of the film I didn't quite get, for example the love interest between two of the characters seemed a bit out of place and irrelevant. There were also some more really long scenes of the dwarfs on roller coasters but I guess that was expected after the first film. What I did enjoy was the sub-plot of Gandalf and do Gilda. This was an area of the story I felt should've been given more screen time as it's a story that's not really covered by any of Tolkiens work so its left open for some embellishment and creativity. I felt it provided more depth and brought about a slightly darker feel from we had previously seen in the hobbit. All in all I did enjoy the film, but I am still disappointed that Peter Jackson and co went down the route of children's fantasy for the hobbit trilogy, leaving the more mature feel behind in lord of the rings; as I feel if the entirety of the two films were filmed to the standard of the Gollum or Mag scenes, we would've all been blown away. The characters are there, the story is there, the middle earth lore is there, but the execution isn't quite. Less CGI, more character development, less over the top far fetched deaths of orcs, more feasibility and maturity and this film would've been great. 7/10