The Desolation of Smaug (Was it Better?)

Rating: 8/10 (15 December 2013)

While the movie was excellently made with graphics and CGI, it had its ups and downs. Smaug the Stupendous was amazing. They did better than any dragon made in ANY movie in history. Outstanding! And what better actor as the voice of him! Excellent! And the music to go with it was a great companion to the action and suspense. And, unlike many have said, the movie was not a drag of 2.5 hours of nothing. It was amazing. The spiders were new and original (not some copy from another movie). The fight scenes in Mirkwood were action-packed and exciting. I'm glad that they got Azog out of the picture for most of the movie and transitioned it to Bolg to give us something different. I got deadly tired of Azog in the first movie and just wanted someone new ---- Bolg!
With Dol Guldur, it was odd. When was Gandalf ever imprisoned by Sauron himself and a band of orcs? Seems like just a copy of the time when he was imprisoned by Saruman in Orthanc!!! Watch him escape by eagles again for the third time (get's old, doesn't it?). It does make sense that Sauron could overpower him, but why would Gandalf not get that it was Sauron who ruled in Dol Guldur. He knew that this Necromancer brought back the 9 Ringwraiths and if this Necromancer did, then only one could do it (as Gandalf said), so this makes it CLEAR that it is Sauron. And if it is CLEAR that it was Sauron, then Gandalf would have no reason to enter Dol Guldur alone. If only Radagast had gone with him (they might have survived). The idea that the orcs are chasing the dwarfs from the far West lands of Middle Earth all the way to Esgaroth (that is, Laketown) is odd. Why would they do that? They most certainly did not in the book. In the book, there was not such a hatred between Azog and Thorin. It wasn't so fierce as the movie portrays it.
I love how they added Legolas, but why is he CGI???? He had some amazing fight scenes in Mirkwood, but #1 he did not need to leave Mirkwood and #2 he did not need to be CGI. Tauriel, despite popular demand, was a disgust. I was fine at first with her being added, but this newfound love with Kili is disgusting. A dwarf and an elf would never fall in love -- no, not ever! Indeed their peoples do hate one another and Tolkien made it that way. They would kill each other with ease! And Legolas would never abandon his father. He is just like his father and he doesn't change until he joins the Fellowship. Gimli, in all honesty, changes his character. I agree that, at the time, Legolas would have been in the lands of Mirkwood when the dwarfs were coming by, but Tolkien had not thought of this character yet. He had Thranduil in mind, but not his son. But Legolas was a good addition (to a point). I enjoy how they did Lake-Town. Little is known about Lake-Town, but they made it well and designed it well.
What few may have noticed is that they added something new in Lake-Town (not something bad, but something new). Never in LOTR movie history has there been a person of color. Not that it is bad to have them, but it hasn't been done before. In Lake-Town, there were several of them. It was unique and interesting. A nice twist. The orcs, on the other hand, were outstanding. In the original trilogy, there were some odd orcs. Every orc was different, but these ones in the Hobbit looked more realistic. They actually looked scary and they did some good damage when they attacked the Elves and Dwarfs by the Woodland Realm.
The ending was great --- unexpected. I was thinking that Smaug would die in this movie, but clearly not. Out of all of Jackson's movies, this was the shortest by almost twenty minutes. You thought there were still thirty minutes left to see the end of Smaug, but then BOOM it ends. Really makes you want to come back, doesn't it? The first movie had a plain ending. They didn't even need to show the dragon's eye, but it was cool. But it was more of an expected ending, it wasn't an "UNEXPECTED" journey's end. But, as others have said, the name of the movie doesn't speak for itself. You never really saw the "DEVASTATION" of Smaug. You saw him shout and fly and breath a little fire, but you never got to see him in his true nature (when he attacks Lake-Town). But, overall, it was an amazing movie in comparison to the first. They dragged the first movie out too long. They could have made the first movie only an hour and a half (maybe) and then extend the second one to over three and a half hours.
They left too much open-ended things in the second movie. Gandalf is trapped, Radagast is off to see Galadriel, Smaug is off to destroy Lake-Town, Bard is trapped in a cell, Legolas is chasing Bolg, the orcs of Dol Guldur are marching to battle, the dwarfs are tired and have failed to kill Smaug, and that's a lot!!! Then the movie slams shut. The next movie is going to bring a lot of closure to the events of the second movie for sure. It better!!!