Spiders? Run! Orcs? Run! Dragon? Run! Sure was a lot of running here...

Rating: 8/10 (28 December 2013)

"The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" is actually the best of all the movies in the Lord of the Rings universe. Well, at least I think so. "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" was nice, but "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" is just a tad better, and especially better than the movies in the first trilogy.
The characters in the movie, are unfortunately, much as in the previous movie, where only two-three of the dwarfs are actually given time on the screen and show that they are more than mere extras. It is a shame, because all thirteen dwarfs would have something individual and unique to bring to the movie aside from just being extras and fillers.
There is a lot of running in this movie. Basically the movie is one long chase. The group are chased by spiders, they run; they are chased by orcs, they run; they are chased by a dragon, they run. Despite all this cat and mouse chasing, then the 161 minutes the movie runs for come and go in the blink of an eye.
This is indeed a movie with special effects, and there is nothing spared. There has been paid a lot of attention to the effects, and it has really paid off nicely. The spiders were really interesting and nicely animated, well aside from the talking that is. And Smaug himself and his vast hoard of treasure and trinkets, well that makes it worth watching the movie for that alone.
If you enjoy sword and fantasy, then of course you are familiar with the work of Tolkien. But translating a relative small book into a movie in three parts? Well, there is a lot of fillers, surely, but so far it is working out nicely enough. Perhaps not having read Tolkien's books is actually in your favor. Just enjoy the movies for the high fantasy that it is and don't pay too much attention to how true (or not) the movies are to the books.
As for the people on the cast list, well the casting department has done a nice job, as usual.
And as it was with the previous four movies, then it is grand to see the places brought to life, especially after having spent numerous years of playing Lord of the Rings Online.
"The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" is great fun, an adventure for just about everyone.