Peter Jackson fell short of capturing the essence of Tolkien's masterpiece.

Rating: 6/10 (14 December 2013)

Not much of this film is on par with the book. Being a fan I took the film for what it was, Peter Jackson playing around with his new digital equipment and as a result losing focus of the essence that Tolkien captured in the original novel. Imax 3d is an experience for sure, however due to it's faster frame rate and extreme resolution, some of the acting looks poor and some of the digital scenes look fake. Smaug the dragon is very impressive, those scenes alone are worth seeing the film. Jacskon's best achievement in this film is capturing the magnificent creature and keeping it on par with the book, it far proceeded what I expected the dragon to be, and yes, Jackson adds some scenes that are not on par with the book under the mountain. Smaug should be up for an Oscar with his performance. Despite smaug, the film overall once again, left me unsatisfied and fell short of the classical masterpiece published in 1932. For the average movie goer this film should make your B or A list, but for the avid fan of middle earth it will disappoint.