A true blue unique fantasy film for the ages!

Rating: 10/10 (26 December 2013)

Once you come to accept the unnecessary spanning of the source material into 3 films.... You realize that despite some oddball moments and flaws, that this movie is a district entry in the line of the middle earth films to date. Whereas the Lord of the Rings trilogy was a moodier apocalyptic fantasy film, shot with the aesthetic, of a historical biopic, and An Unexpected Journey having a more laid back whimsical proper English air about it, The Desolation of Smaug is, in my opinion, a true full blown fantasy epic. With amazing cinematography and thick atmosphere to boot. And what fantasy film would not be full circle without a dragon.... And here we have one. The best one ever! Everyone, including myself, is scratching their heads at the night and day quality of most of the films CGI when compared to the pristine photorealism of Smaug. My theory, they had to a tighter deadline, or something, that left little time for polishing all the effects, so they decided if only one thing could be of the ut-most quality it would be Smaug. And for me that is a reasonable and fully justified excuse and as a result, Smaug the dragon is a modern masterpiece of cgi art........ While other CGI moments are..... will......... Kinda Blah! The only real complaint I have, without mentioning the forced silly love triangle of the film, is that the movie is called "THE HOBBIT" yet the main character Bilbo is treated like a supporting character. I don't know what the exact total would be, but i think our HOBBIT has way less screen time than the dwarfs. The real crime here is it is a complete undermining of a stellar performance by the stellar actor Martin Freeman. Kind of lame and it was a problem I had with An Unexpected Journey as well. Wish they had made him an actual main character. The thing that i find the most interesting about this movie, is really the reception its invoked. It is downright violently polarized. People who love this movie "LOVE IT!!!!" While those who do not are on a torrent of hate mongering to strip this movie down and pummel it to nothing.... There is no "Meh :l" Reviews about it. Maybe I'm still just caught up in the sheer amazing atmosphere and visuals (Not necessarily Visual FX'S that is) And could be making a bigger deal about it, but history has proved almost every time a movie's reception has been so black and white they usually endure more that most movies. "Blade Runner" mostly comes to mind here. In conclusion this is one of the greatest fantasy films ever made, the look, (again, not necessarily the Fx's but the ambiance and epic cinematography) and that huge mother of a dragon, sets it apart from it's middle earth predecessors, as well as all other fantasy films making it one of the most unique fantasy film epics of all time.