Fantasy Forged to Film Fantastically

Rating: 9/10 (13 December 2013)

Before I get started, know this: HFR did not, in my opinion, take away from the experience. Instead, I felt like I was watching the next step in the evolution of cinema, and it was not unlike the first time I experienced 3D.
Peter Jackson, you are an asset to the college of film dear sir. It has been awhile, and only a handful of times, since I've actually set on the edge of my seat at the movie theater. Desolation of Smaug caused my eyeballs to attempt transfusing with the screen for the entire last quarter of the film.
Desolation of Smaug feeds off of the wide-open stage that most of us trudged our way through to build by first viewing An Unexpected Journey. Thanks to that, this second film was a non-stop barrel ride down the rapids of anticipation, and my friends, I got drenched.
I'm not going to go into details on what this film does in the animation department that sets the bar for other films. Also, there will be no details on how well the story does, or does not, adhere to the text from J.R.R. Tolkien. Since I've not read the book, and the animation can really only be truly appreciated by viewing said film yourself (seeing how HFR is 48fps, and a picture is worth a thousand words, and it's nearly three hours long, that's more words than I care to type), I'll leave those details for you to discover.
The one thing I would like to add, since I can't seem to find the subject matter online, is that that Smaug seems to be an analogy for religion if I followed the story correctly. Basically, the dwarfs are set to be the equivalent of humankind. The dwarfs (humankind) became greedy and things started falling apart. Along comes a dragon (religion) to take control of the wealth, since humankind couldn't resist the disease of greed. And, well, that's as far as I've taken the idea, but I think there's merit to the theory.
To wrap up my transient flash of this film fan's take on The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, I'll simply say this. Go see this film. At the theater I went to, there were children as young as seven or so in attendance, and given the fact it was nearly a three-hour movie and I didn't once hear the impatience of young jabbering, that tells you something.