A follow-up that doesn't live up to what Tolkien deserved

Rating: 7/10 (2 February 2017)

'An Unexpected Journey' showed promise. I was hyped at the end when we get a shot of Smaug's eye buried in a mountain of gold. There were goofy battle scenes, especially the ones with the goblins under the mountain, and it was much too long, but after that movie I still believed there was some hope for this trilogy.
After 'The Desolation of Smaug' I knew that there was no hope. This trilogy was not going to come even close to the predecessor trilogy, 'The Lord of the Rings'. Of course it was a tall order to begin with.
The pacing is bad, the CGI fight scenes are laughable, the addition of a love triangle doesn't work. Eagerly awaited scenes such as wandering in Mirkwood, or staying the night at Beorn's, or knocking on the secret stone door simply fall flat emotionally. Gandalf blasting white forcefields in Escherian ruins was certainly not what I had in mind for his research of Dol Guldur. The movie has its moments - at least Bilbo's conversation with Smaug was tense and the dragon really had a presence, but overall it was a disappointment.
I still gave it 7/10 because I think that if you disregard the source material and its utter failure to live up to it, it's still an enjoyable fantasy adventure. Compare it to titles such as 'Conan the Barbarian' (2011), 'Eragon' or Jake Gyllenhaal's 'Prince of Persia' and you will notice that it is a worthy addition to the rather narrow selection of high fantasy movies. It has orcs, elves, wizards and a dragon, the story runs along smoothly although it's rather generic, and the production design is appreciable. You just have to ignore the brilliance that could've been.