I used to like it better than An Unexpected Journey

Rating: 7/10 (11 March 2019)

I just finished watching the extended version of this movie and I can tell you one thing - it is long. Very long. Super duper Alice Cooper long. Most of the plot stands still on one spot and doesn't move at all, scenes are very lengthy in runtime and don't extend the plot the way I expected it from this version. Sure it's gotten bigger in the SGI/action sequences but they look so unbelievable (even for Middle Earth) that you cannot fully appreciate any character and empathize with anyone. It's the second movie and we still don't have any answers about who all those people are and why we should worry about their troubles; even Bilbo, the main protagonist is left forgotten because of the jam-packed action that still manages to bore you to death. I could barely sit through the dragged-out and overbloated Smaug scenes. Visual effects' crew has done a wonderful job and you can almost not see their work. I still don't like Martin Freeman as Bilbo no matter how hard I try. Maybe the final chapter will change things but in the meantime "The Desolation of Smaug" suffers from the "trilogy's second movie" syndrom - it builds up for the final chapter and fills the movie with nonsensical non-stop action that you get tired of very easily, it rushes everything up but doesn't explain almost absolutely anything. I was left disappointed although when I first watched it in 2013 I liked it better than the first movie which goes without saying that it didn't stand the test of time. I will not be getting back to this movie ever again.