Movie Reviews: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug


Peter Jackson struck gold with the Lord of The Rings trilogy, translating J.R.R Tolkien’s epic novels to the big screen and, in many cases, opening it up to a new audience. The fantasy classics stand tall in the annals of box office notoriety, and have become Christmas re-watch stalwarts. A bona-fide success, there’s no doubt.

His decision to stretch out The Hobbit story - a book of 400 pages, around the same as each of the Lord of The Rings books - into a fully fledged trilogy, hasn’t been received quite as well.

The second film in The Hobbit trilogy, The Desolation of Smaug, has been receiving mixed reviews from critics, but that hasn't stopped its box office smash this weekend as many loyal Lord of The Rings fans have been flocking to the theaters.





Many critics are in agreement that this new film is worth watching just for the titular dragon Smaug, voiced by Benedith Cumbercatch (Sherlock).



Matt Maytum of Total Film says in his review:

"While spiders, bear-men and Elves are all well and good, the key reason to shell out for a ticket has always been Smaug, and after a film and a half of build-up, he's certainly worth the wait."



Jordan Hoffman of ScreenCrush.com goes:

"The dragon is the bomb. Smaug is the coolest dragon ever!"

-IMDb News

I saw it two days ago, and I really liked it. :)

i wasn't fan of lord of the rings i was more of harry potter fan i enjoyed the second hobbit a lot. i hope that the third one is more awesome. am looking forward to the next one.

I've long been a fan of J.R.R. Tolkien in general and I enjoy both "The Lord of the Rings" movies and "The Hobbit" movies. I honestly liked the first Hobbit movie better though. Don't get me wrong- the second one is good too. But honestly- I've read "The Lord of the Rings" books and "The Hobbit" book- and they're all great books. But "The Hobbit" really didn't need three movies to tell its story- Peter Jackson had added a ton of things to these movies. Granted, a lot of it is from the appendices to "The Lord of the Rings" (stuff from the books that didn't make it into the LOTR movies), so that's kinda cool- but it still doesn't really fit with "The Hobbit". But oh well- I enjoy the movies regardless. And I'm definitely looking forward to the last movie to see the conclusion.:) :cool:

I have to say though that these two movies don't feel like Peter Jackson is just trying to stretch one book into three movies. Yeah, he has obviously added stuff from other Tolkien books. And they even invented a new character, who's not in the books, just to have one more woman in the story. But the result sure is good.