The Hobo: Desolation of Smaug...

[Canyarion]

... is terrible. Just a warning, don't expect too much from it. I saw it tonight and there were times where I just had to look away, put my forehead on my hand and slowly shake my head.

But maybe you'll like it, I don't know. This is an action movie slightly inspired by elements of The Hobbit, nothing more.

[Canyarion]

I wrote a review and even submit it to IMDb (too many 10/10 user reviews at the moment). This is it, pretty much spoilerless:

Decent fantasy-action slightly inspired by The Hobbit.

Most reviews will tell you what's so great about this movie and why it's worth watching, but I figured you should hear the other side of the story.

First of all a small note for Tolkien fans. If you thought An Unexpected Journey strayed a bit too far from the book: The Desolation of Smaug looks like the script writers didn't even know there was a book. The movie tries hard to change the story wherever it can, reducing fan-favorite chapters to 5 minute scenes and writing new content that feels out of place.

But it's not only bad if you've read the book. I really wonder what the target audience is, because it feels like it's written for 15 year old boys. There are random action scenes every 10 minutes and 'funny' decapitations every 30. The worst thing here is that the action comes at the cost of character development. You have a band of 13 Dwarfs and a Hobbit, yet you rarely see them interact.

Now I like Elves more than Dwarfs, so I didn't mind seeing so much of them in this movie. But having them show up in every place to save the day feels wrong. Perhaps Peter Jackson thought his cast of Dwarfs wasn't good enough to create an enjoyable movie? Gandalf's scenes in Dol Guldur were an interesting addition in concept, but they are just too slow. I feel his scenes mostly serve as an attempt to raise The Hobbit to The Lord of the Rings' level of epicness. And that just doesn't work.

The story is full of illogicalities. How does entering the mountain to steal the Arkenstone to unite the Dwarfs to kill the Dragon to enter the mountain work exactly?? And remember that heartwarming last scene of An Unexpected Journey, where Thorin finally accepts Bilbo? Well, that's all gone again. Even though he keeps outsmarting all the Dwarfs, Bilbo is back to being an unappreciated 5th wheel of the party. And did the writers really think viewers would be so desperate for a love story that they'd enjoy an Elf and a Dwarf flirting it up? Their scenes feel forced and are painful to watch.

Martin Freeman's acting is top notch again, but sadly he hardly gets any screen time. He only shines in his scene with Smaug. Now Smaug as a character is awesome, no complaints there. Yet most of his scenes are way too dragged out. There's a 20 minute scene with the Dwarfs running around thinking they can defeat him. Only at that point the movie already hinted at the only possible way of defeating him. Perhaps the worst aspect is that these scenes make Smaug look like an unintelligent creature. Dwarfs luring a Dragon around by going "Nana-nanana you can't catch me!" is not only silly and cliché, it's an insult to Smaug's character.

Final complaint: the whole movie builds up to a scene.... that's apparently going to be the opening scene of movie 3. Nobody in the cinema was sure if the movie had ended, or there was just an awkwardly long pause when the screen went black.

A movie like this you'll want to see, no matter how good or bad it is. You can't miss out on such a huge release, especially when it looks gorgeous in HFR 3D. But where I watched each Lord of the Rings movie 3 times in cinema, watching The Desolation of Smaug just once was enough for me.

In the end, most problems of the movie seem to stem from the decision to turn the cute Hobbit tale into three epic movies that have to live up to the Lord of the Rings hype. It doesn't work.

[Teuthida]

That's a shame. Thought it was going to be an improvement over the first one. Really would have preferred a single tight movie.

[Canyarion]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1170358/reviews-38
Yay, my review is up on IMDb. I hope some people will find it useful.

Well, An Unexpected Journey was criticized for being too slow. And now the sequel is fast in the scenes that are based on the book, but slow in the new scenes. Maybe you'll like it. It's still worth watching it on the big screen I think.

[TheSlyMoogle]

I absolutely hated the first one. I went back and re-watched all the lotr films after and there was much of them that I didn't enjoy either, but, all the boring stuff in the lotr films eventually led to some epic battle or some amazing scene. The Hobbit never did that.

I hate to say it too, because several of the actors in the hobbit are excellent. Just great actors in a shitty film.

[Fox 6]

The Hobo?

[TheSlyMoogle]

Originally Posted by Fox 6

The Hobo?

Hobbitses and hoboses is the same thingses.

[Fox 6]

Originally Posted by TheSlyMoogle

Hobbitses and hoboses is the same thingses.

Sweet, I see them all the time downtown.

[Combine 017]

This movie is # 1 ever right now. For some reason, I dont think IMDB is going to care about your bad review. But you should probably go see the new Bieber movie. Just for comparisons sake. The directer said the movie could have come out last month, but Bieber wanted it to come out on Christmas because he said "Jesus has enough fame, I want to become the new Jesus. People should celebrate me."

[Angrist]

#1?
It's sitting on #133 in the top 250... and it's dropping. And I'm going to buy 10 Bieber tickets just to support the guy!!

[Vampyr]

I enjoyed it, but yeah, it doesn't compare to the first three LotR movies.

I miss the orcs being dudes in suites. The CGI in these movies looks worse than it the visual effects did in the old ones. I think there are less miniatures being used or something, I'm not sure.

Smaug looks amazing, but other effects that were also present in the older movies just doesn't look as good.

[Teuthida]

Still haven't seen it but happened upon this.