Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

Beautiful, moving film.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

I was looking forward to the next Hobbit movie after An Unexpected Journey and we got this. More dwarf action and more of Bilbo Baggins, plus those elves. We also get action and suspense and some new faces plus some familiar ones. All of the costumes and the props were well done and the special effects were good, if a little overdone. But keep going and you'll enjoy yourself!

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug I thought held about the same quality as the first Hobbit movie did. The settings where once again mesmerizing and the cast continued to play their roles with nothing short of excellence, as the casting in my opinion continued to be great. I thought Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage really got the chance to show in this sequel that they are truly amazing actors with much deepness and ways of persuasion. Sir Ian McKellen was also a treat to watch again, and so were many others as Peter Jackson & crew once again finds just the right person for the role. I thought the movie was very entertaining, exciting and was once again filled with amazing settings. The adventure continues and once again it is one that should not be missed. I even gave this sequel one rating point more than its predecessor as I thought it held and even higher quality than the first one did. A must see!9/10 Spectacular!

There doesn't seem much point in writing a plot summary for this film - if you've seen the first film then this film plot wise seems to re-tread very similar ground to An Unexpected Journey...So yes familiarity and laziness is part of the problem with this film, but the larger issue lies with how goddamn boring it is. Like An Unexpected Journey we have another story drawn out painfully thin (although in DOS it feels longer and even more drawn out than AUJ). There are few, if any, genuinely exciting or intense moments - even the showdown at the end with Smaug was disappointing . Any camaraderie that existed between the characters in the first film seems to have all put disappeared; I seem to recall there being some amusing moments in the first film, but these moments come few and far between here.Gandalf disappears for most of the film on his own quest which was barely explained and in some ways affected the flow of the film... well what little flow it actually had.The only real plus points with this film lay with the cinematography and some of the special effects - although some of the special effects looked more ridiculous than breath-taking. What I took from this film is that it was basically a very long dull trailer which only seemed to exist to set up the third film in the franchise. Whilst AUJ was disappointing but watchable DOS is just plain bad. I'm really hoping that the third film will somehow turn the franchise around, but after what I've witnessed so far I'm not going to hold my breath

Bilbo (Martin Freeman) has been traveling with a band of dwarfs, encouraged by Gandolf (Ian McKellen) to see a bit of the world. The little folks, led by Thorin (Richard Armitage), are going to a well- known mountain where a dragon sits on a huge pile of gold. This wealth was stolen, long ago, from the dwarfs. On the journey, there are many dangers. Once in Laketown, a village burned once by the dragon, they try to get advice from a wise gentleman (Luke Evans) but he doesn't want to join the party. Also protecting the group are two very skilled warrior-elves (Orlando Bloom and Evangeline Lilly). At last, the wee folks arrive at the mountain, where a secret door only shown when the last rays of sun light it up, reveals itself. Bilbo has the key. Once inside, the dragon is a formidable foe and there more dangerous incidents. So, what if they do defeat the dragon and regain their lost treasure? Will this bring peace, especially when the dwarfs have promised to share the bounty with others? Hobbitually, I don't watch fantasy films like this. But, over a holiday weekend, my relatives chose this one in my company. Surprisingly, the movie was quite entertaining and beautifully filmed. There are so many characters that it is, initially, very hard to come on board but, soon, one learns who to cheer and who to scorn. Freeman is perfect for Bilbo, portraying a quiet, peace- loving Hobbit with subtle charm. Of the others, each one has strengths but I especially loved Lilly and Evans. Also scary is the voice of the dragon, fashioned by Benedict Cumberbatch to perfection. Indeed, the dragon is a wonder to behold, being very real in its inception. The scenery from New Zealand is glorious while the costumes are fun, too. Okay, maybe you will never get "stuck" watching this with family. But, in truth, if you take a chance, you might find it has more to offer than expected.