THE HOBBIT : THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG

After successfully crossing some jacked up Mountains which seem to be everywhere in middle earth and are always in the freakin way, Thorin and his group head into Mirkwood Forest without Gandolf because he likes to just wander off sometimes. They are trying to get to Lake-town where it will be time for Bilbo to make good on his agreement with the dwarves.

After encountering a bunch of mountains, impatience and a secret door, Bilbo meets the power hungry dragon Smaug who sounds a lot like Khan from STAR TREK : INTO DARKNESS. While I don’t think anyone in their right mind can say Jackson hasn’t completely gone to every step to make this series visually beautiful, this one stood out for several reasons. 1) Smaug looked freaking great and he is kind of a jerk as polite as Bilbo was trying to be (after all Smaug spends his spare time destroying cities). 2) Big huge bear batman and 3) The log ride at Disneyland (kidding). What else could you want? I won’t say I didn’t thoroughly enjoy this especially in IMAX 3D.

Problems – not sure the shortest book needed 3 installments. Some characters seem either really out of place or don’t show up in the chronological later 3, so it seems odd that we see them now but never hear about them again? Legolas seems like WAY more of a jerk than he did in the previous installments (which are chronologically later in the series). There is ZERO doubt this is a step up from THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY but for whatever reason after 5 of these now, it wasn’t enough to get to a 7 rating.

I give this movie a 6 out of 7.

 Rating Definition – A SPECTACULAR MARVEL OF AWESOMENESS THAT MAKES CUTE CAT VIDEOS LOOK LIKE THE HUGEST WASTE OF YOUR TIME IN HISTORY. This is the movie that you will try and walk by at the store and not be able to. You will buy it forgetting you already have it. Then one day a friend will come to your house. They will tell you how much they love this movie and you won’t even tell them you have 2 in your collection. Because you can’t give it up. You have to have 2.