Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Well, this is the point that the adulation stops, I feel. The need to string the franchise out so far that The Hobbit, of all books, is stretched into three overlong films has ended in Original Character fan-fiction, daft elf fighting scenes that have gone from small but amazing vignettes in the first films to rather tedious video game-esque events with rather too much surfing on the bodies of foes, and a makeup department that is unable to make Orlando Bloom look less than twenty years older than in The Fellowship of the Ring. 

This film could certainly have been an hour shorter and just as good. There were a lot of extraneous sequences, and while Smaug is undoubtedly the highlight of the film and quite brilliant to watch, there was far too much of him being incapable of catching his prey before the cliffhanger that close-ups of a missing scale and a reveal of a hidden black arrow in Bard's house has totally robbed of any real tension. 

To me, the film felt like a series of highlights - escaping from the elves, battling orcs, Sylvester McCoy constantly stealing the show (despite that scene on the Hobbit set in the Doctor Who special) and of course, Benedict Cumberbatch's superbly smug Smaug. I'm also a fan of those lovely sweeping shots of the environments. But between those just came far too much of very little, and the little love triangle between two elves and the one non-daft-looking Dwarf who isn't going to be the king definitely isn't up to the best parts of this most impressive of series. I also wasn't too sure about giving Stephen Fry another role, for much as I love seeing him on screen, it was jarring and very much a moment to take the audience out of their involvement with the story. 

But for all I know it had major flaws, I did enjoy the vast majority of it. I certainly wouldn't want to have missed it, and apart from going a bit too far with the combat sequences - yes, even the one with the barrel - this is some of the most spectacular film-making it's possible to see. It's true that really, Peter Jackson could spew out any rubbish with this production team and cast and I'd lap it up, but...I must say, I have to wish that it had been better. And shorter.