3/10 -> D-

It's ridiculous. Action scenes are even more laughable than those in the first movie. Camerawork and VFX constantly present this more as a video game cut scene rather than a real movie with a world you need to be immersed in to enjoy. It's pretty shit and most of it is pointless.

I'm not so sure the ending is meant to be a cliffhanger. It seems to be mostly about Bilbo and the Dwarves realising their mistake of awakening the dragon, realising the trouble they have caused.

Yeah, the enraged dragon flying towards a city, intent on destroying it is not a cliffhanger whatsoever.

You are both right. It is obviously an old-school cliffhanger, but it does also resolve the two-film tension of whether the company of dwarves' drive to reclaim their kingdom will have dangerous and deadly consequences on many others.

No it's not old school. Back to the Future Part II is an old school cliffhanger that rocks. DOS is just awkwardly trying to stop the film mid action sequence.

Even Reloaded's cliffhanger at least had it's own story run it's course. DMC same thing. This just has so many unresolved issues. In fact no plot point at all in DOS is resolved throughout.

It does not matter if you dig the ending or hate it, or how much paste you ate in your "special" classes. Ending at a height of danger and thus creating anticipation for/suspense regarding what will happen next is obviously in line with old-fashioned adventure serials. Say it is poorly done, I don't give a shit, but don't tell me there is no precedent for this exact type of ending.

Interesting thought process. My thoughts on the ending were rather slight, and are not the major issue with the film. But.

Did those films fail to stand alone on their own? Oh wait, you didn't give a single film for your "precedent" Not that it even matters as that was never brought up. I appreciate the "paste" self defense argument though, or you comparing it to what exactly?????? The old Batman TV show, which is one of the few things that end on actual "so called" danger. But there isn't. The danger is the equivalent of ending a film on me about to trying hot soup. Obviously Smaug will fall in part III. There is no suspense. It is not comparable to a old serial film.

A shitty cliffhanger will be a shitty cliffhanger no matter the decade. It had no chance of being good, it's the middle of an action scene that was brought up as the primary marketing of the entire film. It's not a cliffhanger. Again it's just lazy filmmaking and studio milking.

Yeah. It really is a shitty cliffhanger, especially because things have been made pretty obvious as to how Smaug will die (and pretty much everything else can be concluded as we all know where LotR picked things up - there's literally no anticipation or mystery anywhere left in the story). They should've at least kept the black arrow hidden and reveal who Bard is in the third movie.

Also it's frustrating to see how badly they have expanded the story. So Tauriel goes after the dwarves because she likes Kili and obviously wants to save him. But instead of bitch actually carrying the plant that can heal him, she decides it's good enough to catch up to them and then what? Leave him, watch him die? But luckily she stumbles upon a dwarf carrying the necessary plant. IT'S SO FUCKING DUMB. And the whole movie is full of crap like this.

And I still can't get over how awful action scenes are. They are just ridiculous. The barrel escape scene especially. It's fucking retarded. People were laughing at Legolas' "surfing" in LotR, but every action scene here is more ridiculous than that.

Also the acting is quite bad all around. Lee Pace is really shitty here (too bad, because I really like him), whoever is playing Beorn is horrible as hell.

It can't be a shitty cliffhanger when it's not even a cliffhanger. It's an intermission is all.

Sorry. Not really a fan of year long intermission's as well.

Nobody seemed to mind with The Lord of the Rings, The Hunger Games, Harry Potter etc.

I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but life doesn't simply all get rolled up into bitesize stories with a perfect ending. Sometimes things are abrupt, things are not ideal. It ends with them not having defeated the dragon..just the same as every Harry Potter ends with them not having beaten Voldemort (but the threat of him is apparrent throughout 7 films, not just one).

Life ≠ Movies

Some people are always in the hunt for more realistic movies.

Saw it again. It has obvious flaws, mostly the monotonous fights that lead nowhere. The battle with Smaug is especially annoying as it is very long and leads nowhere. Still, it is very enjoyable and very rewatchable. It lacks some of the charm of the first movie, but it compensates in other areas. Gandalf's confrontation with Sauron, and Bilbo's with Smaug are fantastically epic.

A- or A

Besides the last HP book that was split in two movies, HP 1-6 can stand on their own as fully realized stories. Sure, things do carry on, but in every movie the thing that the plot revolves around gets resolved. So you see, it can be done. The thing is The Hobbit is one book, one story that needs to be told from start to finish. So wherever you cut it it will be a bad and inappropriate cut as it will leave the story forcefully disassembled. LotR are six books split into three volumes and all of them end up on a well thought out cliffhangers. The Fellowship of the Ring follows the Fellowship and ends when the Fellowship gets broken up, leaving reader/viewer in complete uncertainty what will happen next - all option are opened.

The Two Towers changes the feeling of the first two books as things are now more large scale - huge battles are starting and we get the feeling of that final epic clash between forces of good and evil. Half of the Fellowship is battling with Saruman, while Sam and Frodo continue to try and find a way to Mount Doom. And while the first part of the fellowship is victorious and continue on, Frodo and Sam get split. The Two Towers ends with a bitter sweet taste beacuse even if they won the battle against Orcs, it will make no difference if Frodo and Sam don't succeed in destroying the ring, which now seems more impossible than ever bacuse the more "important" hobbit got caught.

And The Return off the King finishes of the story. But there's a head and tail to all these books and the cliffhangers are well thought out.

The Hobbit movies feel like they've been cut in middle action once the prerequisite running time has been met. If someone asked you what exactly happened in The Hobbit 2 that is selfcontained in this movie, I don't think there's a single plot you could name. Either it started in the first movie and is still going on, either it started in this one and it was never finished. Which is a pretty ridiculous way to make movies (or even write books, which is why Tolkien never wrote TH like this).

This complaint of DOS's ending makes sense now, but it won't anymore one year from now, when we'll have seen Hobbit 3. And when it will be out on video, if you're mad DOS's ending, then just watch part 3 and relax.

^yep

I'll only watch it if I get free tickets just like for this one. TH doesn't deserve my money. Also the format more suitable for Jackson's TH would be a TV show then. Not movies. Those don't need well thought out cliffhangers as you get to see continuation in a week. A year is too much. Face it. TH movies are crap.

I thought it was awesome, great blockbuster filmmaking. Really really fun and cleanly executed action scenes and I generally enjoy the dynamics and company of this group to the LOTR ones - Thorin and Bilbo is a great contrast. The elves worked for me, spent just enough time in their chamber and Legolas/Tauriel are an enjoyable subplot.

I continue to like The Hobbit films a lot more than LOTR!

Et tu, Shacke?

I would have ended it with Smaug getting killed, have that be the climatic action scene of the film. And then end the film on a cliffhanger pointing towards the impending battle of the five armies.

Because what's going to happen is that, pending some massive meddling with the source material, Smaug is going to die within the first 20 minutes of There And Back Again which will be hugely anti-climatic, and the third film won't properly focus on one thing which should be the big battle.

I liked it enough, The river escape scene is amazing and worth the price of admission all by itself(which was 23.50 on the Lincoln Center Imax ... yikes!) . Yet it feels so damn incomplete that I have to place it below An Unexpected Journey. The ending is awful.

I also liked Mirkwood and thought Tauriel was super hot. Bard sucks and looks way too much like Legolas. I hope PJ changes the script and has Smaug eat him. Tauriel can kill the dragon.

I simply cannot understand how this scene can be good to anyone. It's one roll eye after the other basically. Way too much over the top.

It's not an amazing scene at all, but it's also not bad. There are some good shots and it's quite energetic, but it's difficult to film it, and that was clear.

I love the barrel scene. It is very exciting and playful. A vivid sense of motion, propulsion, with potent moments of physical comedy without sacrificing overall suspense.