So after avoiding it for some time I finally got around to watching the second part of Peter Jackson’s epic adaptation of The Hobbit.

Hmm.  The barrel scene says it all really.  Here is an interesting, fun escape with danger and thrills smothered in a mass of overblown nonsense and noise.  Characters do impossible things that render them indestructible and therefore uninteresting, and the whole thing quickly becomes tedious.  Repeat for most scenes.

Jackson clearly loves this world and the characters but this film really needed more distance from his The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001 – 2003); a different director, one movie and just generally ‘less’ would do it.  Still, I’ll watch the last one because dragon.