My son and I went and saw The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug this week.  Both of us are very big Tolkien fans and big fans of Peter Jackson’s vision of Lord of the Rings.  After watching the first film of The Hobbit, we weren’t expecting to this one to be great, so we weren’t too disappointed.

(Spoiler Alert)

I enjoyed the movie more than my son did.  There was a lot of padding added to the story, but as it was mostly stuff that was actually going on off the screen, as it were, in the book, I didn’t have too much problem with it.  I was more bothered by the stuff that was taken out.  The long conversations between Smaug and Bilbo turned into one soliloquy by the dragon.  On the other hand, there was one scene which just make my son really angry.  It involved a wheel barrow and a river of gold.

(End Spoiler Alert)

Anyway, it’s great that somebody finally made a film of The Hobbit.  However, if you’re not a fan of Middle Earth, this isn’t the place to start.