I couldn’t believe my ears when I first heard that second installment of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit franchise was going to be released to the Filipino public December 13th; the film’s predecessors all showed the January following the premiere because it always made way for the MMFF (Metro Manila Film Fest). To say that I was excited is a gross understatement – I have been a Tolkien nerd since I picked up the books in high school.

Also I really loved what Peter Jackson did with the first installment, An Unexpected Journey, that even though a whole year has passed, I was still very much looking forward to part 2. Add that to the fact that The Two Towers was my favorite film out of the LOTR trilogy and you have me basically foaming at the mouth.

So how did it fare? Well here’s the round up for Guillermo del Torro and Peter Jackson’s baby (Note that there may be spoilers – read at your own risk):

THE GOOD:

1. It followed the thread of showing us the behind-the-scenes of Sauron’s return to Middle Earth. That’s a very big part of what made me love the first installment because logically the dude didn’t just appear out of thin air. Surely there must’ve been signs and if so, what did the oh-so-wise council did about them?

2. Martin Freeman’s Bilbo Baggins was phenomenal. There’s always been something about Freeman’s subtlety that generates the biggest impact. Here he shows us how the ring is slowly corrupting the genial and peace loving Bilbo, making him capable of deeds he didn’t think he was ever capable of doing. Truly there could be no other actor who could do this transformation justice, no one.

3. Bennedict Cumberbatch’s delicious timbre of a voice as Smaug the dragon. Have you seen or heard a dragon as eloquent? Also I found that the whole acting against CGI thing didn’t diminish his and Martin Freeman’s chemistry – I actually found the scenes where Bilbo and Smaug interacted as my favorites. Although that may just have been the Sherlock fan girl in me, I’m not sure.

4. Lee Pace’s Thranduil. One word: preeeeeeetty. I read somewhere that the character was described as ‘preening’ and somehow Pace did it in a dignified way. He wasn’t bratty or immature. Here he shows us a king who is only worried about protecting his constituents. What happens outside his borders is no problem of his, so go away.

THE BAD:

1. Legolas. I know, I know, I can’t believe I’m saying this either. I am like the world’s biggest Legolas fan and it’s just that Orlando Bloom looks ten years older, you know? I wish they didn’t push it; this trilogy doesn’t need any more links to the first one. Aside from Legolas being Thranduil’s son, there really was nothing else for him to hold on to. A cameo might’ve sufficed and perhaps generated the fan girl squeals, but he really wasn’t needed in this one, not with Aidan Turner’s Kili being the film’s token hot guy. Also the contact lenses he had on were a bit freaky; they reminded me of the blue eyes of the white walkers from HBO’s A Game of Thrones.

2. Speaking of unneeded and unnecessary things, they filled this one with too many random plot arcs that I don’t think were actually crucial to the story. Sure, the whole athelas thing was a brilliant way to bridge the two trilogies together but the whole political confusion between the Laketown people and the Bard was a bit over the top.

THE UGLY:

1. All over the internet you’ll find Evangeline Lilly telling anybody who’d listen that her character, the elf guard Tauriel, is not romantically linked to Orlando Bloom’s Legolas. Well, she wasn’t lying – the love angle was with Kili, the dwarf. I can’t believe that the director and producers stooped low enough to try and sell us this crappy Romeo and Juliet sub-plot. While I am totally onboard the idea that yeah, they needed a bit of feminine touch in this film, I am repulsed by the cheesy attempt at a love story. Tauriel is bad ass enough without that crap and considering how Kili ends up at the end of the story, I am left wondering why bother at all?

2. Also I don’t get why the film makers decided to place Gandalf in the position where he was able to stand face to eye with Sauron. Sorry, but I am having a difficult time merging the free balling Gandalf who strode into the Shire bearing a cart full of fireworks to the panicked wizard who got to gaze upon the biggest threat to Middle Earth. If he already knew that Sauron was on the rise, why didn’t they take appropriate action? Why the hell were they so effing relaxed when they knew that Sauron, the same dark entity that almost brought all living creatures on Middle Earth to their knees, was back? Don’t tell me that it was because they didn’t consider him as a real threat without the ring; they know what he’s capable of. An excuse like that doesn’t make sense.

All in all I feel…underwhelmed by the film. I’m still trying to determine if I just had too high expectations or something but I’m leaning towards the idea that since the film makers are trying to stretch out the story into three thee hour long films, they decided to stuff the story with as much as they can, even if some of it’s crap. I guess they didn’t have this problem with the first trilogy, not with everything they had to cram in.

Verdict: 7.5/10. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a brilliant film and you should totally see it. Just, you know, try not to expect too much.