One big factor of Tolkien's universe is emotional aspect and metaphorical meaning of the conflicts going on to the real world. This movie tried too many things but failed to be coherent enough to leave a great aftertaste. There are moments of greatness through dialog, action, cgi and some fragments of great characters. But unfortunately the emotions of a Hobbit or the leadership of Thorin don't get much screen time among the action of Elves. Many good moments, characters are initially built and then the movie leaves them and jumbles between 2-3 parallel story arcs. We don't see enough of Bilbo here and the emotional bond between Bilbo and the dwarfs is almost gone. We had many emotional moments related to loss of homeland and fearless leadership of Thorin in the first installment of the trilogy, but the second installment fails to deliver in that aspect, instead there are some good moments depicting the resurrection of the dark powers. This instead of complementing the Hobbit storyline competed against each other and finally left almost nothing for Freeman. Freeman's natural and eloquent depiction of Bilbo is a treat to watch shorty in the final act. And the Smaug is really menacing with his tyrannical but witty personality. On a technical front, this movie being so reliant upon cgi should have invested more in high quality cgi, the cgi looks artificial in some scenes during the light and shade in some scenes related to motion. The brand name of Tolkien's universe is enough to drag us to the theater and the Producer/Director should have paid more respect with a better thought out and a more authentic storyline.
