The second Hobbit film - The Desolation of Smaug - has had its New Zealand premiere in Wellington, receiving glowing reviews from the audience and a critic.
Suzanne Mueller of Germany at the premiere. Photo: RNZ
The screening at the Embassy Theatre on Monday night was also a fundraiser, with proceeds from the $100 tickets going to the Marine Education Centre in Island Bay.
Sir Peter Jackson and international members of the cast were not on the red carpet, but the New Zealand ones were, including Mark Hadlow, John Callen and Jed Brophy.
Film reviewer Graeme Tuckett said the film was better than the first and he gave it four stars. He said it's a lot faster, has more story to tell and looks better than last time.
The film opens in cinemas nationally on Thursday.
Overseas reviews
Overseas reviews for the latest Hobbit instalment have been largely positive although one reviewer suggested it was a gap filler in the trilogy.
The Guardian newspaper said The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug had "picked up the pace" from the first Hobbit film.
The second instalment "never sagged once" during its two hours and forty minutes, it says.
The Telegraph s not quite as conciliatory.
It calls the follow up to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey an "Unexpected Detour", and says the "second leg of Sir Peter Jackson's three-part adaptation of The Hobbit, by J. R. R. Tolkien, is mostly stalling for time: two or three truly great sequences tangled up in long beards and longer pit-stops."
The Telegraph also says the movie is a true work of Sir Peter with "mopey conversations and bloodthirsty fight scenes".
In the United States, Variety magazine called the film a "much more exciting and purposeful second chapter" with "action-packed adventure benefits".
Empire magazine agreed saying it is a "huge improvement on the previous instalment".
And there were compliments all-round for the New Zealand scenery that serves as the backdrop for the trilogy.
The Guardian says the landscape has a "storybook beauty" and is a fitting habitat for the story.
The reviewer says "Jackson depicts this fantasy world with style and gusto" and he is "looking forward to the third film already".
