Just got a chance to see The Desolation of Smaug and I while I enjoyed it overall, I was less impressed than I had hoped. While I'm a HUGE fan of LOTR (both the books and the films), this flick finally showed what the Hobbit filmn trilogy is all about - making money. While I really WANTED to love this film, the truth is that it's blatantly obvious how bloated the script became when trying to stretch this out into three different films. The Hobbit was an adventure tale that was told concisely and creatively while giving the reader a highly-enjoyable introduction to Middle Earth and its inhabitants. The LOTR expanded on the creative possibilities by adding depth to the core story and introducing meaningful characters that made the scope of both the universe and the tale Tolkien was telling more memorable. While the original LOTR film trilogy was justified in its portrayal of those books, The Hobbit is far less detailed and is way more deliberate in its pacing. In fact, a single movie for The Hobbit COULD have been a memorable and worthwhile experience, but now it just feels like we are pawns in Peter Jackson's very-elaborate game of pretend.

Sure, it has entertaining moments, but The Hobbit is way too long, way too violent, and an overall stretch that feeds on fan enthusiasm while delivering a diluted adventure that would have been best portrayed in a way similar to how it was written.