The Desolation of Smaug

Despite the fact that I love the original LOTR trilogy to death – and have watched the extended editions multiple times – I’ve had trouble getting excited for The Hobbit trilogy. I’m pretty sure it’s the tone I don’t like, due to the overly jolly band of dwarves that form the focus of the films. It took me a while before I finally watched the first one, and although as expected the opening moments were not fun for me, the second half became something much more exciting to watch. I will say that I liked The Desolation of Smaug quite a bit more, even though, again, it doesn’t match any of the films from the LOTR trilogy. But the sequence in the river with Legolas jumping everywhere and shooting arrows is definitely one of the best actions scenes in all of the films.