Every Lord Of The Ring And Hobbit Movie Ranked

The second film in the «Hobbit» trilogy starts strong with an unexpected flashback to Thorin and Gandalf meeting at The Prancing Pony in Bree (an event depicted in detail in the book «Unfinished Tales»). This cold open provides some fun backstory in a delightfully Jacksonian way, similar to how the director saved Gollum’s backstory to start «The Return of the King.» After that, though, things go downhill fast.

The biggest issue here is pacing. The movie drags in too many outside factors, like Gandalf’s (Ian McKellen) side quest to find the Necromancer, Azog’s hunt for Thorin, and the entire Tauriel (Evangeline Lily) storyline. The bewildering plot jumps around too much. This means it also, ultimately, fails to fit in Smaug’s epic showdown with Bard (Luke Evans) and the Lake-men, which could have been the middle chapter’s climax — an unforgivable failure.

Don’t forget all of the changes. This is the movie that shamelessly rips off the Arwen and Aragorn love story with a random romance between the invented Elf Tauriel and the Dwarven royal Kili (Aidan Turner). Smaug ends up in a knock-down, drag-out fight with Thorin and company (something that never happens in the books), which ends up with the dragon nearly drowned in a lake of molten gold. Oh, and they completely retcon the origin of the Nazgûl, too. Yeah, it may start out strong, but the middle «Hobbit» film is a rudderless, confusing, and reckless hot mess when you break it down.