The second chapter of Peter Jackson’s adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkein’s “The Hobbit,” “The Desolation of Smaug,” hit theaters this past weekend with mixed results. On one hand, critics thought it was an improvement than “An Unexpected Journey” (58 rating on Metacritic for the original vs. a 66 rating for pt. 2). The box office, on the other hand, showed signs of audience fatigue. “Smaug” earned $73.6 million domestic over its first three days which was a significantly smaller haul than “Unexpected’s” $84.6 million last December. Don’t cry for Warner Bros. and MGM as “Smaug” is still expected to make a killing overseas. That being said, just scroll throw your twitter or facebook feed and you’ll probably find a lot more snarky and negative remarks about the series than you did after “Journey.” HitFix’s own Drew McWeeny thought Jackson delivered a much better movie this time around. This writer thought it was a marginal improvement at best.
With that in mind, McWeeny assisted in conjuring up what we consider the best and worst of Jackson’s latest opus which you can enjoy in the story gallery embedded on this page.
[And it goes without saying spoiler alert]
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