While not nearly as tedious and punishing as An Unexpected Journey, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is still a bloated mess, but at least it’s a fun mess.

We didn’t really like “The Hobbit.” A reader didn’t like that we didn’t like “The Hobbit,” and is boycotting the site over it.

In returning to his cinematic vision of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth, Peter Jackson has fallen into shadow and ruin.