With the underwhelming and long in tooth performance of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, I went into The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug with the lowest expectations one could have for a movie. I just wasn't going to build this one up beyond the sky high levels of the first one and it paid off big time. I didn't even bother to listen to critics about Smaug and knew nothing about it's reception from the masses. Watching this one was a surprise for me in how great it was. This was what the first one should have been. I get that they had set up everything, but they overdid it with the exposistion. In Smaug, they got right into it and didn't let up one bit. There were a few quiet moments to let the viewer catch their breath before the next rollercoaster ride.

There are a couple of amazing and very fun Set Pieces to entertain you and trust me, you absolutely will be entertained. The first was the White-Water Barrel Escape. Now that was kick ass and had me grinning from ear to ear. The second one was of course the confrontation with Smaug, The Dragon. Epic doesn't even begin to do it justice. I will say that I was completely scratching my head at the start of the movie because I figured that it would pick up right where the first one left off. They didn't. The other thing that took me by surprise is that there was not a single scene with Gollum. Anyway, love this second installment. It was good enough to reignite my passion for the franchise and I can't wait to see the third installment. Highly recommend this as a Buy. They redeemed themselves for the first one. But be forewarned, this one literally just....ends. Had I known in advance that they were going to do it like that, I would have waited to have the 2nd and 3rd films in my hand to watch back to back.