Big Screen Breakdown: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

The year has not been kind to my memory of the last Hobbit film. At the time, I found it an enjoyable enough tale, saved from its flaws by some truly stellar performances. Now, when I think about it, all I can remember is the bad stuff. However, since that time, I've become reacquainted with the source material in the form of a rather silly radio drama I listened to while growing up. So how does The Hobbit: The Desolation of the Other Sequel Hook compare to its predecessor?

• I've finally put my finger on what my problem with the tone of these movies has been: They make the silliest parts in the source material deadly serious, but then they add other, completely new silliness to other scenes that never needed them. Compare the Beorn scene in the book (where Gandalf endears the shape-changer to the dwarves by introducing them incrementally during a long-winded story) to the movie (where the dwarf company reaches Beorn's home at the climax of a long chase). They couldn't have made it a little silly?
• As far as adding silliness to scenes where there previously was none? Bombur's barrel armor.
• By the way, it's nice to see Beorn, who nearly always gets cut from Tolkein adaptations, made the transition from book to screen. Couldn't say the same for Tom Bombadil, who always gets cut from Fellowship.
• Can we all just agree that, with only a few exceptions, the dwarves look stupid? Cuz they do.
• I'd like to publicly thank Peter Jackson for ensuring that many of my favorite actors, including Lee Pace and Sylvester McCoy, continue to get work.
• You know, it's funny, but there were a few times when I thought that dragon actually looked like Benedict Cumberbatch. It's too bad they distorted his voice so much in creating Smaug's voice. Cumberbatch probably has the second-best natural dragon voice in the world (after Sean Connery, of course).
• The Hobbit really should just be a comedy, with lots and lots of close ups on Martin Freeman's face. That face is a national treasure. Too bad it's not, you know, my nation's treasure.
• Anybody else think Legolas was far more interesting here than he was in the original trilogy? I mean, he was cool in the earlier films, but here I actually kinda cared about how he felt, which was a novel experience.
• Oh, and that Lady Legolas they added? She's cool. Let's keep her.
• Both big budget sequels that came out this year lack proper finales, but they've got different issues as a result. Catching Fire was good, but if the Mockingjay movies bomb, then I'll still have the first Hunger Games movie (which I quite liked) to watch on its own. Desolation of Whatever was ALSO pretty good, but not enough to redeem the first weak entry in the trilogy. However, if the THIRD movie turns out to be any good, I might have to go back and pick up all three. It's a terribly strange dilemma.
• Verdict: We'll see...