I don’t care what Peter Jackson says – turning ‘The Hobbit’ into a trilogy is a cynical moneygrab, and it makes the end product worse.

When you take a rollicking kid’s adventure tale and turn it into a ponderous, self-serious 9 hour film series you have to pump in a lot of fluff to keep the pillows looking plump. For example, maybe you have to add a dumb love story between Legolas and Kate from ‘Lost’. Maybe you have to make the initial meeting with Smaug drag out for what feels like hours in real time.

The formula worked better in the LOTR trilogy, because there were more pages to burn and the material itself is much more serious in tone.

‘The Hobbit’ isn’t serious. It’s a series of madcap adventures. When Peter Jackson focuses on the cheekier aspects of the story, ‘The Hobbit – the Desolation of Smaug’ is a good time. That’s about 30% of the movie, though, so be warned. You run out of fun long before you run out of movie.

Look. I’m not trying to be hater. The special effects are pretty great (except the Orcs, who look more hokey every time I see them). Ian McKellen seems to be in his absolute glory playing Gandalf. It is physically impossible to dislike Martin Freeman. This decent trilogy would have made a great movie.