Remarkably, no one in this movie actually jumps a shark

Rating: 1/10 (23 December 2013)

After watching the first Hobbit movie, I didn't want to think that Peter Jackson had jumped the shark, but he was certainly gunning the engine and racing towards that ramp next to the shark tank at full speed. With "Desolation of Smaug", he's over the tank and has crash landed hard on the other side.
The first movie took a lot of liberties with the original book and changed the tone entirely. The second one might as well not have claimed to be based on the book at all. It races through the few scenes that actually came from the book at breakneck pace just so it can get to the overlong scenes with characters who weren't in the book, or the scenes that beat the viewer over the head with the idea that this is a prequel to Lord of the rings, or the many, many, many ridiculous action scenes. For example, the chapter from the book that tells of the company's stay with Beorn comes and goes in what feels like about three minutes at the beginning of the movie, and bears (no pun intended) almost no resemblance to the book. Meanwhile, there's at least ten times that much footage of elves who weren't in the book beheading orcs and goblins throughout the film.
As many others have stated, I watched the Lord of the Rings movies many times in the theater and on DVD, but I have absolutely no urge to re-watch either of the first two Hobbit movies, and probably won't even bother seeing the third one.
Personally, I'd like to see films taken away from Jackson and given to a decent editor to see if he could make a two hour movie that's actually based on the original book.