... from what you've written here, it sounds as though I'll have the same thoughts here that I did for the first one. I mean, I didn't mind it, and it had some good stuff, but every time they went over the top in the action scenes I had to roll my eyes and try not to feel sad for the movie. Every time someone fell about a thousand feet and was just fine at the bottom, I shrank a little lower in my seat and shook my head.

I understand that it's a genre movie and suspension of disbelief is called for, but it was just so blatant. The rest of the movie felt so beautiful and real and grounded in Middle Earth, and then something happens that is outright ridiculous and it yanks me back to the fact that I'm in a theater and leaves me flabbergasted that they decided it would be an awesome idea to do it that way. Too many shortcuts for the sake of unrealistic spectacle in a movie that otherwise takes itself seriously. It was like the movie had two different faces, one meant for adults and one meant for kids, and every time it switched to the clown face I wanted to be in a different theater. So that's why I haven't gone to pay big screen prices for this second one. I'll wait until it's cheaper.