Bingowings said:

The Desolation of Smaug (2013). Fire balls.

Like the previous film I can't see the problems people have had with these films. Professional critics seem to tidally influenced. There is nothing wrong with this film or the previous one which isn't wrong with the last two Lord of the Rings films.

Tonally it suffers from the same problems as the previous film. Jackson wants to make a prequel series to his already existing adaptations. The backbone of the plot is a children's story so unless Jackson is brave enough to make significant changes (like killing dwarfs) there's a tonal mismatch. Violent aggressive Orcs (and Trolls in the previous film) are chopped to minced meat while only one of the party gets an injury which proves to be curable.

Some dwarves will die of course, if the next movie remains true to the book. The invincibility of the dwarves was probably the biggest problem I had with this movie as well.

My only conclusion is that trends are not set by quality but by some market led opinion swing. I highly expect the Star Wars prequels will be as bad as ROTS but as popular as Skyfall, just because the markets have decided Star Wars is to rise again.

Watch this space.

I believe you meant sequels, but yes I bet they will be very popular with not a lot of quality. I think they'll be better than the prequels were, but definitely not as good as the OT.