This afternoon I saw the second Hobbit movie–er, the second Lord of the Rings prequel. I enjoyed it more and found it less heinous than the first installment. No dishwashing, no fart jokes, less forced whimsy.

Kili is still hot. Tauriel is real purty. Thranduil is kind of a dick, and also he wins the Blondest Hair/Blackest Eyebrows award of the year. The dragon is awesome.

The film is too long by about half of each chase scene, and one of the most elaborate of those is marred by the same lame Scooby-Doo madcappery that marred the first film, but long stretches of this one were entertaining and impressive. So, better than I expected.