[Harvey]

Alidar Jarok wrote:

---

It's ending the second movie that worries me. I'm afraid they'll do it after the death of Smaug, but I think there are serious problems with that. The book (like the LOTR movies) have false ending problems. And audience members who aren't familiar with the story will have been told this is the quest to kill a dragon. They'd be kind of confused when there's a third movie and the dragon is dead.

Does it really matter if they don't show up for the third movie? It's not as if there are potential further installments that are contingent upon its success; the third film is pretty much the end of the road for this adaptation of Middle Earth, no?