10 EXACT Moments You Gave Up On These Movie Franchises

Trying to squeeze three massive films out of a relatively short story was always going to be a tall order, even for the mind behind the classic Lord of the Rings trilogy.

But Peter Jackson was seemingly up for the challenge and went about crafting three big ol' Hobbit movies, with the first two building towards the moment Thorin, Bilbo and the rest of the gang came face-to-face with the terrifying Smaug within the Lonely Mountain.

And while the long-awaited appearance of Benedict Cumberbatch's mighty dragon did not disappoint, the same could not be said for the follow-up to The Desolation of Smaug's big cliffhanger.

With Smaug heading towards Laketown with the intentions of turning the place into his own personal bonfire, many were fully expecting this entire set-piece to be up there as one of the most spectacular big-screen sequences in LOTR history.

Instead of a thrilling battle that stretched across a decent chunk of the flick, though, the big bad our heroes had been on a collision course with from minute-one was shot out of the sky in ten minutes flat. And that was that.

It's hard to sit through the rest of the 144-minute Battle of the Five Armies runtime without feeling somewhat deflated after the series' marquee villain is impaled by an arrow in such rapid fashion.

And many fans understandably struggled to remain invested in the never-ending CGI-fest of a battle that ensued, with most unfortunately realising in the immediate aftermath of Smaug's inevitable demise that a Hobbit trilogy was perhaps a journey too far for even Jackson.