10 Upcoming Blockbusters That Could Massively Disappoint

6. The Hobbit: The Battle Of Five Armies (December 12, 2014)

It would be more than fair to say that Peter Jackson's Hobbit movies have so far paled in comparison to his Lord of the Rings trilogy. Whereas the director's previous visits to Middle-Earth yielded three spectacular fantasy blockbusters that combined to create one of the greatest trilogies in the history of cinema, An Unexpected Journey and The Desolation of Smaug have been solid and unspectacular more than anything else. While December's upcoming final installment is all but guaranteed to make a billion dollars at the box office, Jackson will still need to pull out all the stops to make sure that The Hobbit reaches a suitably epic conclusion. The biggest problem with The Hobbit is undoubtedly the decision to stretch the source material over three movies. Whereas the Lord of the Rings was adapted from three books that featured dozens of characters and a myriad of plot strands, The Hobbit comes in at around 300 pages. Turning such a slender novel into over nine hours of cinema reeks of a purely financial decision, and has so far seen the narrative move at a turgid pace, with An Unexpected Journey in particular often veering into tedium due to an overabundance of slow-paced and ultimately pointless scenes. While The Desolation of Smaug fared better, mostly thanks to the thrilling barrel sequence and the third act encounter with the titular dragon, both of the movies have suffered from taking a combined 330 minutes to advance through a fairly straightforward plot. Despite such lengthy running times, The Hobbit movies have also been fairly light on character development. While Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage have both been great in their respective roles, the majority of the dwarves are interchangeable and get very little in the way of dialogue or character moments, making it difficult for audiences to care about their fate. The addition of Evangeline Lilly's Tauriel comes off as nothing more than a way to shoehorn in a prominent female character and Orlando Bloom's presence seems entirely superfluous, although Ian McKellen still brings the requisite gravitas as Gandalf. The movie's saving grace could yet turn out to be the titular Battle of the Five Armies, as Jackson has demonstrated that he knows how to stage suitably epic battle sequences. Yet it could still be a little too late to elevate The Hobbit trilogy to greatness, given how mediocre the journey has been so far.