10. It's Not The First Film
I know this might seem like stating the obvious, but bear with me on this. Whether you agree or disagree with Jackson's decision to break the (really quite short) book into three (really quite long) films, An Unexpected Journey did drag. With a little over nine minutes of prologue voiceover by old Bilbo and some unnecessary, albeit wonderfully chest-vibrating real-time singing from the dwarves, it's forty minutes before Bilbo even leaves his front door. Forty whole minutes... To put that in perspective, by the forty minute mark of Monty Python's The Holy Grail, Arthur and co have already formed the knights of the round table, battled the Black Knight, received a message from God, been taunted by French people, met the three-headed knight, ducked a witch (so to speak) and argued the difference between an African and European swallow.
And they had time for a sing-song. Obviously we prefer Hobbiton to Camelot ('tis a silly place), however it just shows how much time Jackson spent during the first film indulging in re-introducing us to Middle-Earth. I hate to criticise the great over-lord Jackson, but perhaps he could have cut the sequence where the dwarves are washing dishes? However, unlike the first film, The Desolation of Smaug has to start in the middle of things Bilbo is already on his journey and Mirkwood is coming up. There's no need to set up the story or explain the dwarves' history Jackson can drop us straight back into it.