I've seen both films now. The second is a definite improvement on the first, but I think it was still a bit long. Some of the things that were somewhat off-putting about the first film (the sentimentality with that horse) will probably be cut. The second film could also have been edited down, especially the final battle sequence.

So I'm going to be interested to see what it looks like edited down to 2½ hours. If it forces the studio to focus more on the narrative it could really improve the movie. You never know.