Saw it again last night and I think I liked it more.

I agree with Miriel. I think I said after the first one that the CGI orc (Azog?) is poor and I can't even care about anything he is involved in because he just looks so out of place and bad. On the subject of bad CGI, extended Return of the King. The Paths of the Dead escape - those skulls. Those CGI skulls. What the smurf? They were PS1 quality skulls. The appendices say they made millions of little skulls for another shot, why not re-use those? Damn.

The River of Gold Slide was also weird, I don't get the point of it too. Incidentally the emotional bit for me happened at the same bit for Miriel, but it was Balin only being able to choke out the word "Thorin" that did it for me.

On Legolas, I think I'm going to hold judgment on it until I see the last film. Obviously there's a situation with him and Tauriel that needs to be resolved and I'm hoping we'll see some emotional growth on his part. If it ends up as just The Story of How Legolas Hated Dwarves because she chooses Kili over him or dies horribly or something then I have trouble believing it'll be great, but I will give it a chance. I am hoping for something a little bit more deep about his prejudices than "YOU STOLE MAH GURL!" though. I did like seeing his interactions with Thranduil.