Now that my car is working again we finally got to see this. I was expecting a war crime or an atrocity based on the responses in this thread but you know what? It wasn't too bad. I mean, look, it's not Lord of the Rings by a long way but it wasn't Attack of the Clones bad either.

I absolutely loved the art direction and music scoring. smurf me, I even enjoyed Tauriel and Kili just because I really like their love theme. Well, enjoyed is a strong word. Tolerated.

I don't think "it's just a load of fighting" does the movie justice. I thought the bit before the fighting where you have all these power struggles over Erebor was the best part of the movie. It was really tense and intense at the same time. I have read the Hobbit and know what happens, but it still felt like there was going to be a huge siege against it by the Elves and Men.

On the whole I really enjoyed the action. I don't mind ridiculousness and fantasy and enjoyed the pig and the rams and trolls bashing into things. Legolas and the falling bridge was stupid though yeah, and the "oh I wonder if he's really dead beneath the ice!" thing was lame.

I think Aragorn-lite is a poor description of Bard and doesn't do the character justice. I really liked him as a charismatic man of the people in both this and DoS. He's been put in a difficult position as leader unexpectedly and he's doing a top notch job of it. I didn't care for his kids a great deal as character, but I cared because he cared, if that makes sense, I care because I care about him. Alfred was also a surprise, I was not expecting him to get so much screen time but I thought he was a good piece of comic relief, Thernadier-style.

The one thing I didn't like was the ending. I mean, I liked what was there, don't get me wrong, I just didn't like what wasn't there. I can't comprehend the "too long" complaints. What? No! Not long enough! It seems Jackson took the LotR ending criticism to heart. There was no resolution for Bard, Alfred or the people of Laketown. None for Dain and barely any for Dwarves. But worst of all, what happened to Erebor, the Arkenstone and Gold!? The fate of it all was the major driving point for conflict in the first half of the movie! Was the reason for its omission to say "well there's more important things than that"? At least some nod to the Dwarves of Erebor and men of Dale realising just that and becoming bros would've been a better way to deliver that message.

Not an all time great like LotR, not garbage either.