I watched this movie in an hour and that's how long it should have been.

Rating: 5/10 (31 July 2014)

Firstly, for this to be an 8 is the worst form of fanboyism as even if you're a rabid Peter Jackson/Tolkien fan you must surely be able to distinguish between the LOTR trilogy and the disjointed saga that this movie turned out to be. I'd also like to agree with the poster who stated that this was a film trying to cater for two distinct audiences (very young kids/not very discerning adults) as this really nails one of the major faults of the film. But anyway...
I was fortunate enough not to see this in a movie theatre and this allowed me to fast forward through all the unnecessary 'filler' (e.g. The mountain giants/ the awful goblin city/ the whole evil Orc arc etc.). I can only imagine that it's been split to make as much cash as possible but I don't really understand why Jackson would want to do this (it's not as though he needs the money).
Given that it was such a beloved book from my childhood and that I so really enjoyed the LOTR I really feel that they missed a trick here.
Horribly disappointed :-(