How did you find your steak? Parts of it were excellent...

Rating: 6/10 (12 May 2014)

We were disappointed.
Sound and visuals were stunning as expected. However, there was too much action, a lot of it irrelevant or unbelievable by the standards of the Middle Earth franchise, and not enough character development.
The additions from LOTR supplements were tolerable, and might explain things to a newbie. At least they fit the intent of the story. The added "Azog hunts Thorin" backstory was a distraction that made this more action movie than drama. The numerous long falls, or stuff falling on people without somehow killing them were just ridiculous, in a way that clueless trolls debating how to eat dwarfs were not.
We were OK with the lighter mood than LOTR, which mirrors the books. Our kids watched the Hobbit, but are not quite ready for the more believable violence and terror of LOTR.
Fundamentally, this much simpler story does not demand a nine hour movie. The efforts to expand it appear purely commercial, effectively to capitalize on the phenomenal success of LOTR. As the mixed reviews here show, this might backfire unless the last installment is fantastic.
Part of our disappointment is that Jackson and Boyens really captured the spirit of LOTR well, particularly in Fellowship and Return of the King. A little more restraint here, with an eye to simply telling the story well without a lot of added Hollywood-ey crap would have been welcome.