Not nearly as good as hoped for (and expected)

Rating: 5/10 (4 January 2013)

I was truly disappointed by this movie, although I could have seen it coming based on the decision to split up this (short) story in tree 3-hour movies. SLOW is the word to describe the first half (although "very childish" also comes to mind, especially comparing to the LOTR movies). The second half is just too much 3D action-overkill without any storyline whatsoever. There is really NO excitement in the movie at all, but maybe this is because you truly do not connect with the main characters (except maybe for Thorin). I was really hoping for Bilbo to get slaughtered brutelessly by one of the Nazgul after the first half our (although fair to say his acting did improve a bit later on in the movie). anyway sorry but the current 8,4 rating is really not justified!