Good... but What Happened to Jackson's Skills?

Rating: 8/10 (15 January 2015)

I understand fans that fanatically liked or disliked the film. The film carried some new good stuff, and yet lacked so much greatness and potential that Peter Jackson has always put in his films. WHAT HAPPENED?
I had read reviews thinking that people were being picky about the movie, yet as a person that still enjoyed the movie, I couldn't help but ask, did Peter Jackson stop caring during the film? It had all the tools as well as help from some good cast. If your going to put romance then you really have to establish the connection. I felt like Fili and Tauriel were dating for sometime right when they started throwing at each other. The screen time between the battles and unnecessary Wilfred scenes kind of make me cringe. What a waste. Fili and Kili's deaths were sad but they weren't as emotional as they should have been. Peter Jackson failed to make these characters death momentus. Boromir's death was able to look tragic despite being an unlikable character throughout 95 percent of the film. Yet his death was 10 times more important and tragic than Kili and Fili. And I say that regrettably. During serious moments, I really felt Peter Jackson was either hesitant to set the mood or just didn't bother caring. The sad scenes and dramatic scenes had terrible background tunes. It made the audience unsympathetic to these scenes.
Even though the battle scenes were pretty good, they still seemed to lack... a lot... and its noticeable. The beginning of the battle is the biggest scene really. After that there's very few good battle scenes. It brings up the question of whether Peter Jackson decided to cut funding. The final battle between Thorin and Agog isn't very dramatic. It was okay, but with all the tragic deaths of Lord of the Rings, this did not come close. We had Boromir's Death, and Theoden's that had their sad and honorable endings, and as a king Thorin really should have had that moment better. No funeral? Very interesting. Again, with the duel between Thorin and Azog and the lack of a true ending for the characters we have been on a journey with for three movies, you wonder if they looked at their bank account and just said... heck with it.
Okay movie, but you have to ask with the lack of, whether Peter Jackson made the movie in such a way to just kill the series. Its very tragic as especially with the movies this year, it could have really made a big noise in the Academy Awards.