It is what it is, a decent action movie partly based on Tolkien's "the Hobbit"

Rating: 7/10 (25 December 2014)

I remember back in 2012 when I first saw the trailers for the Hobbit:An Unexpected Journey, I had very high expectations, since the cast was similar, the new actors were great(I love Martin Freeman) and it was still Peter Jackson's! And after watching the movie I was...overwhelmed. I really thought that it was a flawless film, and I ranked it 9/10(Ironically enough due to some flaws). However, a few weeks later, after the hype had settled here in Sweden, I realized that it didn't really meet up to the bar which had been set by the Lord of the Rings saga, and it left me feeling rather unsatisfied and disappointed. So when the Desolation of Smaug was released, my expectations were lower, yet I still managed to get disappointed.
My point with this is that this time, I knew what I'd get. I wouldn't get an epic ending to an epic saga, I wouldn't get an heart warming reunion(such as in the Return of the King) and I wouldn't feel happy and really care about what actually happened. All this I knew, and so the movie delivered the best aftertaste. It is NOT a bad movie, but to expect it to be as well as the Lord of the Rings saga, is like expecting Butter substitute to be butter. No matter how much you try to advertise it as butter, it's still only going to be a substitute.
There for I was not disappointed, simply because I did not expect anything great. It had a decent story, cool action and effects, and an okay ending. I would go so far to call it above average, because it never got boring, which to me isn't very common. 7/10. I would recommend it.