Can We Cease To Be Interested In Greatness? Merely Goodness Here

Rating: 8/10 (1 February 2015)

Enough has been made about the decision to cut The Hobbit into three movies. Instead of examining what is or isn't necessary here (which is irrelevant unless you've read the books anyway, something that doesn't pertain to the actual quality of the films themselves), we must look at this a movie as a whole. The battle with Smaug at the beginning is thrilling but also lacks any emotional investment. It was drained at the end of the last film, an ending that did work there but doesn't work as a beginning here.
There's a lot of action in this Battle of course, probably too much although it is all pretty to look at if a bit too CGI heavy (enough has been made of that too).
Side note, this is the first one I saw in High Frame Rate and I must say it was distracting, took me right out of the movie most of the time. Normal scenes between people were like on fast forward, although action scenes and camera spans were plenty smooth.