Did Jackson Make This Cut to Deliberately Make us Buy the Extended Edition?

Rating: 6/10 (16 December 2014)

Saw it last night as part of a 3- movie marathon the theater had. And I gotta say the ending disappointed me. Overall, the film felt like a video game with CGI- effects pointlessly muddling what could have been a good story. It was not bad, just not to the standard Jackson set for himself.
The film starts with a great setup with the confrontation of Smaug in Laketown, showing the utter destruction of the city and Bard heroically killing the beast. It gave a satisfying ending to Smaug, kills off Stephen Fry's Master spectacularly, and sadly spares his Russell Brand lookalike crony, who comes close to being the Jar Jar of the film. The film then resolves the Necromancer plot. Galadriel had a weird moment where she looked like the girl from the Ring (horror film) and smashes up Dol Goldur, chasing away Sauron. Some setup to Saurman being corrupted with a Palantir could have been beneficial. I mean they already milked the One Ring setup to death.
On to the conflict between the elves, men, and dwarfs. Thorin succumbs to dragonsickness and refuses to help anyone, including his kin from the Iron Hills. These scenes are great, especially the interaction between him and Bilbo. You felt Bilbo's guilt as well as Thorin's paranoia. Balin and Dwalin get some good screen time, but that's it for the Company. Bombur still has no lines at all, and some lovable dwarfs like Gloin and Bofur are forgotten. Instead we pointless scenes of Legolas and Tauriel. The scene with them going to Gundabad to confirm what everyone finds out anyway had no real purpose, and they pointlessly add back-story to Legolas' mother.
Tauriel did not bother me. She didn't ruin the film, it just felt like it took more time out of other characters' stories, ESPECIALLY Bard, Beorn, and Dain. The love story goes nowhere, but again doesn't end up being really detrimental. I was happy they left out a dramatic kiss scene, or any delusions (at least on Tauriel's part) that it could possibly ever work out.
The titular battle hampered the movie greatly. It completely lacked the emotional payoff present in Helms Deep or Minas Tirith that had lots of CGI, but enough practical effects to ground it. One issue was the orcs not being real people in makeup. I liked the beginning of it where the elves leap over the dwarf phalanx to begin the battle, but that was kind of it. There were giant worms thatdisappeared for some reason. The bats were OK, but added pretty much nothing except yet another stupid CGI Legolas scene.
This leads to the final "epic" duels of CGI. There was no moment where you felt this was real stunt-work. Counter that with Fellowship where a knife chucked at Aragorn in one scene was in fact a real knife that was chucked at the actor. Legolas' duel with Bolg should have been a lot shorter, and without Legolas. Legolas was not that important to the story. A much better, more emotional ending would have been Thranduil avenging the Line of Durin after Fili and Kili are killed.
Azog is a bit underwhelming as the Final Boss of the film after Smaug and Sauron. Really anybody could have been fighting Thorin, his death should have been with the main mêlée along with Fili and Kili like it was in the books. If they wanted the nice waterfall scene they could have had the army move there to confront the reinforcements (a sixth army technically?). It just felt strange that only a few characters went to face an obviously dangerous foe whose death could turn the tide while the characters in the other part of the battle were largely forgotten about. Thorin and Bilbo's final scene together was well done, despite not being that true to the books. Freeman and Armitage did great in their roles, and their scenes together were the redeeming factors of the film.
The ending's abruptness was the worst part of the film. The heart and emotional payoff that was in LOTR just was not there. It seems like it was all cut in favor of the over the top battle. Major questions are flat out ignored:
What became of the Arkenstone? Or the gold? Or the Elvish Jewels? Again, these questions and themes are touched upon but never really get any emotional payoff. There's never a scene where Dain and Thranduil at least come to terms on giving back the jewels he wanted, or the share of gold to the Men.There sorely needed to be that "Hey you fought honorably, you're not so bad" scene that shows the three races learned something at the end. What happens to Bard? In the books he becomes King of Dale and rebuilds with a share of the treasure. They sorely needed a Return of the King- like scene with everything rebuilt. If you make the first film almost three hours before even seeing Erebor you need to spend just as much time touching on the characters' story arcs! Actually showing Thorin's funeral could have rectified all this. Instead we get Legolas as the only character with closure besides Bilbo. Similar to ROTK where they cut out Saruman, I'm hoping some good character moments and unanswered questions will be addressed in the Extended Edition. Its almost like Jackson or the studio purposefully left things out to make us have to get the DVD's.
They thankfully kept in the auction scene when Bilbo comes home. The scene gave a glimpse of life in the Shire, which needed to be emphasized more. It was crucial to show the simple idyllic life of Hobbits in a larger world, and it's set up perfectly in LOTR. Jackson tried so hard to focus on the big elements that the small get lost in it. And that misses the point of Tolkien's works entirely.