Not that great.

Rating: 5/10 (21 December 2014)

This movie seemed to struggle to find its identity. Was it a spectacular fantasy epic? Was it slapstick comedy? Or just an action movie? The fact that it was hard to tell indicates that it failed to be whatever it was trying to be.
Being "The Hobbit", it seems it should be a spectacular fantasy epic, and there were elements of that in it. Unfortunately there was way too much fighting and too much comic relief for it to be taken as a serious movie. Fighting and fantasy movies go hand in hand, but in order for it to be a really great movie, there needs to be some plot and story to justify the fighting. But the fight scenes in this movie dragged on forever. The special effects were well done, but often times the movie seemed to be more of a study in different types of fight sequences instead an actual movie with a story and character development. At some point the action becomes so over the top as to be unrealistic. I know in a movie with elves and dragons there is a certain suspension of reality that's necessary, but eventually the ongoing fights just became ridiculous.
Even serious movies need comic relief, but this movie seemed to have too much. One character was the butt of many many jokes throughout the movie, and while the jokes were funny, they didn't lend themselves to the rest of the movie very well.
I'm not sure why this movie was even necessary. All of the story could have been added on to the last movie pretty easily. It seems to have been necessary just to add in more action sequences and generate more box office revenue. It was OK to watch for a while, but it's not something I'd be interested in watching over and over again. Compared to the other Hobbit and Lord of the Rings movies, this one definitely ranks at the bottom.