Yes the rumors are true - This isn't very good.

Rating: 5/10 (1 January 2014)

When Guillermo del Toro was out of The Hobbit and Peter Jackson was back in, I was a bit disappointed to say the least. Guillermo is a fantastic visual artist if nothing else and would probably have given us something beautiful and unexpected. Well at least PJ has done this before - I thought - and if he can avoid repeating the things I felt least satisfying from The lord of the rings movies (cringeworthy action sequences aimed for 15 years old boys to put in the trailer and painfully dragged out camera roller coasters in caves or landscapes where nothing of interest to the story happens) this would be an OK representation of The Hobbit.
Unfortunately since there really isn't story enough in The Hobbit for three whole movies of this magnitude, PJ had to fill them with a lot of fluff (yes you guessed it - cringeworthy action sequences aimed for 15 years old boys to put in the trailer and painfully dragged out camera roller coasters in caves or landscapes where nothing of interest to the story happens). And instead of actually elaborating on the scenes that occur in the book he prefers to cut most of these as short as possible to fit totally irrelevant junk in there. Also there is a significant mood change from the book in order to make The Hobbit more into a Lord of the rings duplicate.
The second installment in The Hobbit trilogy gives you pretty much the same of what was started in the first movie, only more so. There is less of events from the actual book and more of irrelevant side stories this time around. Total lack of character development during the film and the main character Bilbo is basically just a parenthesis throughout. It feels very much like a regular studio production to make money instead of any attempt to make a work of art.
This isn't really worth going to the cinemas for and it has left me totally indifferent for the final movie.
:) Best part of the movie: Well made props and some beautiful sets.
:( Worst part of the movie: It has few relations to the actual book. Big waste of opportunity.