Didn't expect much, but started to warm to the idea.

Rating: 7/10 (28 December 2016)

A lot of the low scoring and negativity the Hobbit series is getting seems justified if "The Unexpected Journey" is the main thing seen. Which was my position prior to last night when I cautiously sat down to watch Smaug.
Then there are the Tolkien "purists" who like all zealots cannot tolerate deviation. To put that in context I read LotR in '69 or so, immediately smitten, live in a house called "Rivendell", etc., etc, so I'd own up to being a purist, but never a zealot.
Also love open world gaming, of which Skyrim would be the best I've played. Also mod the game a lot, and one of my favourite followers is Tauriel by a modder called m0ckin9bird.
So when Tauriel appeared my mood suddenly brightened. And when the gorgeous Evangeline Lilly did the first of her many sideways looks, it got even better, and I started to reconsider what Peter Jackson and his team were doing.
There's another review by H K Fauskanger (Norway) who presents this idea in a much more erudite fashion, however I was one of his unfortunates who read LotR before The Hobbit, so found the simple language and structure of the latter more than a slight disappointment despite reading it mainly for my kids.
Tauriel's appearance also seemed to mark a major improvement in the embellishment of the original story. Apart from the ridiculous one sidedness of elves v's orcs fights (OK, bad guys in Steven Seagal and Sly Stallone films are hopeless with their weapons, too). The storyline got instantly better, and much more engaging.
Tolkien hadn't seen much commercial success with the Hobbit when he started writing LotR, and to be honest there wasn't much with the latter for years (decades, even). So with academia and advancing years there was little chance of even considering upgrading the Hobbit to LotR standards.
But it's reasonable to hope P. Jackson & Gang can, and will, have a go. Which they've done. Because it's on the back of well earned commercial success with the later story, he's likely to be judged harshly for cashing in. Maybe an element of that - certainly in failing to control the CGI end back towards credibility - but I saw good embellishment and invention occurring after Tauriel came in.
No idea what Battle of the Five Armies will give. I've waited this long. But I'm reasonably hopeful on several counts after last night. Unfortunately it will necessarily involve a lot of combat, and unless the Orcs are prepared to wait until they have overwhelming force ratio (like Montgomery of Alamein) they won't have a chance against those in the CGI department!. Damnit, it's only a film!.