Starting to learn some things here...

Rating: 7/10 (13 December 2013)

I will not lie, the fanboy in me is probably what is keeping this review at the height that it is. Did I enjoy the movie? Yes. Did I like the last 10 minutes? No. They were hell. That is probably the biggest problem I have with this movie is the ending or "super cliff hanger".
Maybe I should take a step back and start at the beginning. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was disappointing for me because I had such high expectations. I really wanted to like it, but the overabundance of CGI really made me mad (especially since not all of it looked good). So when I walked into The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, I kind of knew what I was getting into. NOT Lord of the Rings which used a lot of practical special effects that are timeless, not a gripping character focused story, and not as serious or subtle. With my new standards I was able to enjoy The Desolation of Smaug much more than the first movie, but that doesn't mean there still aren't things to complain about.
I just want to mention that most of this movie is really good. The action is good with the spiders, Smaug is incredibly intimidating, the elves are still cool, and much of the pacing is a lot better. All in all, this movie is set up much better than the first... to a certain extent. I was never bored during this movie (until the last 10 minutes) which means that it is good for entertainment and considerably better than the first. The voice-acting from Benedict was good and he is definitely fit for Smaug, Martin Freeman does an excellent job again, and all of the dwarfs are still enjoyable. The humour is toned down a little bit in this movie, but it still has few over the top comedic scenarios. However, it does suffer from a few of the same problems as the first movie.
1. CGI Orcs: This was not needed in the first movie and it was not needed in this movie. I know that CGI orcs are definitely needed for complicated shots, but they aren't needed for the majority of shots. Thankfully, this movie has less CGI orcs than the last movie. There are a lot more actors playing orcs and overall this movie has a lot more standard special effects instead of CGI. So it is an improvement over the first, but still it seemed unnecessary.
2. CGI Gold: This is what this movie will be infamous for. The final action sequence was beyond (I hate to say this) lame. It made absolutely no sense and it involves a lot of liquid gold. Now I understand they were trying to make a realistic liquid gold by giving it a different viscosity, but it was still very distracting and it didn't make sense that the characters were able to float on it without being burned up alive (gold has an incredibly high melting point).
3. Cliff-Hanger: This movie has a dreadful cliff-hanger. Worse than Dead Man's Chest. Be warned.
4. Credit Sequence: This is a nitpick, but The Lord of the Rings was a respectful series because it had universally good music. The music was classical and classical music is timeless. However, this movie had some pretty generic guitar/credit music which immediately killed the mood for me (which was also killed by the last action sequence and cliff-hanger). The music is so off that it doesn't make the credits really watchable. The Lord of the Rings was one of the only movie series where I watched all of the credits because I was so engrossed in the soundtrack. Not here.
All in all, The Hobbit series seems to be a learning experience for me and many others. A movie can have a lot of good elements, but it can be torn apart by nitpicks and preferences. Everybody wants the same style as Lord of the Rings, but this style is greatly different. The movie attempts to be too flashy and showy to match its changing mood. One minute it feels like Lord of the Rings and then the next minute it feels like I'm watch Looney Tunes. The movie is never consistent with itself which is annoying because it is largely good, but these small things form a "specter" that hovers over the film the entire time.
I enjoyed the majority of the film, but the ending was really bad. The Hobbit series will probably be incredibly enjoyable when watched in one sitting, but as an individual movie they don't work. There isn't enough plot in this movie and a lot of it is stretched out to make its running time. I'm sure it will be great when all come out on extended editions, but for now they are awkward on their own.
Anywhere from a 6.5-8