Entertaining... But lacking in the Peter Jackson quality we've grown to expect!

Rating: 8/10 (19 December 2013)

Although the movie was entertaining.... It is lacking in several aspects?? In my opinion, Part-1 was far superior in special effects & story... Even though I still wasn't able to pin- point and remember which dwarf was which, where as in LOTR, I can name ALL or most the characters (including minor characters)!?!
Smaug looked & sounded fantastic, but some of the other effects were mediocre. Without spoiling anything... The early battle in which we are introduced to the main elf characters of this film was very cheesy & cartoonish! To make it worse... You can plainly see that it was all CGI. I think I would rather watch a stunt-double or stand-in, with an outlandish wig running around! I expect much better quality work from Peter Jackson!
This isn't a George Lucas film! Not to say that I didn't enjoy the original Star Wars Trilogy... but the New Trilogy did not hold a candle to its predecessor... AND so far the Hobbit is NO "Lord of the Rings," either!