Good film, but badly tripped the finish line

Rating: 5/10 (6 June 2014)

Most of the film does as well as its predecessor, mixing Middle Earth lore into the classic Hobbit tale to turn a children's story into an epic, while maintaining the folksy, fun, adventurous tone that the first movie established to differentiate itself from the darker LOTR trilogy. I'll even say they did a good job integrating Legolas, who would indeed play a part in the capture of the dwarfs as a prince of Mirkwood.
And then Bilbo met Smaug, and that point through the end of the movie erased any interest i had in watching the final installment.
After seeing Bilbo and Gollum's dialog in the first movie, I had the highest expectations for Bilbo's inevitable dialog with Smaug. I imagined a terrifying but witty Bilbo goading Smaug into boasting his prowess and revealing his weak point. Instead we are given the longest drawn out dung heap of a scene in which Bilbo spends all his time with a dumb look on his face (most of the movie, in fact) and the dwarfs go about ridiculous plan to defeat the dragon with a plan that we already know won't work because it won't exploit Smaug's previously revealed weakness. What I am most upset about: how can these writers call themselves professionals after screwing up a dialog between Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman?! Really?!
I ended the film feeling so disappointed I wanted to forget it existed and go back to watch the first film, which I enjoyed much more. But how can one watch a good beginning knowing how disappointing the rest is going to be?