I just watched this. It was about as "good" as the last one. A few solid moments spread throughout the film, but otherwise as overdone and dragged out as I had feared. Also, Omega, you were right...
Spoiler
Smaug didn't make it past the title screen.
Some things that stood out...
Spoiler
Shai-Hulud! Or something similar. Reminded me of larger (and darker) versions of things that ate Andy Serkis in King Kong.
I was surprised that Tauriel actually made it out alive. Which begs the question, what were they planning on doing with her character? She was banished from Mirkwood and Legolas left to find Aragorn (most pointless case of name dropping ever). But perhaps Thranduil's heart softened a bit towards the end and he let her stay? Guess they didn't bother to tell us.
Speaking of Tauriel, we now have our first on screen dwarf/elf kiss (even if he was dead at the time). We have waited so long for this.
The last moments between Thorin and Bilbo were great. Well acted from both Freeman and Armitage.
Legolas jumping between the falling rocks was probably the dumbest thing I have seen in both trilogies. The reaction from the audience I was in was pretty much "WTF?".
Dáin wasn't too bad, once he got his helmet off. Not as dignified as I imagined the character in the novels, but then again, who is?
The scene with the White Council going up against Sauron and the Ringwraiths was bad. The wraiths didn't look any better on the big screen than they did in the clip. Some of the worst effects I've seen in any of the movies so far. Galadriel going all horror movie on us was kind of cool, or rather could have been, but as it was, it was a bit overdone.
Seeing as how Alfrid survived and made it out with some gold, I must imagine him moving to Rohan, where he fathers a son just as sleazy as himself. Welcome to the world, Grima.
I don't really know what else to say. There are a lot of things you can rip on. On a whole, it's like the rest of the Hobbit trilogy. A disappointment. The first movie was the best one, in my opinion, and even that wasn't all that great.
