I'm going to go out on a limb here and disagree with pretty much everyone in this thread.
I have just come back from watching Desolation of Smaug, and I feel let down, really. I am
firmly of the opinion that the first hobbit was pretty much perfect for what it set out to do. The pacing was fine, it drew you (or at least, me) in, and delivered every detail it could without getting stale.
This, on the other hand, was disappointing. I think it boils down to two things:
- The lack of music. Seriously, I actually expected not to see Howard Shore's name in the ending credits. Where was the score? Where were any of the themes from the last movie? The Dwarf theme, or epic music of any kind, did not happen ONCE. This is not how they've done things in the past. They changed the formula and they broke it.
- So. Much. Wasted. Time. At least half an hour of shit with legolas could have been cut out and not made any difference. I actually quite liked the business with Tauriel/Kili, but seriously, it was all unnecessary. Not to mention all the crap that happened in laketown.
Other than that, the film itself just seemed... uncohesive. Disparate. Clunky. Maybe it would look better tacked onto the previous film (and quickly followed by the next one)
To be honest, #1 was the killer for me.