1) The whole trilogy really wasn't that good in terms of story line and character development. They didn't flesh out the characters so well and that's why there's no emotional impact in key scenes at all. Especially the death scenes. You would think that one book stretched into three 2.5 hour movies would have ample time to flesh out at least, the key characters. Thorin, for example. Who is supposed to be the next most important character next to Bilbo. Also, their friendship was integral to the story. Unfortunately, all that time is spent on useless side stories that add nothing to the main story. *cough*mini twilight arc*cough*. So Thorin's fall from grace and eventual redemption felt unnatural. He ended up looking like a prick from part 1 all the way to part 3. You're not going to care what happens to him in the end. Instead, I suspect more people are going to care about Edward Kili

2) The pacing was uneven on all the movies. They spend so much time at a glacial pace on useless drivel, then rush through the important parts.

3) Too much of it feels like a rehash of the LOTR trilogy. Especially the first two chapters. Gandalf getting caught and seeing orc armies. Hot female elf whose purpose is to serve as a love interest in what is proving to be an useless side story. Someone in the party getting stabbed by a Morgul blade and getting saved by said elf, come back to the light, yada yada, etc etc. The third one at least escapes some of that curse, though.

4) It also makes the same mistakes as the Star Wars prequels. The shoehorning of existing characters into the story. Legolas, the word Strider. The sad fact is that this could have been used to better effect. E.g. Thranduil was becoming more of a closed door China/Japan and Jacob/Bella Legolas/Tauriel could have convinced him to be more open door and involved with the rest of the world at large. Once he saw how powerful the forces of evil have become, and how he can no longer turn a blind eye, Legolas could have said something powerful to convince his father to be more involved. Hence Legolas and his party arriving in the Council of Free Peoples in LOTR. Instead, we get that useless love talk. Why does it hurt? bla bla bla. (I guess they had to add some Twilightish drivel to cater to the female audience).

- cliche: the dragon Smaug had to deliver a speech before killing Bard

Just kill, save the speech.... but that's how protagonist kill the enemy everytime ...

- when they showed Gandalf in the cage, and called him "Mithrandir" suddenly I tot of Mahathir

- Muslims beware - there is a hog (babi hutan)

- "if this is love, take it away from me... why does it hurt so much "

sigh....

7/10

(Add tomoro... now sleepy)

I was sad, actually

At first I expected both of them to kill the orc

I laughed when Legolas did the gravity-defying act, stepping on falling stone blocks in slo-mo

Well, Orlando Bloom captured their hearts since Pirates of Carribean, I guess

SKII