I've just come from seeing this.

After the The Fellowship of the Ring, for all the liberties they took to make it work as a cinematic narrative, it still felt like The Lord of the Rings and I was buzzing with excitement for the next film.

Not so this time, I'm sorry to say. I couldn't see the point in some of the liberties they took this time around, while others were clearly there to lay foundations for the third film, which I guess will focus on the conflict with the necromancer and be 99% original material. The tone seemed to change so much from scene to scene that the film didn't seem to know what it wanted to be. Also, it didn't seem very well paced to me - it just isn't a good sign when I find myself clock watching at the cinema.

It seems to me that the film has two big problems: 1) The Hobbit is a children's story, while they want the same audience who went to see the Lord of the Rings 2) They want another epic trilogy, which means padding with a whole lot more original story.