First of all as a parenthetical remark, I got to watch in HFR 3D this time.... and wow, I thought it was great. It was a little odd the first few minutes, but I quickly adapted; for me this is the only way you can do 3D now. After Beorn's house, I pretty much forgot I was watching 3D at all; it was just a very clear picture with depth.
Now as to the movie itself; I agree with many of the points others have brought up. I wrote an extensive review of the first movie the day after watching it last year (not sure if I posted it here though). Most of my complaints are the same ones as from the first film; as such, I did not come out nearly as disappointed as I did last year, because my subconscious expectations were based on last years hobbit, not LOTR.
Now there is one thing no one has mentioned, which has been on my mind since the first hobbit movie: fanedits. There are dedicated fans, with the appropriate skills and software, who like to spend their time editing films to "fix" things, create alternate editions of films (using extended/deleted/cut scenes, etc.) I have seen a few that have been quite good (for example, Adywan's Star Wars Revisited is the only version of SW I watch now...)
The whole time I was sitting in the first hobbit movie, I couldn't help but think the whole time, "someone could make a really good fanedit of this." (and of course, multiple fanedits of the first film already exist). When you consider that a book shorter than any one of the LOTR books was stretched into three films, it should be easy to create at least one coherent movie that is fairly book-faithful, cutting extraneous fat, over-the-top material, and other nonsense. I am looking forward to when someone does it (it won't be me....)
Now DOS has its own problems; I think what bugs me most is the major abbreviation the elements that were actually in the book (take the eagles from the first film as an example) while stretching the non-book story. I was still thinking the fanedit idea during the second film, but it's going to be a real challenge after the point where Bilbo talks to Smaug....
Which brings me to my other rant, from both films - why can't they portray metalwork realistically? That has been some of the most fake-looking (for me) parts of both films....]
ok, end rant....
