It was good.

I wasn't a fan of some of the prologue (the brief glimpse we got of the Mirkwood elves' armor; the whole elves-paying-homage-to-Thrór thing; the Arkenstone as a "divine right," etc.). Overall, the CGI stuff seemed really unrealistic and video game-ish, specifically Azog. It also felt like they way overdid some action sequences to flaunt the innovation of the technology. That seemed to take away from story development. There were a lot of plot variations, but they are justifiable and understandable, if not completely unexpected. (; The soundtrack I give three rings due to the seeming lack of new themes - I heard some new motifs sporadically, but not as many as I had expected. However, I've yet to listen to the soundtrack on its own accord, and half of the time what I noticed was being processed with a million other things.

On the other hand, I really liked all acting: I laughed joyously upon witnessing some of my favorite parts of The Hobbit executed so incredibly here, especially between Gandalf and Bilbo. (And how could I forego mentioning the "Riddles in the Dark" scene?! It was freaking superb. There were many familiar screens from LOTR, and these were not out of place and altogether wonderful.

It's growing on me. I'm excited to see it again.

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