Went to see this today so here are my thoughts. 

Thought it was a decent end  to The Hobbit which in terms of the book was always steered more towards young children then the 'TLOTR' trilogy. It was a lot shorter than most of the previous films (felt like 2 hours), not a bad thing but there was room for some more. All the crying scenes at the end were a bit cringy for me but I find that about most films I watch (and games). I'm not one to give a good review so I'm not going into details but all in all I give it an 8/10. I'd rate the 3 Lord of the Rings at 10/10 so I'm a massive fan of the series. 

*(spoilers)* I was a little disappointed at the end that they didn't show Saruman going off to Mordor to confront Sauran like he said. This is one of thefew points of the over all story I'm not sure about. Did he go to fight him and instead end up forming an alegience? This would explain what happened in The Two Towers. I also thought they should have shown him former as the eye in Mordor. Thought it would have been a good link to The Fellowship of the Ring. They also should have shown Legolas going north and meeting with Aragorn. Anyway all in all very enjoyable and I'd go see it again. 

In terms of a game they should get a proper AAA production going and have them made from the first hobbit up. I know they made the 3 main films onthe PS2 and they sold very well but it could do with a remake and the 3 hobbits included. Jusging by the sales of Shadow of Mordor and how they sold onthe PS2 I think it would do well. Thoughts? 

Not out here in the states yet....

How were the battle sequences? Epic or disappointing?

They're on a much smaller scale than say The Return of the King. It kind of focus's more on individual battles after a while then the over all thing. It's been about 12-15 years since I read the Hobbit so I'd clearly forgotton some things because there were a few beasts in the battle that I never knew existed in Middle Earth. 

haha that makes me feel good. You Americans get everything first. I remember you used to get films like 2 months before us. 

It's a long time since I read The Hobbit, I don't even remember Saruman being in it.

i guess it cant get any worse than the previous 2 movies.

and wasnt this suppose to be like the biggest battle in movie history or were they just trolling us ?

Smaug is the biggest disappointment ever!
WTF!!! It was a damn Dragon that the whole world feared. He killed thousand of dwarves when he took Erebor, how can he be fooled by 6 (in the second film) and end like that?

It wasn't a bad movie, but Smaug was a huge disappointment and not having Sauron x Saruman was a big let down.

yeah same. there were a good few details i'd forgotten alright. 

I thought the previous two were perfectly fine. They will not live up to the The Lord of The Rings but neither did the book so fair enough. 

The battle was big but nothing will ever come close to The Return of the King battle in Gondor. This was a battle for Erebor that was a battle for the whole of middle earth so it makes sense. 

I thought the Dragon battle was fine in The Desolation of Smaug. ANd to answer your question as to how the Dwarves fooled him and survived  unlike the armies that lived there once. I'll tell you how, because JRR Toilken wrote a story and the good guys beat the bad guy. 

I missed the first 5 mins of the film so only came in for the big where he got killed with the arrow. 

Fully agree about leaving the Sauron vs Saruman fight. How did that go in the books or was it in them at all?