Honestly, this one was going to be make or break with how well of a job they did with Smaug, and they did a great fucking job with him. Looked fantastic, sounded great, the whole shebang. Where they ended it surprised me as well, but I'm just expecting the finale to be packed with good shit. Yeah the strange romance and Legolas just owning everything was jarring, but otherwise some good action scenes. The Gandalf v. Sauron thing was pretty good shit too. Probably not on par with the whole of the LotR movies, but much better than Part 1, and Smaug was done as well as he could be done I thought.