xhonzi said:

c1. Smaug dies in the pre-credit sequence. Should have just been the ending of DoS.

r1. I think the cliffhanger ending of DoS was fine, and this movie really does tell the story of what happens when you take out a monger like Smaug. It makes sense to have it be at the start of this movie.

I understand your point, but my problem with it isn't so much that the pre-credits scene should've been in the previous film, but rather how short it is. Because don't get me wrong, I do love DoS's cliffhanger, and ending it with the opening of the third film would have lessened the impact which that film had. However, if you build up with two films how dangerous Smaug is and with a cliffhanger that almost literally says "OH SH*T", only to have Smaug be killed within the first 10 minutes of the third film, then that just screams false advertising to me. Now I get the impression that Jackson got bored of the dragon and wanted to kill him off as soon as possible to get to the 'epic' battle. If it just had been part of the second film's climax, then I wouldn't have had that problem. The flipside of that is that you might indeed cause some confusion about what the armies in this film are fighting for, but I much rather have that than a misleadingly short opening battle.

xhonzi said:

Mondess122 said:

I stopped noticing it was in 3D after a short while. Which is a bad thing.

I disagree. I think 3D is most effective when it's mostly operating at a subconscious level- like the musical score. It might draw attention to itself sometimes more than others, but for the most part it should be operating on your emotions, and not be the subject of your focus.

I personally rather have 3D be obvious and in-your-face (in a good way; not when it's obviously a bad conversion and people blend into the background), otherwise I might as well see it in 2D.