I thought what hurt the movie was the tone, the cameras, the pacing and the ambiance of what was happening. I read all the Tolkien books and what I specifically remember is everything was painted in such a way that the world seemed very big, overboding, scary, dark, gothic if you will. Things would inch along at moments and tension would build, real tension because the descriptions in the book painted a more nefarious atmosphere.
In the movies the Hobbits size aren't really used the same way as in the books. In the books you felt like you were 3 foot 10 sometimes and the world was just monstrous, the dragon was more monstrous.
The cgi totally betrayed the dragons sense of grandiosity, mythos and personality portrayed in the books. That was where they went wrong imo, they should have shot it to look more dreary, tension filled and drab because that's what the books did. In the movies the lenses made things look like a picturesque tour through wonderful lands and close ups in a soap opera, neither of which captured the books spirit. Tension never really built, it was like watching a popcorn hollywood action movie.
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