How good is it compared to the desolation of Smaug? Better or worse?
Hmm, in terms of story? Probably worse, but a lot better in terms of action. When I say that it feels like a Dynasty Warriors/Hyrule Warriors game, I mean that most of the story takes place during the action scenes, so it's rushed for the pace of a real battle, like how you would see those alerts on top of the screen telling you what was going on while you were fighting in Dynasty Warriors. Also, the Smaug plot point squished into about 5-10 minutes of the beginning. I think that they should have cut some of the Gandalf side mission scenes from Desolation and used the extra time to put the first 5-10 minutes of this movie at the end of it, because damn. Smaug gets the "Count Dooku in Episode 3" treatment in terms of turning a major plot point into a minor one in comparison to the rest of the film. Also, there are a few moments that were kinda silly
I guess you could say that it kinda lacked buildup because the climax was most of the movie and what should have been the climax for Desolation was the beginning.