mikesh: Funny you should say that - my son said exactly the same thing a short while back: I set the game res right down to near rock bottom - and changed the screen res to match. Bingo - I sailed through it like - what's the problem! It took less than three minutes, the hardest part being getting up the slope at the end! (which I obviously hadn't done before) - but suddenly it was all over. Then, I switched back to the 'normal resolution again. I hoipe there are no more of this type of qte to contend with in this game.
So, anyone else having the same problems, it definitely (to me) looks like an issue (dare I say bug?) regarding the mouse clicks not being recognised by the system. I haven't checked but it may be possible to re-assign a keyboard key to he lmb temporarily as another way to get round the problem.
The really annoying thing is the game, if left to auto detect the settings, has almost everything enabled at the highest settings - and it then jerks so badly it is totally unwatchable, let alone playable.
Glad you got through it. There might be one more time where you have to clicky-clicky, but not on a boss. (There will be a QTE on a boss, just to be clear, but it is not a bar filler-up.)
You could call it a bug, since it is a "common" problem. However, getting video settings right fixes it; and, the better the video card, the less trouble, it seems. (There are also the miriad other PC configurations that can mess it up, as usual.) So, maybe more along the lines of not optimized for a range of systems very well.
Regarding your overall video performance, perhaps if you post your specs (maybe in another thread or new one) somebody with similar rig can point you in the right direction.