Unfortunately, The Hobbit did not know what it wanted to be. It jumped between being the fun adventure that the book is to being a dark brooding setup for the LOTR trilogy. Far too many extraneous side stories found their way into this overly long and bloated children's story. The film should have been cut down to one 3 hour or, at the most, two 2 hour movies. Filling up some extra minutes with some Middle Earth backround information was ok, but a lot of extra junk that was unnecessary was thrown into this trilogy and especially into the Desolation of Snaug. In all honestly the best parts of these films were the stuff that was taken directly out of the book.

The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five armies was a movie I both longed to see but also dreaded to see. For knowing that it was the last of the Hobbit movies I felt sad that the adventure in Middle-Earth was about to come to an end but at the same time I felt excited to see how the ending would turn out. Having read The Hobbit book before the movie came out I already knew which characters would die, and what would happen in the main parts of the story but still I looked forward to see it all on the big screen. I liked both of the two other movies and have always looked at the movies and books in separate ways as I believe the two mediums are simply too different to compare with each other. However for me this movie sadly failed on many levels, and the only thing keeping it together was the continuing excellence of the actors. The overuse of CGI really killed a lot of magic in this movie and I've heard it did so for many others as well. CGI was of course used in both Desolation of Smaug & An Unexpected Journey but not as much and in the same way as it was used here. It felt as if the production was very rushed and sadly this caused many things to simply be replaced by CGI and pointless scenes of action. And the many scenes with Legolas also annoyed me as even though I like the character and the performance of Orlando Bloom, it simply felt that it was far too much and that focusing so much time on a character who are not even mentioned in the book just felt wrong and misplaced. It is really a shame that the production company did not give Peter Jackson and crew more time to give this legendarium the ending it deserved, as it felt that much could have been improved. The scenes that are good in the movie are however very good, as once again the amazing actors/actress delivers great performances. However all in this movie ends a very unique trilogy and even though it is the weakest of the three it is still a movie that all lovers of fantasy should see (If you have watched the other two). 7/10 Good!

I was distinctly underwhelmed by the first two Hobbit movies, I thought they were good but just that "Good" They live in the shadow of the Lord Of The Rings movies and simply paled in comparison and so going into The Battle Of The Five Armies I expected more of the same.According to both IMDb and the profit margin this was the most poorly received of the franchise, clearly people did not like the film by comparison. But as usual, I have to be different.I consider this to not only be the best of the Hobbit franchise but also hot on the heels in quality as the LOTR trilogy.The story culminates beautifully and if you can get past the many changes that were made you'll see the finale of a wondrous tale and a battle on screen that blew me away.Once again the fantastic cast, stunning score, mind blowing effects and sheer beauty envelope you into the world of Middle Earth and I was gripped.Yes its not flawless, but it is pretty damn close.The Good: Amazing opening Action scenes are brutal James NesbittEvangeline Lilly The Bad: Still a lot of changes Fili's death was poorly done Things I Learnt From This Movie: I <3 the "Ol twirly whirlies" Headbutting and bare fist punching steel helmets seems rational to people in Middle Earth

After the events portrayed in 'The Desolation of Smaug' the dwarfs, under Thorin Oakenshield, have taken control of the mine under the Lonely Mountain and searching for the 'Arkenstone', not knowing that Bilbo Baggins has already found it. Meanwhile the dragon Smaug has attacked and destroyed Lake Town before being slain by Bard the Bowman. After this Bard becomes the leader of the survivors as they head to the Lonely Mountain expecting the dwarfs to help them. Thorin, affected by Dragon sickness, refuses and barricades the entrance. Soon a force of Elves turns up hoping to retrieve their own treasure from the mountain; they ally with the human forces and prepare to attack. Just as they are about to strike a large army of dwarfs arrives to help those in the mountain. That is the least of their worries; Orcish forces are also attacking and soon men, dwarfs and elves are fighting side by side.This is a solid enough conclusion to the Hobbit trilogy which goes some way to link this trilogy to the 'Lord of the Rings'. The story is pretty simple and there are few real surprises… just lots and lots of action. This action is pretty good for the most part although occasionally the CGI is a little obvious. The characters are mostly 'more of the same' with familiar characters battling the evil orcs. Alfrid Lickspittle, a character who lives up to his name, was a fun addition as the cowardly sidekick to the late ruler of Lake Town… although why Bard trusted him for most of the film is a mystery as he shows his true colours at every possible opportunity. The cast does a solid job bringing the characters to life and the various CGI creatures look believable. Overall this film provided plenty of action although I'm not sure it was really necessary to turn a short book like The Hobbit into three films with lots of new material.