WasAnnon Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Peereddi I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Gavin Purtell The third - and final - Hobbit film is a valiant attempt to recapture the 'Lord of the Rings' magic of Middle Earth, but too often feels tired and repetitive, especially in the sixth film in the franchise. It's by no means bad, it's just - as with the first two Hobbit films - unnecessarily padded, with lots of flashbacks and scenes of staring into the distance. I'm still not convinced the three Hobbit films couldn't have worked as one cohesive 3 & a bit hour film...Even though the second film featured his name in the title, Smaug (Cumberbatch) is quickly dealt with and the plot hastily progresses to be about the humans - led by Bard (Evans) - tying to move into the Mountain with the Dwarves - led by Thorin (Armitage) & a mostly redundant cameo from Dain (Connolly). To complicate things, the Elves - led by Legolas (Bloom)'s dad - show up too and then the Orcs arrive. By my count, that's four armies. The fifth army never really eventuates... Gandalf (McKellen) & Bilbo (Freeman) are left stuck in the middle of all this.There's some quick appearances from Elrond (Weaving), Galadriel (Blanchett) & Saruman (Lee), which are unnecessary and don't add to the plot. There's some good battle scenes, but nothing to top 'The Two Towers' or 'The Return of the King'. Some mild humour thrown in, but a lot of the film feels bogged down and aware it's "the defining chapter" or "the final farewell" as it's been billed.Plenty of frustrating moments - Tauriel (Lilly)'s "romance" with Kili (Turner), Thorin's "dragon sickness", the get-out-of-jail-card that the Eagles pose. Despite these, the score is still great, with the use of the familiar motifs still effective and the cinematography beautiful.

Platypuschow 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

Tweekums 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.

sir_brettley The conclusion of the book is pretty satisfying. The movie, not so much. One of the things I hate about "modern" movies is the way that game scenes are built into the movie. It's obvious which ones will be part of games and it detracts from the film.The invented characters and scenes do not add to the story in this movie. In fact, they take away from the main plot: absolute wealth corrupts as much as absolute power does.In the book the battle is well-written. The "armies" are actually more like large companies and the battle takes place in front of the mountain. In the movie, the armies are vast (especially the Orcs, who somehow have tens of thousands of soldiers and move them across vast tracts easily...during daylight no less) and spread out into the ruined town of Dale and the surrounding mountains.The result is a haphazard mess that Jackson admits he just "winged". He should have spent more time making two well-written movies instead of three rushed ones.One of the most unfortunate outcomes is that it's highly unlikely that the estate will green light a series of movies based on the Silmarillion. Well, at least not with Jackson.