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!

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.

...and if I had known I was going to watch an animated movie I might have enjoyed it more.This was at least a half hour longer than was needed. Personally I found the over use (and IMO over dependence) on CGJ made the parts were you could actually see the actors look strange...as if they had been cut into an animated movie.I enjoyed the film, but would have enjoyed it a lot more if it had been shorter.