Best of the 3

Rating: 9/10 (22 December 2014)

I was pleased with everything Peter Jackson created in this last installment. During the first two movies I was having issues with all the things that were not like the book, especially adding new characters and relationships - but the drama, action and the essential thread of the story was so well created and acted out in this installment that I was able to put all my issues aside and enjoy the ride and all of the characters. It was actually fun to see scenes that did not happen in the book, which helped bring the story full circle into the Lord of the Rings Trilogy filmed a decade earlier. One of the big character changes in all of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies is that the writers always add more female characters. It's a smart move, even though at first I objected to there being a Tauriel elf girl and Legolas present as the son of Thranduil in this version of the Hobbit. It's also great to see the casting people use New Zealand actors in each movie, since that is where the filming happened. It was really fun to see the return of characters from the first 3 movies in this last Hobbit movie, even if they may not all have actually appeared on the pages of the book. I am ready to go see the movie again to pick up on details I missed, including the fact that a familiar actor I watch on the Arrow t.v. series played the leader of the Orc army, Azog. He was totally CGI of course, but now I will be looking for the actor, Manu Bennett, in the CGI version of him, like I was watching for Andy Serkis in the Gollum character from the first movies. I also want to rewatch for the signs of the return of dark times in Mordor in relation to Bilbo's finding and use of the ring. I hope Peter Jackson is able to keep making movies of this caliber. The passion and detail of his work as director, writer, creater of other worlds is quite a gift to all of us.