The third time did not leave a charmed life.

Rating: 3/10 (5 September 2017)

Less is more, and there was plenty of that in the tightly made first two Hobbit movies, as good as any of the well planned Lord of the rings series. I realized within the first half hour that the series should have concluded with the end of Smaug, moving this third series into outlandish and convoluted messiness after the second film's fist wrenching cliff hanger was resolved within 20 minutes of this film. Suddenly, there's a bunch of new threats to keep Thorin from taking back his mountain as humans, elves, dwarfs and Smaug's evil ogres fight. In the meantime, I began fighting a huge headache, and I blame the over ambition for this entry for giving it to me.
Certainly, the idea of the end of one battle leading to others is promising drama, having been evidenced in real history. But none of what transpires here is in "The Hobbit" in my memory of having read it at least three times. This shows as much desperation in the desire to continue the franchise that has turned "The Pirates of the Caribbean" series into an abysmal joke.
Characters that you rooted for in the first two films are pretty much destroyed here, and the voice of Smaug continues to pop up, not only to haunt Bilbo Baggins but to voice villainous characters as well. The lack of loyalty to the original novel is very apparent, turning this into an obnoxious cliché of different levels of magic represented for both good and evil. Films like this take away my confidence in the modern Hollywood method of making movies, and reminds me why I avoid movie theaters now for the most part. They say that too much of a good thing can damage a final product, and this is evidence of how true that is.