underwhelming ending to a great trilogy

Rating: 4/10 (9 December 2014)

I went to see the trilogy marathon and I really enjoyed the first two movies, even though I have seen both 4 times already. Great action scenes, humor, great acting from major and minor characters and an awesome supporting music score. Then you can't be anything but excited for the third movie. But what happens? One of the most awesome characters of the movies and superb villain, voiced by a perfect Cumberbatch, who really carried the latter part of the second movie, ending it with an unforgettable "I am fire. I am...DEATH." gets killed without practically no screen time whatsoever. And when the final battle is starting and you think it's gonna be epic, like the one from LOTR: return of the king, you're in for a disappointment. Against an overwhelming orc army (powered by lots of trolls which are being oneshotted throughout the fight and a handful of giant worms that magically disappear after being introduced at the beginning of the scene) that butchers both elven and dwarven armies and a couple dozen untrained humans, 13 dwarfs and a flight of eagles turn the tides as if the orc army has suddenly changed in straw men. And at the end, when the whole Durin family line get's suddenly slaughtered out of nowhere, there is not a speck of emotion in sight. O, and the most irritating man from the trilogy, which seems to have the function of comic release (Laketown mayor's right hand man), refuses to die. Sadly, I haven't seen a scene in this movie that's remotely close to any of the epic or humorous moments in either the LotR trilogy or any of the other Hobbit movies. I wanted this to blow me off my socks, but instead it was an OK experience that closes a fun trilogy.