A fitting finale

Rating: 9/10 (25 December 2015)

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is the third and final film of the prequels to The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. It was a fitting finale that I very much enjoyed. This film makes everything in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth stories come full circle.
Picking up right where The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug left off, Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) and the Dwarfs are forced into combat to protect the treasure of Lonely Mountain from falling into the wrong hands. Many of the different races of Middle Earth (Men, Elves and Orcs) are now marching toward the mountain to either do battle or resolve the whole thing peacefully.
This is easily the most action packed of the three Hobbit films. The final battle scenes are very well shot, although they still pale in comparison to anything in the original Lord Of The Rings trilogy. Martin Freeman is once again great as the young Bilbo Baggins who really shows his courage and determination this time around. Also, Middle Earth looks amazing as usual (it makes me really want to visit New Zealand one day!).
I rate it 8.5/10, the same scores as its two predecessors.