An excellent conclusion to the Middle-earth saga

Rating: Null/10 (19 January 2015)

Considering how disappointed that I was with "The Desolation of Smaug", I was more than a little apprehensive about watching this film. I needn't have worried as it was a hugely engrossing, excellent film, the best of the trilogy which ends the Middle-earth saga on a high. While it's certainly not on the same level as any of the films in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, that's true of 99% of the films that I've seen.
My only real problem with the film was that Kíli and Tauriel were built up as being star crossed lovers for the ages when they spent about five minutes in each other's company over the course of two films. It seemed more like they fancied each other as opposed to being truly, madly, deeply in love, to be honest. That said, their scenes are lovely and Evangeline Lilly - who was far less annoying than she was in the few "Lost" episodes that I've seen - and Aidan Turner have great chemistry.
The action scenes look wonderful and the acting was generally of a very high standard. Aside from the film series' veterans such as Ian McKellen, Ian Holm and Cate Blanchett (the only actor other than McKellen to appear in all six films), I was particularly impressed by Ryan Gage as Alfrid, Luke Evans as Bard and Aidan Turner as Kíli. I loved the cameos from Christopher Lee and Hugo Weaving, both of whom were absent from the previous film after appearing in all of the first four (or at least the extended versions thereof), as well as Stephen Fry and Billy Connolly. I was also far more impressed with Smaug in this film since he actually spent more time doing what dragons do and spent less time yakking. A major part of the reason that Smaug worked better in this film was that he had less screen time. Less is more as far as dragons are concerned.