Complete disappointment - don't watch it

Rating: 2/10 (23 December 2014)

One star for being a Tolkien movie and one for bringing the Hobbit saga to an end. If none of these reasons are very important to you, I cannot recommend watching the battle of the five armies.
The whole (long, actually very long) movie appears like a desperate attempt of Peter Jackson to justify the production of three movies based on one considerably short book. The movie continues the plot and numerous sub-plots of The desolation of Smaug before the story ends in the infamous battle of five armies (actually I counted only four armies since the wolves were missing but let's not be too picky). The battle-scene in itself is hilarious, it takes ages, is incredibly confusing and fails to sufficiently explain what happened with all the sub-plots and characters that were introduced before (I am looking at you, Dain and Beorn!). Instead we have to endure multiple closeups of Tauriel and this much-to-tall-to-be-a-dwarf- dwarf Kili until the tragic end of their relationship. Oh yes, the closeups recalling the slap-stick 70ies movies but lacking the self-irony. Where is the wit of the book gone?