I can't decide

Rating: 7/10 (18 December 2014)

The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies I am a Middle Earth die hard fan; the Lord of the Rings trilogy is my all time favorite movie trilogy. It is visually stunning, the acting is spot on and the story is wonderful.
The Hobbit Trilogy has me at a cross roads. I love anything Middle Earth, just because it's middle earth so i automatically love these movies just for that.
There are parts I liked and disliked about this movie, and the other two, mainly that they added a she-elf who fell in love with a dwarf. (That just bugs me) I MEAN COME ON. I am okay with Legolas being added into the movies because they gave us a back story on him and how he came about the Fellowship (good idea Peter Jackson. Tauriel has absolutely nothing to do with anything. She is pointless to all middle earth stories. She didn't even end up with Legolas. No she ended up falling in love with a dwarf that was half her size. (Granted he was pretty good looking, but still. Irrelevant).
Secondly. The CGI. What? Why? Why so much? And why so bad? But then it occurred to me that this was made for 3D, maybe they need that much crappy CGI for 3D movies. I don't know. My area is in makeup and special effect makeup, not CGI. Now, that goes for all three movies. The dragon was the least crappy (I thought it looked pretty good!) They should have spent the same amount of time on all the other CGI, that they did on the dragon, to make it even more visually stunning. But no, they had to split this 300 page book into 3 decent looking movies (money of course, why not)=When they could have made one or two amazing looking movies.
The acting was wonderful as always. The actors they had were amazing and did a fabulous job, I'm so glad that they used great actors to redeem themselves of poor CGI.
The humor did not bother me too much, although I felt they could have had less of it. I think it lightened it too much. Middle Earth is supposed to be dark and dreary. It had its dark and dreary moments, like when Thorin had his sickness (done very well). It was the same director, I wish he had stuck with the same feel as the other movies. I don't know what was so different, but it didn't feel like middle earth. Felt like some other place. The orcs weren't as scary or gross (probably because they did CGI instead of makeup artists on people) It's a sad day when CGI is better than special effects makeup. *Sigh* Takes away from the art of movies.
I was very happy that they ended it with one of the opening scenes from the fellowship of the ring *applause*. Ties it together very well.
They didn't explain what happened to the Stone or to the Elf Kings Jewels. I mean why? Why didn't you elaborate on that? Instead you dwell on the annoying forbidden-romeo-and-Juliet type romance between Killi and Tauriel. Since when was the relevant? They aren't Aragorn and Arwen. Just stop trying. Nothing can beat them. Nothing at all.
Overall, great movie (and movies) If you don't compare any of them to the book and just look at them as separate-nothing-to-do-with-the-book movies, they are pretty darn good. Visually stunning and goose-bump worthy movies. Wonderful movie score as well! I got goose-bumps just watching them all and will watch them all again and again and again. But still not as good as the original three! I'm going to go watch a movie now.
Props to Peter Jackson for making three movies in three years that all pertain to the Hobbit book. I am shocked that he pulled it off and that they are all pretty darn great. Thank you for adding to the Middle Earth movies! My life is now complete! My favorite books on screen!