Fairly consistent action carries it along, even if there is little to it and even impacting moments are lessened by the relentlessness

Rating: Null/10 (18 January 2015)

Perhaps it is me getting older but I do wonder if I was too kind on the original Lord of the Rings films in light of how disappointed I had been with the Hobbit films. Maybe because it was all new and different, or maybe they were genuinely better films than these. Anyway, as the Company continues their mission, so too did I return for the conclusion of this trilogy; although it must be said that I did not rush to it or have a great deal of excitement. The cliff- hanger from the previous film did win me over though, plus I wanted to see it through.
The opening sequence picking up on Smaug's attack on the town turned out to be pretty impressive; okay we still have people surviving impossible special effects, but Smaug was a strong part of the previous film and remained so here. There is a feeling of anti- climax after this sequence finishes, but the story continues and builds reasonably well as we see the various armies position themselves (albeit many seem to be able to appear by magic at the drop of a hat). With various action sequences this leads us into many fight sequences with lots of movements and CGI. All of this is reasonably okay but it never seems to stop, and gradually I found myself sort of numbed by it. I think it was the ongoing lack of consequence and depth to it all that did it, because technically it all does look impressive but yet it feels very much like a video game too many times.
The feeling of lack of consequence was a surprise to me though, particularly since we had major characters dying – so in theory that should be a surprise and an impact. Unfortunately for me and the film, most of these are hurt by me frankly not being that engaged with some of these characters and their specific stories, while the delivery of these moments tended to be overly done, so they didn't have a genuine impact so much as a melodramatic one. With the battles I also found that the film didn't seem to convey the sense of scale it should have done. It produces plenty of crowd shots and sweeping cameras, but most fights seem very small and disconnected from the bigger picture; they still work for what they are, but they felt like the film was smaller by virtue of them.
The cast are mixed but mainly everyone does what they do behind heavy costume and make-up, and with lots of green-screen work. The problem is more that the most interesting characters generally don't get the most time – in particular it was a shame that Freeman did not get enough to do considering how good he was throughout. Armitage is good as Thorin, but mostly people were a blur of ears and facial hair (depending on their race). Lilly and Bloom were the ones that stuck in the mind for the wrong reasons – I found them dull.
So the trilogy ends and being honest I am not too sad to see it go. As a film there is probably enough action and dramatics to carry it through the time, but at the same time this is the issue with it. The relentless CGI-heavy action wore me down somewhat, and as I didn't really engage with the story due to the previous films, it was hard to do much here even if some of the specifics offered hope. It is solidly good enough for fans to feel they finished out the story with a bang, but for me it was another very expensive and technologically impressive so-so film in the trilogy.