unbelievably disappointing

Rating: 3/10 (11 January 2015)

When Lord of the Rings came into the theaters i was full of praise for how well the key parts of the book were translated into a movie. Of course i was a little disappointed even then about compromises that had been made that i considered important - but realized that for the sake of the story - most decisions were pretty much correct.
Years later - and after the Hobbit part 1 and 2 - i was sitting in the theater watching part 3 - getting more and more annoyed.
As predicted - making 3 parts out of a rather thin kids book was certainly not the best idea, but may have worked if some "key" scenes had been unaltered. Especially the centerpiece of the last part, the actual battle, was just so different from the tale that it was not more than a very generic battle - been there, done that.
The book has a certain atmosphere about the clashing of the armies that the movie failed to catch. The more important part - the struggle of the characters does not come across, the dialog feels very flat.
For example - in the book - it is very well explained why the company of dwarfs supports Thorin even when he sinks deeper into madness - in the movie however they become "background" - none of the dwarfs really has a significant personality - they are interchangeable at best - and irrelevant at worst.
Oddly - even the visuals felt not even the same as the old Lord of the Rings movies - but worse. Choreography and camera dynamics were - well, not bad - but not better than average.
For me - sadly - it was the biggest disappointment of the movies i really wanted to see.