Less epic moments than the other movies

Rating: 7/10 (9 January 2015)

Third and last installment in the adventures of Bilbo Baggins first we find the dragon Smaug wreaks havoc in Lake Town, angered at Bilbo's intrusion. Bard freed himself and manages to kill Smaug, shooting a black arrow at Smaug's exposed weak spot. Devastated, the Lake Town people head to the ruins of the former city Dale next to the Dwarven kingdom of Erebor. News of Smaug's demise travels fast and soon the Elven King Thranduil arrives with his army, uniting with the humans in demand for fair share of Smaug's gold. Thorin barricades Erebor's gate, refusing to share the gold as he's poisoned by 'dragon sickness', the lust for gold derived from the plunder which has so long been the bed of Smaug. At the day the elves march to Thorin's gate, his cousin Dain arrives with a dwarven army. Suddenly, the orc army under Azog reveals themselves and begin their attack. Humans, elves and dwarfs unite against the common enemy.
But Azog cleverly divide his army to also attack Dale, forcing the alliance to also divide their forces, weakening it. With Thranduil, Gandalf and Bard in the city, the alliance manages to defend Dale. But Legolas and Tauriel returns with sore news, The second batch of orc army from Gundabad is arriving. Meanwhile, Thorin finally wins his own fight against the lust for gold and goes out to help in the fight. He then aims to hunt down Azog with three others at a watchtower. But the place turns out to be Azog's trap where his ambush costs the lives of Fili and Kili. Bilbo arrives to warn Thorin of the Gundabad army. Azog suddenly appears and attacks Thorin, knocking Bilbo unconscious. Azog's men corner Thorin but Legolas helps him by shooting down the orcs for a far. Fortunately, help arrive for the alliance as Beorn, Radagast and the eagles come to help. Legolas then defeats the orc second in command Bolg. Thorin manages to drown Azog beneath the frozen river but the orc returns to launch at him, pinning him to the ground. Thorin accepts Azog's stab but then quickly returns the favor, killing the orc. Thorin dies of his wounds while Bilbo goes with Gandalf's company back to The Shire.
The story in general feels very much lacking since the movie altered the single book novel into a trilogy of movies with this installment in particular focuses mainly on the last battle of the five armies. With the way the trilogy splits the movies, Smaug's death looks only as a sweetener as it's placed very early at the very starting point. Adding in characters not in the book like Tauriel feels like a waste for me as they dilute the real story.
But the action scenes fortunately retains Peter Jackson's nice feel for it. Although I should say that this movie sure lacks epic moments in the battle scenes. I personally only find two instances where the battle scenes look cool. First is the whole sequence of Smaug's assault on Lake Town, and the second is when elven troops jump over the dwarven phalanx to assault the orcish army's front rows. Having to much emphasis on the on-on-one fights sure reduces this movie's epic battle scenes.
The acting is good in overall. Sir Ian McKellen and Orlando Bloom kept their characters well for this third in the trilogy and sixth in the Tolkien adaptation. Martin Freemen did well enough in portraying the more lively hobbit of Bilbo as to compared to the more sad looking Frodo. Richard Armitage plays it very well, nicely encompassing the right expressions on the good and bad sides of Thorin. Evangeline Lily plays out well enough for an added role that doesn't exist in the original novel. Lee Pace also adds nicely as Thranduil gets more focus than on any of the other movies.
My say for The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies (2014) is that the movie deserves a 7 out of 10 score. A recommendation is unfortunately just a so-so from me considering that while it's still a good part and ending to the trilogy, there's less epic moments than on any of the other Tolkien based movies.