A great ending to and amazing trilogy

Rating: 9/10 (29 December 2014)

The first Hobbit film was good, a little bit slow. The second Hobbit film was amazing with great adventure and action. The defining chapter was a great and deserving ending to the prequel of LOTR.
When the film starts off with Smaug destroying Laketown, most people thought that those first ten minutes of Smaugs final moments should have been in the 2nd film. Well I thought that as well, even having just the 2 films as originally planned, but at the ending of the 2nd film it leaves you in suspense, wanting to see whats happens next, causing you to want to see the next one. And as thought out, thats what Peter Jackson wants. So I thought it was a great start to the film, even though Smaug is only in it for the first ten minutes. The 45 min battle sequence was great with some minor gripes such as the CGI. CGI was used way too much and would have been much better with using real people like LOTR. Gandalf for once wasn't rescued by eagles, but by the White Council, which was good for a change. The battle between Elrond and Saruman vs the nazgul was one of my favorite scenes in the entire film. Again many changes from the book, but I'm not a book purist so the changes I didn't mind.
Overall a great ending to the final middle earth trilogy directed by Peter Jackson (or at least I think so?).