Not that great...and it doesn't age well

Rating: 6/10 (4 November 2017)

The conclusion of the book is pretty satisfying. The movie, not so much. One of the things I hate about "modern" movies is the way that game scenes are built into the movie. It's obvious which ones will be part of games and it detracts from the film.
The invented characters and scenes do not add to the story in this movie. In fact, they take away from the main plot: absolute wealth corrupts as much as absolute power does.
In the book the battle is well-written. The "armies" are actually more like large companies and the battle takes place in front of the mountain. In the movie, the armies are vast (especially the Orcs, who somehow have tens of thousands of soldiers and move them across vast tracts easily...during daylight no less) and spread out into the ruined town of Dale and the surrounding mountains.
The result is a haphazard mess that Jackson admits he just "winged". He should have spent more time making two well-written movies instead of three rushed ones.
One of the most unfortunate outcomes is that it's highly unlikely that the estate will green light a series of movies based on the Silmarillion. Well, at least not with Jackson.