Battle of the Five Armies ends the trilogy in an emotionally satisfying way

Rating: 10/10 (18 December 2014)

Despite the idea of turning J.R.R. Tolkien's prelude to the Lord of the Rings "The Hobbit" into a three film adaptation receiving mixed reactions, Peter Jackson returned to Middle-Earth with "An Unexpected Journey", the first half of the story, which received mixed to positive reviews, but fans of Tolkien's work and other people loved it, and "The Desolation of Smaug", the second half of the story, while not being as well received as the original trilogy, got much better reviews than everyone anticipated. Now, at last, this year, Peter Jackson ends the trilogy with "The Battle of the Five Armies".
Taking place right where the previous film left off, Smaug flies from Erebor to Lake Town and burns it. Meanwhile, Bilbo and the Dwarfs led by the power-driven Thorin Oakenshield have been forced to engage in a war against the people of Lake Town, the elves, and the Orcs led by Azog the Defiler and keep the treasure from them at all costs.
After seeing the first two Hobbit films, I went to see this with my siblings and a friend of ours, hoping that it would exceed my expectations. It did and... I can't believe it's over. For over thirteen years, Hollywood has enchanted us with the original trilogy and with this to close not only the prequel trilogy, but the adventures on Middle-Earth as well, I really love this even more than the first two films. An Unexpected Journey did drag itself too long and it had an uneven tone while Desolation of Smaug only had an "that's it?" ending, but Peter Jackson has managed to improve on the previous two and did it perfectly.
Not only does the story channel the last act of the Hobbit book, it also managed to tie in some of the loose ends from their predecessors while connecting other elements to the original trilogy. It also gives you the feels to what will happen if the dwarfs would win the war and defeat Azog or not and it shows. Even it's moments hits the emotional resonance that the original trilogy brought. The pacing, on it's 144 minute length, is very brisk.
The characters are still as good as they are even in the previous films. Especially Bilbo Baggins and Thorin Oakenshield. Martin Freeman gives the character the same level of confidence and bravery while Richard Armitage still retains the brooding, and sympathetic personality to Thorin driven by greed, power, and hatred and as always, his performance is beyond intense as I thought. The other characters, including Gandalf, Galadriel, Saruman, Elrond, and Legolas, the cameos from the original trilogy, do what they can to help the dwarfs defeat the Orcs and while they also give the same good performances, the action sequences with them are fantastic. Smaug, despite his small appearance, manages to give a terrifying presence Benedict Cumberbatch still maintains from the previous film.
The music score from Howard Shore not only gives an emotional depth to the film, but the action music while retaining some of the same bits from the previous films and the original trilogy is really breathtaking with it's epic choir and contains suspense and atmosphere perfectly. Then, there's the action sequences. Aside from the ones with the characters from the original trilogy, the climax between the five armies and the battle between the dwarfs and Azog the Defiler is a contender for the best action sequences in the history of Hollywood.
Overall, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies marks the end of the adventures on Middle-Earth and as an improvement over the last two films, this is my recommendation to Tolkien fans and those who read the Hobbit. A solid thumbs up from me! :)