Really not worth it.

Rating: 4/10 (12 January 2015)

It's the first time I've ever reviewed here, and I can quite honestly say that reading the reviews on IMDb is much more entertaining than watching the movie itself. And that's all I really want to say on the subject.
...but since there's a minimum of 10 lines, I will attempt to condense my annoyance at the movie into these sentences. I couldn't even get angry at how poorly the movie was executed and how it wasted nearly three hours of my life that I'll never get back. Mild annoyance bordering on ridicule is really all I can manage. Although I've been a die-hard fan of the books ever since I was 5, I'm not one of those people who quibbles about book-movie discrepancies. I respect and enjoy movie adaptations as works unto their own right. So here it it: BOTFA was just one huge steaming mess of a film, and (this is a huge understatement) a terrible, terrible grand finale. The first one was horrendous, the second one I enjoyed immensely (I'm going to admit that I really enjoyed Tauriel's character in the second movie to be honest), so I didn't really know what to expect for this one. I think most of the other reviewers here have covered the numerous things that irked me, but my biggest pet peeve is that there just wasn't any closure. All the main characters and plots we'd been obliged to invest emotionally in (although this too is debatable) just disappeared in the end. The gold that everyone had been fighting for was unresolved, the deaths were unmourned, Dain and Bard were not crowned kings, Tauriel's last scene was her cradling Kili's dead body and crying, we never saw what happened to weaselly and entirely unnecessary Alfrid...the list just goes on and on. 4 stars are for Richard Armitage, Martin Freeman and Sir Ian McKellan, who despite their best efforts were unable to save this train wreck, and also the fact that I enjoyed the eye candy in this film (Yes, I'm a woman in her early twenties).
Again, reading the IMDb reviews here trashing the movie provides much more entertainment value than the movie itself. I'm even tempted to do a "Choice Reviews" compilation and post it here.