My addition to the reviews of Battle of the Five Armies: great stuff!

Rating: 8/10 (20 January 2015)

I saw this deliberately not in 3D, because the charm of Rhosgobel Rabbits pulling a chariot was spoiled slightly in the previous film by 3D's affects that made it appear disconnected with the film. I raised rabbits for 20 years and really liked that image, way to go, Peter Jackson!
So in this non-3D film, the rabbits came across beautifully. So did Smaug and the other fantastic beasts; had to laugh at the giant pig. I chuckled at Alfrid's giant bosom, but other than that the film's serious tone carried the day. The number of characters overwhelmed, though, and it took 15 minutes to place them all where they belonged: Bard's children, all the dwarfs, etc. but short of a lengthy character list in the beginning, I don't see where that could have been corrected.
On to the spectacle: the effects were marvelous, not just the ending battle but the supernatural battle between Galadriel and her friends and Sauron which was one of the best showing-not-telling scenes of characters who we root for, yet are not human. All in all, this scene did its job the best in the whole movie, for me. The acting: Freeman and Armitage convinced me that they were friends; Galadriel and Saruman and Elrond and Sauron made me believe that their world is on another plane than mine; that Peter Jackson handles grandeur better than any current director, helped immeasurably by Tolkien's original story.