Just a two-and-a-half-hour fight scene

Rating: 5/10 (9 June 2015)

As far as fight scenes go, Peter Jackson never disappoints with his Middle Earth franchise. Unfortunately, that's really all this movie is.
There was nothing introduced in this film that we didn't already see in the first two Hobbit movies. No new locations or characters or even plot. Only one character saw any development at all, and the story itself was predictable during dialogue, and absent during the fight.
In all fairness, if you're a fan of The Lord of the Rings, or The Hobbit, you may enjoy really enjoy this, but it made absolutely no sense to turn a short novel into three movies that are this long, because at the end of it all, this movie had no story.
It might not have been so bad if it didn't have a running time of two and a half hours, but there was so much filler in a fight scene that was dramatic and grand, for sure, but ultimately, boring.
It honestly felt like Jackson was trying to drag it out just to hold up his reputation of making movies that are extraordinarily long. It was bearable to watch, and the action and fight scenes were spectacular, but it's like Jackson has stated before, he makes movies for thirteen-year-old boys. It's just a highlight reel of swords and explosions.
If you're trying to entertain a group of prepubescent boys, good choice. If you're interested in story line, characters, or not wasting half your afternoon, pick something else.