I know, I have no right to ask you this. But will you follow me, one last time? Sure- Thorin Oakenshield. It's worth checking out, one last time.

Rating: 8/10 (22 January 2015)

I have mixed feelings about the final installment of the three part film adaptation of the Hobbit novel. I didn't think, it was a wise decision, to make the Hobbit novel into three separate films. 2012's The Hobbit: Unexpected Journey was a slow start, 2013's the Desolation of Smaug was a long drawn movie with lackluster cliffhanger, and this movie, Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies was a bit anti-climax. Without spoiling too much, it's still probably the best film of the Hobbit film adaptation. Directed by Peter Jackson, the movie tells the story of Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) and the Company of Dwarfs being forced to engage in a battle against an array of enemies trying to take away their gold. Now the Dwarfs must try keep the Lonely Mountain from falling into the wrong hands, while also not losing themselves to selfish greed. Indeed, greed plays a big part of the film and it's kinda the film, downfall. Seeing a lot of armies fight over money, isn't the same as seeing lot of armies fighting for the fate of Middle Earth in 2003's Lord of the Ring: Return of the King. It's somewhat a shallow story about gold. The movie doesn't felt like there is much in stake. I really can't into the long repetitive battle scenes, because there is too little story to support it. It felt so endless and disconnect. It didn't even felt grand in scale, because the director put himself into a dilemma. He didn't want to make the battle seem as good as Lord of the Ring: Return of the King or 2002's Two Towers, because it would make his Lord of the Ring films look weaker to the Hobbit films. While, he did a lot of hard work, it just seems like he really didn't as much of a passion for these films as his Lord of the Ring films. He did these Hobbits films in sense of duty, since director Guillermo Del Toro drop out during pre-production. Somewhere in production; he lost his magic. It became more a call back to old Lord of the Rings films than its own movie. It's a huge problem that the LOTR films were made first, because anything not in that epic scale would look mediocre, compared to it. In many ways, this film looks that way. It's seem very cliché. While, he did add a few new things that kinda help the adaptation. A lots of it was just recycle sub-plots. Example are like King Thorin (Richard Armitage) going crazy AKA 'dragon sickness', over the gold. It's very similar to Gollum (Andy Serkis) downfall in the Lord of the Rings films. Then, you got the unneeded love affair between dwarf, Kíli (Aidan Turner) and elevan, Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly). It was very similar to Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) & Arwen (Liv Tyler), love story arch. The White Council's role in saving Gandalf at Dol Guldur is also a Jackson invention. Wasn't needed, but it's a great foreshadowing to the Lord of the Rings films. One pointless scene was that of Legolas (Orlando Bloom) & Tauriel visiting Gundabad. It wasn't needed. I kinda wish the 144-minute running time pacing structure of the film was little more solid. The whole opening with Smaug (Voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) and Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans) should had been in the finale of the last movie. It felt odd to have it, here. Second, the battle timeframe. It's seem that it last for hours. How are these people able to do long speeches about fighting during the battles? You would think, all the people would be dead, already. It's also a bit odd, that the hundreds of Dwarfs, human and Elves were losing the battle, before 12 dwarfs came to the rescue. Are they really that weak? Third, the movie doesn't really show anything or anybody after the Battle of the Five Armies like the novel. Who control the Lonely Mountain? Who is the King of the Dwarfs, now? It's never resolved. Fourth- The Hobbit timeframe doesn't match well with Lord of the Rings. It's so confusing. Fifth- for a movie call the Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins barely in this film. Most of the time, he just staring into space. He's get very lost in the many sub-plots. There are too many stories with not so memorable characters. The acting for the most part was pretty good, despite that. The special effects is a hit and miss. It gets a little CGI-heavy, with the film at times looking less like live-action and more like animation. The locations are beautiful, but it's lacking compare to the other films. Howard Shore's music is so-so. Not much, noting. Overall: I enjoy the film to a certain extent. I'm went there and back again. As the last Hobbit movie of the series. It kinda works. I enjoyed the film, and you might, too.