Terrific conclusion to this epic trilogy.

Rating: 8/10 (9 January 2015)

For me, the Hobbit films only got better. I enjoyed the first, the second was a huge improvement, then this one just knocked it all out for me. It concludes the epic story in such a stylistic fashion, completing arcs for all characters of the trilogy, bringing you to tears, and for the journey to continue into LOTR.
The epic trilogy conclusion follows Bilbo and his Dwarf friends as they prepare for war against the Orc army, while dealing with Oakenshield's inner demons preventing him from associating a truce with the Elves and townspeople of Laketown.
The opening scene is the battle with Smaug. The reign of terror by Smaug, followed by his downfall. It's really well done and really well shot. Though part of me feels like it could have just been thrown into the last film at the last second, it makes for one great opening scene.
Most of the film is the lengthy battle, hence the title. There's a lot of build up between all the sides of the army. This is the one where I really felt the pressure of the situation. I felt scared for everybody; Bilbo, who's caught in the middle of all of it, Oakenshield, who is forced to make a difficult decision, Legalas, and Bard, who has to lead the people of Laketown in their attempt to recover from the reign of Smaug. I was scared for Gandalf up to when he's freed by Galadriel, Elrond, and Saruman from the evils of Sauron, which perfectly sets up Saruman's following of Sauron.
In terms of the battle scenes, outstanding. The action is fluent and fast paced, with spot on choreography. Not to mention certain scenes, (don't wanna spoil) that are soooo freaking awesome I had my jaw dropping for a solid minute. The scenery is beautiful, even though most of your concentration is on the action, the characters use the environment to their advantage to progress the battle. It's such an amazing battle of epic proportions, because so much stuff is happening at once, you're all over the place.
I will say a lot of the character confrontations are pretty much over and done with during the fight, but that's kind of the point. One book stretched into 3 movies, it all comes down to this, and it does a heck of a job.
I was not expecting to be so wrapped up into the character, which really hit me hard at the end, of it all, I ended up crying. The ending was one of my favorite parts, it perfectly concludes this story and perfectly wraps it into LOTR, you just get goosebumps the way they do it, perfect!
If you're interested in epic battle scenes that blow your mind every second, then I highly recommend this. I enjoyed every second of it, simply too epic to not enjoy.