Extremely enjoyable, with a few minor gripes!

Rating: 7/10 (9 December 2014)

I thought the movie was entertaining as hell! Being a huge fan of the book, seeing this was the moment I had been waiting for years! Was it worth it? Well... yeah!
I think the movie had great visuals and incredibly believable character progressions! I think stretching the story to three films was a great choice and people who compare the amount of films involving the LotR-saga to the amount of films involving The Hobbit are pretty ignorant. Squeezing LotR into three films did the book a disservice, and a lot of the book isn't there! With this one, you pretty much get what you read as a kid plus some exciting references to the Tolkien lore!
That being said, I don't think this film is perfect. SPOILER ALERT, here come the gripes!
SPOILERS:
The film was pretty much a huge war scene. That's not one of the gripes, I actually enjoyed it (although I'm not the biggest fan of movie fights). The choreographs were well thought out and it was great to see some good old wizard combat! The gripes actually come in with some of the stuff NOT containing the fighting!
Mostly the none fighting was enjoyable. You really relate to the characters and it all makes sense. What bothers me is the fan service end. It's the little things... I loved to see the Shire one more time! I loved how they tied it up to the LotR movies, and I loved that Pulla was actually in a minor role (finally)! The stuff that bothered me were the unnecessary reference to Aragorn and the weird "please cry" scenes. Mostly I'm talking about the dying dwarfs!
It wasn't as bad as it could have been, but there were some icky moments. Like when Tauriel was crying at Kili's body. I'm glad they didn't do the whole "elven tears resurrected him" thing, but jeez... it was still pretty cheesy. I get that Tauriel would grief Kili's death but the whole "If this is love, take it away from me" part was a bit much.
The last gripe I have is Alfrid. You know, the guy with the unibrow! I sincerely hate that character! I mean in the second movie he had a purpose! He was like the the bastard that was keeping the curse on Theoden in The Return of the King! I can't remember his name by any stretch of imagination, but you know the one! Well, in this movie Alfrid is more of a goof. You just start to hate that character so much that it's not fun anymore! Anytime you see him you just go "DIE ALREADY" and not in the good way! He's just unnecessary, in my opinion. I get what they were trying to do, but I can't stand behind it. The joke got old after the first hour or so, get on with it!
Anyway, I think that's it! I'm not a professional critic. All I am is just an ordinary Tolkien fan, so don't take my words to heart or let them ruin this great movie for you! All things considered I still really enjoyed this movie! It was a satisfying ending to something great. Do go check it out if you haven't already!
Ps: Peter Jackson, please do something with Silmarillion!