A flawed but fitting final chapter to the Middle-earth legend

Rating: 9/10 (18 May 2015)

Let me just start off by saying that I am a big fan of The Hobbit and of The Lord of the Rings and they are some of my favourite movies of all time. When I saw the first teaser trailer for this film and the Edge of Night used as nostalgia, I nearly teared up with excitement. I remember the thrill of suddenly really looking forward to this final chapter and I didn't know what to expect, but I got what I was expecting: a great day out with my friends, Dad and sister to what was the greatest cinema experience for me. The movie had everything I wanted, the action, the acting, the tension, the drama, the thrilling sense of an apocalypse and the emotion was there too, and for that I give it full marks for that all combined.
However, I have to take down one star for the major problems that I have with this movie that rob it of its masterpiece status. Like Legolas defying gravity and jumping stones like its suddenly a flipping video game in what was one of the worst CGI effects I have ever seen, and lets not forget the dull, badly-done, annoying, purposeless characters of both Tauriel and that love story that didn't have any purpose whatsoever in staying true to the classic source material, the annoying purposeless horrendous character of Alfrid Lickspittle who Peter Jackson thought was too much to kill off finally and was like "hey I've got a great idea, lets just put in a character named Alfrid and he will always sneak into the movie and make the entire film fade out of its plot, he'll just be there to add in pointless unfunny humour." I hate to be so negative about this movie, but I cannot help but say that all these things are just too unforgivable and if Peter Jackson could've cut all of those things out of the movie, then it would've been a better film. Also, what exactly was Legolas' purpose in the first place? Is he just there to kill orcs and to make sure that this is the same universe as The Lord of the Rings trilogy? I don't mind him being in there, but he just doesn't really have a lot of purpose to the story and I don't know why they thought that that laughable gravity defying stunt he pulled off was really necessary.
I'm not to bothered about some other loose ends not being tied up, because they will explain that in the Extended Edition, but what really matters is what they put in the cinemas. Like, will we see Dáin become king?Will we see the funeral of Thorin, Fíli and Kíli? Or the reinforcements for the dwarf army coming on those rams and goats that Thorin, Dwalin,Fíli and Kíli use to ride the Ravenhill to kill Azog? Or Bard becoming the king of New Dale and Dáin giving to him what was promised of the treasure to rebuild? Or them placing the arkenstone and Thorin's sword, Orcist within his crypt? Or whether or not Thranduil is going to get those gems of pure starlight back? Or the long awaited death of Alfrid? There are also some scenes that will make you very questionable about the film. Like how after four movies of this never happening did Legolas suddenly run out of arrows? Bard using his own son, Bain, as an arrow, how Dáin and Thorin suddenly decide to hug and talk in the middle of a raging battle, and there's an overuse of a lazy action movie cliché that is last minute rescues. I mean like there's always someone in danger and then, suddenly someone else comes out of nowhere to save them at the last minute. Its very repetitive and you thought Michael Bay had a obsessive use of explosions in his films. It just gets on my nerves a little.
So all of these things I have mentioned is what ruins the reputation of the film and they just need to be removed from the film completely. Still, I love this film, I've seen it four times at the cinema and I now have it on DVD and I couldn't be more happier now that I have one of my favourite franchise finales on DVD (and also with the fact that I can now skip through the love story, Legolas jumping stones and Alfrid).
I know that the Dol Guldur scenes weren't in the book, but I don't really mind it being put in the film because it explains what Gandalf left the company for in the book (which wasn't entirely explained) and because it also ties the franchise up with TLOTR trilogy perfectly and it was awesome to see Sauron and Galadriel go face to face with each other. That was one of the best scenes in the film. I also liked the addition of Sir Christopher Lee's Saruman, seeing as the actor who played him recently passed away and it was good to see him retake his role of one his greatest villains ever.
Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage dominate every scene of the film in their perfectly acted Oscar worthy performances as Bilbo Baggins and Thorin Oakenshield. Oh, and The Last Goodbye song at the end is a perfect way to end it. The song still moves me today.
Even though this film is flawed, everything else was what we all wanted, the acting, the action, the amazing visuals and the conclusion was all exactly all I could've asked for in this film and its a triumphant send-off to Middle-earth.