Director Peter Jackson
Starring Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage
Rated M
Score 5/6

Bilbo and Company are forced to engage in a war against an array of combatants and keep the Lonely Mountain from falling into the hands of a rising darkness.

Woohoo!!! The final film of the trilogy that arguably shouldn’t have been a trilogy has finally been released. Sorry for being such a broken record, but this habit is a pet peeve of mine. After procrastinating on writing this review and taking some to think about this a little bit, I can see that this habit might be an attempt by movie studios to recapture the days of film serials such as Flash Gordon. But why do the studios have to make us wait a year between installments? Six months is long enough to wait.
After watching Jackson’s Hobbit Trilogy I think I might have been finally one over by 3D film making, but only HFR. I have to ask is HFR 3D a passing fad or the sixth age of 3D film making?
The Battle of the Five Armies is something that you should definitely check out while it is still at the cinema, unless you’re the type of person who likes you cinematic experience to involve you sitting on the couch in your underwear, then by all means wait for the release of the DVD. This was the culmination of everything that we have had to wait a year for. It was a pleasant surprise to see Billy Connolly as Dáin, Benedict Cumberbatch was just as menacing Smaug, and Richard Armitage was great as Thorin, though his final showdown with Azog could have been better. I get the need that sometimes a villain needs to mount a comeback before his ultimate death. However, the fake finish for the villain should not have looked as if it was adapted from a Bugs Bunny Cartoon.