A strong ending to the Hobbit trilogy, but never lives up to the expectations generated by the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The story itself was OK, but it seemed the entire middle section of the film did nothing more than set the stage for the battle sequence at the end. And when that battle arrived, it was a bit of a letdown. Everything in this trilogy seemed to be leading up to the fight with Smaug the dragon, and while we got that, it was over much too soon. Instead, the film sets up a more traditional Lord of the Rings showdown featuring all manner of races and Orcs. Another massive Middle-Earth battle comes off as repetitive, no matter what new creatures they add to the mix. Only when the fights got down to one-on-one personal battles did any of the chaos become interesting. With almost two dozen characters, only a handful had become memorable throughout the series. Their stories, particularly the ones with tragic endings, brought some much needed emotion to the climax.
*** out of *****