Critics review 'The Battle of the Five Armies'

The 144-minute running time showcases Jackson’s worst tendencies: eons-long battle scenes, sloppy and abrupt resolutions, portentous romances, off-rhythm comic timing, and, newly in this case, patience-testing fan service.
– Inkoo Kang, The Wrap

“So began a battle that none had expected,” wrote JRR Tolkien in the third-from-last chapter of The Hobbit. “And it was called The Battle of the Five Armies, and it was very terrible.” Peter Jackson’s expansion of this epochal but barely-described fracas, in his third and final film from this slim book, is neither very terrible nor remotely unexpected. It’s a series of stomping footnotes in search of a climax. [...]

The trouble is that Jackson can’t make it mean very much: when every life on Middle Earth is seemingly at stake, few individually grab our attention. There’s more aftermath than plot left, and very little of it has to do with Bilbo (Martin Freeman), who feels increasingly like a forlorn bystander in his own franchise.
– Tim Robey, The Telegraph

A fitting conclusion to Jackson’s prequel trilogy and a triumphant adieu to Middle-earth. Now complete, The Hobbit stands as a worthy successor to The Lord Of The Rings, albeit one that never quite emerges from its shadow.
– James Dyer, Empire Online

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies promises to be the New Zealand director’s final excursion into Tolkien territory, and for that some praise is due, for staying the course if nothing else. The first Lord of the Rings film, The Fellowship of the Ring, was released almost exactly 13 years ago, in 2001, and the six instalments of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies make up a remarkably homogenous body of work. Like Agatha Christie’s detective novels, there would appear little in the way of aesthetic – as opposed to technological – progression; having set the tone so definitively at the outset, each film delivered exactly what it promised.
– Andrew Pulver, The Guardian

After all the initial fuss and bother about the 3D and 48 frames-per-second images, Jackson and his visual team made the necessary technical adjustments to smooth things out, the result being a strong, robust looking, CGI-dominant film with great detailing and gargantuan imagery.
– Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter

Eldorion wrote:For some reason Australia often has really long delays for movies.

chris63 wrote:Got to wait till Boxing Day

Elthir wrote:

Spot on Forest! Or as the Germans say: spot on Wald!

a lot of Germans speak English

Mrs Figg wrote:hey Sin hope you are doing ok. are you feeling better?

Sinister71 wrote:

Mrs Figg wrote:hey Sin hope you are doing ok. are you feeling better?

I've got good days and bad days but overall I think its getting better. The meds kind of make me loopy and i sleep quite a but overall I'm getting better I walked 1 mile earlier today, was able to pick up a guitar for the first time in a month without it hurting my back. Just need to keepon pushing myself is all. Thanks for asking Figgs

Pettytyrant101 wrote:Good to hear things are going the right way Sin- keep yer pecker up!

Mrs Figg wrote:''These are being treated like Jacksons own prequel to his lotR's film, not a Tolkien adaptation."

that in a nutshell is what its all about.  

Eldorion wrote:This is completely unrelated to the topic at hand, but parzival, I have to say that the Smaug in your avatar looks like he's thinking "do you even lift, bro?"  If his feet were touching he'd look just like that one kangaroo.