Bilbo Baggins' epic adventure finally comes to a close in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, the third and final film in Peter Jackson's series, which is based on the beloved book by J. R. R. Tolkien.
Martin Freeman plays the main role in the prequel to The Lord of the Rings trilogy as the awkward Hobbit with a heart of gold who sets off with the wizard Gandalf, played by Sir Ian McKellen, and a band of dwarves on a quest to slay a dragon, Smaug, portrayed by the former star's Sherlock co-star Benedict Cumberbatch. Along the way, he finds a powerful ring and makes new friends—and enemies—and also discovers more about himself.
The third film shows Bilbo and his friends battling the dragon and other adversaries in a bid to save Middle-earth. Other members of the supporting cast include Orlando Bloom, reprising his role as Legolas, plus Richard Armitage, Christopher Lee, Cate Blanchett, Luke Evans, Aidan Turner, Outlander Graham McTavish, Lost alum Evangeline Lilly, Lee Pace and Dean O'Gorman.
1. Rolling Stone's Peter Travers gives The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies two out of four stars.
"Talk about beating a dead orc," he writes. "In dutifully completing his prequel trilogy to his three-part Lord of the Rings triumph, director Peter Jackson has sadly saved the worst for last. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is 20 percent inspiration, 80 percent desperation."
The battle itself, Travers says, is "only an hour of screen time, but it taught me the meaning of eternity."
"I was relieved when Bilbo worked his way back to the Shire for a little R&R before the tale of the ring begins," he writes. "The Lord of the Rings trilogy will always have a place in movie history. The Hobbit is a footnote and, for me, easy to forget."
2. USA Today's Claudia Puig feels the complete opposite, calling the movie the best out of the three The Hobbit films. She gives it three out of four stars and says it is "an altogether fitting conclusion to this saga of Middle-earth."
"Battle scenes featuring Thorin fighting an orc general on the crumbling edge of a stony outcropping and skidding along thin ice are among the most thrilling," she writes, adding. "The film's title makes it sound as though it's all warring all the time, but there are quieter, moving moments, including a star-crossed romance between Tauriel and brave elf Kili (Aidan Turner). The actor who shines most consistently in the trilogy is Freeman, who has an unshakable grasp on his affable Bilbo Baggins character."
3. FoxNews.com' Justin Craig says The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies "limps—no, crawls—to a disappointing and profoundly underwhelming finish."
"It's an exhausting battle (and film) for a number of reasons," he writes. "One: Unlike Lord of the Rings, characters are not written well enough to warrant any emotional involvement so there's never any real threat. Two: The same scene throughout the battle happens over and over again; a character falls, the sound drops and we are forced to wait with bated breath for some kind of impaling. Then, of course, someone from behind slays the beast. Over and over again."
He does, however, praise the "first-rate" cast, calling Freeman a "class act," as well as music composer Howard Shore, who worked on all the films in the The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogies.
4. Reelviews' James Berardinelli gives The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies 3.5 out of four stars and also says the movie is the best out of the three, adding that it is "closer in quality to The Lord of the Rings than to its immediate predecessors."
"Despite The Battle of the Five Armies' devotion to action, there is a surprising focus on character development," he says. "Thorin has the strongest arc but there are opportunities for fleshing out Bard, Kili (whose quasi-romance with Evangeline Lilly's she-elf Tauriel becomes a defining characteristic), and (of course) Bilbo. Tangentially related scenes link The Hobbit to The Lord of the Rings by showing how Sauron used the struggles of this film to mask his return."
5. Schmoes Know's Kristian Harloff gives The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies 3.8 out of five "Schmoes," while co-host Mark Ellis awards it a score of 3.7.
Harloff says he loved the arcs of Bilbo and Thorin and how the movie "set up The Lord of the Rings," while Ellis thinks the film is not "as emotional or as gripping" as the first two films in The Hobbit trilogy.
Harloff felt there was excessive CGI animation, saying, "I never felt like that with the original trilogy. I always felt like I was in Middle-earth. There were times throughout this I did feel I was in Middle-earth and there were other times where I felt like I was noticeably on a movie set with a green screen."