A few plot holes aside, having seen the Lord of the Rings trilogy, I was afraid a battle of five armies would be stale, but I thought it moved along well and kept me interested.

This movie was actionlicious!

I'm giving this four stars because as a fan of this book, parts of this movie are freaking amazing. Unfortunately, the AWFUL Kili/Tauriel romance nearly ruins the entire movie. This really should have been just two films and all the unnecessary BS that Peter Jackson completely made up really shouldn't have been there. Amazing effects, gorgeous cinematography, and an amazing cast, though.

It was a great finale to this 3-movie event! We really didn't enjoy the first 2 installments as well as we had wanted. We didn't like the filming technique - high frame rate - and just didn't think it was as entertaining as the whole Lord of the Rings experience. This movie, however, was great! It hit on all marks - no slow parts; lots of excitement; lots of nice character moments for the cast