It’s hard to believe that there was once a time when we might have been truly excited about this concluding chapter of The Hobbit trilogy, but weirdly it seems to be closing out such a huge series with more of whimper than a cheer; an indifferent ‘meh’ as opposed to thunderous applause. Think of the reaction to the final Lord of the Rings movie, The Return of the King, just 10 years ago.

I must confess that the first Hobbit film, An Unexpected Journey, put me off any real excitement in catching up with the second part, The Desolation of Smaug, for too long. When I did finally watch Smaug, I was impressed with its entertainment value, for it seemed as though director Peter Jackson had finally decided to treat the story for the adventure that it’s supposed to be, rather than squeezing all the post hoc prequel value he could by building a 300-page novel into a seven and a half hour film story.

Having now seen The Battle of the Five Armies, I can say that it leans more to being like part 2 than it does being like part 1, but it’s still not The Hobbit movie we wanted when this was first announced more than five years ago. Still, it was a fun time at the movies.

Click here to read my full review of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.