Personally, it wasn't as great as Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, but it was awesome to watch the long awaited battle scene I have for years but only imagined in mind. Although, I wasn't particularly fond of the immensely over-sized trolls and the very short scene involving the important character called Beorn, the movie was close to depicting J.R.R. Tolkien's descriptions of the battle. My most liked scene was when the White Council members saved Gandalf, and faced against the apparition of Sauron and all the nine Nazgul in their original forms! All I can say is that it was epic movie overall and I'm waiting now to purchase the collection of all three movies, the extended versions only.
I watched the first 2 installments of The Hobbit but I haven't seen this one yet! I loved the first two movies. But boy I'm excited for the third installment. I love huge battle scenes and from what you have said, the battles are epic. I hope I'll get the chance to see this movie with my girl next year, probably January 3. That would certainly make my new year a little bit more happy. Oh, may I ask, how long is the movie? Did it reach two hours?
You can expect the movie to run for 2 hours or more. As far as I can recall, the first two installments never dropped below 2 hours. I haven't seen the movie yet but I heard from my brother, who already saw it himself, that several characters perished (I'm not going to spoil things for everyone here unless you've already watched the film). I didn't expect that kind of ending but we all know that Sauron lived even after The Hobbit concluded.
It's a great conclusion to the Hobbit Trilogy, it had a lot more action going for it then the second movie in my opinion. Although along with popular opinion I'm not a fan of the Legolas romance which isn't canon if I'm not wrong.
I still won't forgive Peter Jackson for ruining what could have been the best movie trilogies of 2014. How can you mess CGI so bad? And the the increase in FPS is just annoying to watch and makes the background look more fake and tacky. Lucky me, I didn't pay to see it at the cinema.
I have not seen the 3rd movie yet. I did see the other two as I am a big fan of The Hobbit series. I am looking forward to the movie.