For the record I liked the LOTR trilogy a lot and I certainly thought the previous Hobbit film the Desolation of Smaug was a lot of fun.

However, Battle of the Five Armies is such a poor film it will besmirch the other films in Jackson's Tolkien cannon.

The pacing of the film is way off. I literally almost got up to walk out of the film twice, first with 45 minutes to go and then again with 20 minutes to go. The film just did not hold my attention. It is very rare I go to the cinema and want to leave a film early.

Like BWood said the love triangle adds nothing in this film. But that is one of the lesser problems.

The acting throughout is awful, especially from the minor characters. Perhaps they were asked to ham it up but the villagers/fisherman showed very poor quality of "acting". Especially the guy who was Alfred.

The special effects look like they come from the 1980s. Really unimpressive. There were times when it looked like a computer game but from a previous decade.

I'm still having trouble adjusting to the 48 frames per second look, the appearance makes the film look low budget.

The Hugo Weaving and Cate Blanchett walk ons were weird, I guess Jackson just wanted to pad the film length and introduce and set up for LOTR.

There are a lot of battle scenes, you expect this given the film's title but there is very little plot.

There is weak dialogue yet the film is still portentous; a strange mix but I've never felt the writing has been a strong point in any of Jackson's Tolkien films.

I thought the start of the film with Smaug should have probably been included in the second film. Again this is linked to pacing and structure.

Jackson should really have made The Hobbit a two part film rather than three and then made two director's cuts but making a third film the studios can bring in another $500 million.