Look, if you were as bloated as The Hobbit trilogy, you'd probably be showing signs of exhaustion toward the end of a nearly nine-hour runtime, too. And if your films were as stupidly profitable as director Peter Jackson's, you'd probably be just as blind to your own cinematic sins. So let's avoid repeating the charges hurled at the previous two installments, and concentrate on the wrap-up of this fantasy epic. There's a dragon on the loose at the outset, but don't worry; he's just there to destroy the town and so provide motivation for Bard the relatable action hero, er, Guard. And hey, remember when the dragon said he was tempted to let Thorin the exiled dwarf king find the Arkenstone, so that it might drive him mad with its bewitching power? Totally unnecessary: he goes mad because he can't find it! At least it stops his moping: Thorin twisted by greed is vastly more interesting than any other Thorin. (The titular hobbit is mostly reduced to the role of Jiminy Cricket.) There is, as the title implies, a battle of five armies, and in the early going, it looks like it might make for an interesting bit of large-scale filmed warfare. (Fun touch: the orcs' use of a mountaintop as a kind of strategic semaphore station.) But it isn't long before we're back to mano a mano (dwarfo a orco?) combat, because that's what you care about. Right? Notable moments include Jackson nodding back toward his weirdo-horror past in a battle between an elf queen and a necromancer, and Thorin's trippy goldlust fever dream. Plus a fine death scene near the end. (2014) — Matthew Lickona