While the action scenes are eye-popping, for me the film becomes something special in stiller moments, with the megalomaniac Thorin raving, questioning, justifying, swerving towards evil.

This is comfortably straightforward hokum -- which is to say that Jackson, for all his delusions of grandeur, remains a bit of a hobbit at heart.

With some of the most exciting hand-to-hand combat I've ever seen portrayed onscreen the final film in "The Hobbit" trilogy really delivers the goods.

While 'Five Armies' hits on more of the same notes, it does so with a dreadful amount of fun.