It's difficult to determine my feelings on this movie given how I felt after seeing An Unexpected Journey. I didn't like Journey when I first saw it, but re-reading the book and watching the movie repeatedly gave me a deeper appreciation for it. I like Journey now. As such, I hesitate to say Five Armies is bad. But I want to say it's bad.
The movie starts where Desolation of Smaug left off, with the might dragon destroying lake town. That happens for about 5 minutes, then Bard kills the dragon with a makeshift bow. WHY COULDN'T THIS HAVE BEEN THE END OF THE LAST MOVIE???????
In all honesty, I like the final scene of Desolation, but it never made sense to end the movie with Smaug still alive. It sets up this annoying situation in which the first 20 minutes of Five Armies are spent hurriedly wrapping up the previous movie. Smaug dies within 15 minutes, then they wrap up Gandolf's imprisonment in a single battle scene that's another 10 minutes, then the movie finally settles into the story for Five Armies. The first 30 minutes of material don't fit.
The bulk of Five Armies' plot is Thorin's greed, refusing to share any of the wealth squirreled away in the mountain, despite his agreements to pay the people of Laketown for their assistance. Thorin's stubbornness sets up a showdown with the people of Laketown and the Wood Elves, who have come to claim family heirlooms. Despite being outnumbered, Thorin refuses to bend. Eventually his cousin arrives with a dwarven army. Just as the dwarves and elves are about to battle. The goblin army shows up and all heall breaks loose. (The fifth army is Eagles. who show up at the end for about 2 minutes, as they did in Return of the King.
Overall my problem with Five Armies is the lack of a compelling story. There are attempts at story: inter-species love, greed, revenge, etc. But I was never as sold on any of it as I wanted to be.
Part of the problem could be the theater experience I had. I saw Five Armies in full 3D, 48fps or whatever the high frame rate is. But the lights in the theater were not as dark as I thought they should be and the sounds was not overwhelming. I want sound I can feel. Ambient light plus low volume bugged me and likely made it difficult for my mind to commit.
First Viewing: 3+2+2+2+2 = 11