Comparing the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Hobbit trilogy was already like comparing apples and mediocre oranges, but none so mediocre as Battle of the Five Armies. Don't get me wrong, I love a "battle" as much as the next guy, more maybe, I don't even mind a movie that's 95% battle, but in this? It does. Not. Work.
Five Armies is a movie that never made it out of pre-viz, let alone to a polished, well-rounded, final cut. I enjoy it to some degree when running through a Middle-Earth marathon as a whole, but only when the group I'm with will let me roll my eyes and complain about it.
Final rating:★★½ - Had a lot that appealed to me, didn’t quite work as a whole.