Review: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

After being thoroughly disappointed by my one true movie love (Disney) earlier this week, I was a little more than sceptical about getting my hopes up for the final instalment of ‘The Hobbit’ movies. I was particularly nervous because the second one didn’t live up to my expectations the way the first had, so I started to believe that Peter Jackson may have peaked at the end of the first one.

THE GOOD:

This movie is every bit as epic in its battles as the third instalment of the Lord of the Rings. The soaring overhead shots that sweep into the action were spectacular to watch. I love that Jackson was able to capture so many different conflicts in the battles in a mere 144 minutes, all without any of them feeling rushed through or dragged out. The main problem I had with the second movie (the Desolation of Smaug) was that he seemed to stray way off the beaten path of the book. Now, I’ve read many a book and then seen the movie after without being bothered by such nonsense, but this is different. This is Tolkien and there were some things I found to be wholly unnecessary. However, the continuation of these additions in the third movie did not bother me at all really. I feel like they were executed far better and more in the manner of Tolkien. I was worried that the ‘love triangle’ between Tauriel, Kili and Legolas was going to be a big focus again, drawing attention away from better things, but it was incorporated into battle so well that I barely noticed it. Perhaps my favourite part was the fact that Billy Connelly popped up as Dain, a dwarf leader who showed up for battle.

THE BAD:

I much prefer the days of Lord of the Rings, where CGI was scarce. I feel like there was a little too much of it throughout the entire Hobbit series. I understand the need to have CGI goblins. Goblins are all hunched over and weird and I doubt the production company wanted to pay for chiropractors for 300 extras, but I don’t understand having CGI orcs. In the Lord of the Rings series, most of the orcs and whatnot were actual extras in costume. I’ve seen the behind-the-scenes stuff. A lot of effort went into those extras and it paid off because even now, so many years later, it looks amazing. I’m disappointed with all the CGI in this movie. It feels almost cheapened. Another ‘bad’ is the conflict between Smaug and the lake people. It only takes up the first little bit of the movie and then it’s over. It felt like too much of a major part/ending to the last movie to have been resolved so quickly.

THE OVERALL:

Overall I think this is definitely the best of the three (with number one coming in at a close second). It well and truly topped the second movie. In fact, I feel like, with all the battling, it rivalled ‘The Return of the King’ (third LOTR movie). I walked out of this movie feeling like it was completed. It wasn’t dragged out unnecessarily, nor was it rushed. I would highly recommend seeing this. Of course, if you haven’t seen the first two I would highly recommend doing that first! This movie was awesome, it really was!