The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – The journey comes to an end on a good note!

Interesting:

In the novel the final battle was describe in only a single chapter. To make it work well on screen, Peter Jackson had to expand a lot of details and add more scenes during the battle where the characters had to interact with each others. Jackson also made sure that every important character were involve in those scenes for every shot.

Should I see it?

I think that by now you know if you like the universe of J.R.R. Tolkien brought to screen for the first time fourteen years ago by Peter Jackson.

Metascore: 59/100
RottenTomatoes: 62%

Directed by Peter Jackson
Released on December 17, 2014
Running Time: 144 minutes
Starring: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Evangeline Lilly, Orlando Bloom

Review – 8.5/10                     

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies takes of right after The Desolation of Smaug ended to take us to the final battle that will change the fate of Dwarfs, Elves and Humans against their common enemy of Middle-Earth.

First thing first, it’s not because it’s The Hobbit that the review will only have good points. No movie up to this day is what we can call perfection, that’s still something I’m waiting to see if it will happen one day!

When I say where Desolation of Smaug ended, I mean literally! It would have possibly be a better ending for the second Hobbit to end with the beginning of the third one, that way it would have started with a much clearer storyline. Overlooking that point, the story is good, catchy and keeps us well entertain for most of the movie. Like always there is some great jokes, most of the times the humor present was supposed to happen, but there’s a few awkward times that you laugh and have a feeling that wasn’t the director intention. The different story from various characters are not always well presented, sometimes it makes sense, but other times it lacks constancy. For the story line, I think the possible romance story between Taurial and Kili is a little bit pointless, I honestly don’t really think it deserved to be in the script, I just can’t believe in their love. Even if Tauriel isn’t in the book, I like her character, just not the romance that comes with it! Also, there may be a little too much focus on Thorin and his love for gold that turns to madness, after a few scenes you understand the concept!

Maybe many will disagree with me on that point, but I thought that the scene with Smaug looked fake, a fact that really disappointed me. As much as I thought every scene with Smaug looked absolutely incredible in the second movie, I just didn’t believe it in this one, I wasn’t feeling the distress of a city getting on fire. I was a little worried for the rest, since these are the first scenes, but the rest of the action makes up for the shoots in the city that look like it was badly filmed with a short scale set. I always thought that Peter Jackson manage to bring us into an unknown world so brilliantly with the past Hobbits or Lord of the Rings, it was a big flaw that I couldn’t not mention.

For the rest of the special effects, absolutely nothing bad to say at all! The battle of the five armies is incredible. If you were waiting for a big battle scene like the ones that happen often in Lord of the Rings but not in The Hobbit, you’re going to be very please and in for one hell of a ride! The battle is 45 minutes long, for a 2h25 movie, it takes most of the time for one type of scene! The battle choreography is extremely well-executed, from the perfection of the Elves army to the chaos among human ranks. Is it worth it to see it in 3D? I can’t say that it’s absolutely worth paying for, but I can’t say that it displeased me, so go with your preference for this one.

For the actors, nothing bad to say about most of them, but some deserve big thumps up. Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins, he makes us laugh, he makes us think, the script is for sure something, but his mimic are really well-executed and are a huge part to make his character a success! Orlando Bloom shines in this third part, I always thought he was great for the role, but in this one he takes his character to a whole new level.

Overall The Hobbit is a movie that will keep you mostly entertain from the beginning to the end, it’s a great movie, a must see in theaters, but unfortunately there’re flaws that makes me unable to say WOW! And from many comments I heard while leaving the theater, it’s the favorite The Hobbit movie for most of the viewers, including me!

Personal Commentary

I would have love to see a little bit more of Gandalf, I don’t think his presence is enough there. A shame since he was a big part of all of those movies, from The Hobbit to Lord of the Rings, and let’s not kid around, a big part of the success of those quests happen because of Gandalf! Also, I would have loved to see what happen to mankind at the end, what fate is awaiting them. Since we don’t see them in Lord of the Rings, it would have been a great thing to show us at the end.