Ugh. I desperately wanted to love this movie after
Desolation of Smaug absolutely defied all of my slightly pessimistic
expectations. It just wasn’t as good as it could have been, though. That’s not
to say it’s as bad as An Unexpected Journey, though. Because it’s not. It’s
pretty good. Okay, I’m going to stop being vague and just move on to the actual
review.
Battle of the Five Armies picks up mere minutes after
Desolation of Smaug ends, and honestly the first 15 minutes or so are
absolutely bizarre. Moving on though. I honestly thought that the first hour of
this movie was excellent, though Thorin’s dragon-sickness did begin to drag on
a bit towards the end, and when it did finally end, it was in an absolutely
bizarre scene. Okay, moving past the bizarre scenes. This movie excels in its
more quiet and emotional moments. Then the battle comes. This should have been
the most amazing battle in cinematic history. But it just wasn’t. I’m not going
to say it kind of drug on and on, because it didn’t. It just felt really
un-involving at times, and I really wish they had taken a bit more of a Helm’s
Deep-ish approach to this battle, rather than just focusing on a few of the
characters’ battles instead of the overall battle. I’m nitpicking though. This
is really not a movie in a traditional sense. It’s basically a 2 ½ hour battle,
so it’s obviously going to be hard for me to review it. Nearly all of the
characters are finally explored in some depth, something I felt was desperately
needed in the first installment. I feel like if about 30 minutes of the battle
were taken out, this film would have been far better. But they aren’t, and so
it does tend to drag a bit in parts. It doesn’t remain uninteresting though, as
it always switches back to something or someone we care about.
The hour or so before the battle and the aftermath of the
battle were my favorite parts of the movie. In those parts, we got to see a
glimpse of Peter Jackson’s magical touch, and it reminded me of why the world
loves Lord of the Rings so much. Both of these sections were emotionally
driven, and ultimately that’s what I didn’t like about the battle section of
the movie. In Lord of the Rings, even the battles were emotionally driven. In
the battles at Moria and Parth Galen, you could feel the Fellowship’s fear and
desperation. In the battle at Helm’s Deep, you could feel the sheer terror, and
then the triumph at the end. In the battle of Minas Tirith, you could feel the
fury of the Rohirrim and the desperation of the Gondorians. That’s what was
ultimately missing from this movie. In the endless stream of battle scenes, the
emotion tends to often get lost. Ultimately, though, I still liked this movie,
and I would recommend it. It’s a fitting conclusion to the Middle-Earth that so
many of us grew up with, and some of the magic that made us love those movies
so much is present here. The acting is still phenomenal. Martin Freeman once
again absolutely nails his role as Bilbo. To me, he will always be Bilbo. I also feel that I need to mention Ian
Mckellen, as I haven’t in my other two reviews of this trilogy. He is still
absolutely excellent as Gandalf, and in some parts of this series, he carries
the movies on his shoulders. I also feel like it would be a crime to conclude
without mentioning the incredible score of Howard Shore. More than perhaps
anyone else, he helped to define this incarnation of Middle-Earth with his
truly phenomenal scores. Also I want to mention that Billy Boyd’s “The Last
Goodbye” is a truly excellent, deeply moving song that harkens back to Into the
West. This is a flawed movie in a flawed trilogy, but ultimately I would
recommend it, just on the basis of it being a mostly satisfying farewell to
this world that we all love so much. Bravo to all involved. It’s been a truly
remarkable journey.3.8/5 stars.
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