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The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies Review



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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