The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies Review

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
D: Peter Jackson
W: Philippa Boyens, Guillermo del Toro, Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh
S: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellan, Richard Armitage, Evangeline Lilly, Lee Pace, Luke Evans, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ken Stott, James Nesbitt, Cate Blanchett, Ian Holm, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, Orlando Bloom

It is now the end of an era. Academy Award winning director Peter Jackson has released his final entree in his Lord of the Rings franchise with The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies. I obviously saw it and... it isn't as grand to me.

Before I go any further I should probably let you people know what my thoughts are on the other films. Now the The Lord of the Rings films I at first didn't care for that much but I've grown to really like and appreciate them. It could be that at the time when they came out I was in my pre-teens and I didn't want to like anything popular or "main stream" or whatever pretentious mood I was in. But now that I'm older I definitely like them, probably not as much as everyone else but I do like them. Though I do still have problems with them, mainly that Frodo (Elijah Wood) just seemed too helpless at some points. And a bunch of other things but that's a whole other dicussion. I do like these films, just not as much as other people.

But what about The Hobbit films? Well, they're frustrating. While I do enjoy them in their own way there are a lot of elements that just bother me from a story telling and film making angle. I know what I'm about to say is something a lot of people have said but it does bare repeating in my book, this story should not have been three movies.

A good chunk of the stuff that was added to these films just seems completely unnecessary, and these things kind of reach their peak of pointlessness in this film. The two things that just come off as completely unneeded are the subplots involving the orcs, mainly Azog (Manu Bennett), and the love triangle with Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly), Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and Kili (Aidan Turner).

Let me just get this off my chest right now, this movie has WAY too much CGI. I mean, way, way, way, WAY too much. It gets to the point where it looks like a video game instead of a movie. This isn't me being anti-CGI because I'm not, I'm fully aware that there are things that have to be done with computer graphics but Jackson just goes overboard with it. The one thing you can say about the original trilogy is that while there was a good amount of CG work there were a lot of practical effects and makeup being used. You got the sense that there was something there. But in this case there's just so much that I don't feel a real sense of being there. All the villains are CG which takes their threat levels down a whole lot. But the worst case of over done CG is with the dwarf character Dain portrayed by one of my favorite comedians of all time, Billy Connelly.

Now when I first heard about Connelly being in this film I got excited. I was like, 'Oh man! The loud and bombastic Billy Connelly is going to be playing a dwarf character called Dain Ironfoot! This is going to be awesome!" But then I saw that he was all CGI. I'm not talking about scenes where he's riding his war pig or something (yeah, he rides a giant boar) but I mean, everything with him, which is just so bizarre to me. Now grant it, Connelly isn't as spry as he used to be and last I checked he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. But even still they couldn't have him stand in for a scene where's he's just talking to people? They couldn't have him stand in and talk to Thorin, his bloody cousin?! Well, at least we get to hear him tell the Elves to, "Sod off" that was awesome. Shame we didn't get to hear him play the banjo.

Okay so I've ranted about the effects and such but what about the actual story. Well its just a mess to me. There's no real sense of pacing to me. It all seems rather rushed with some big editing problems. Also a lot of the additional story elements just don't have a big impact. For me the whole thing with Thorin and Azog just didn't have anything really powerful, also (SPOILER) having Thorin die due to wounds he got from Azog just didn't do it for me. I really wish it happened during the titular Battle of the Five Armies. The battle just seems like an after thought. Which seems like a hard thing to do considering how we have a character, Beorn (Mikael Persbrandt), who turns into a giant bear and fights off the villains. Why would you not show that?!

Then there's the Two Elves, One Dwarf love story. I understand why it was added, it was meant to add a little more character to the story with the other dwarves who don't really have a story in the original book. But instead of adding something it comes off as a cliched and really, really cheesy. How cheesy? Well one of the lines from Legolas after being told to report to his father, Thranduil (Lee Pace) the Elevenking, he says, "He can control me... but he can't control my heart." I am not joking. That line was spoken. That is George Lucas prequel films love scene level corny.

Again, I'm sure everyone else has said this but Tauriel and Legolas are pointless. I give Jackson credit for trying to add more female characters to this story, but she just gets boiled down to love interest girl who just happens to be a bad ass because she fights, even though she still needs to be rescued. Yeah she really didn't add anything, Lilly did a good job acting, but the character just wasn't that great.

Speaking of the Elves, my biggest problems with the Elves themselves is that they're just too invisible, mainly with Legolas. The fight scenes with him just get ridiculous and, again, just comes off as a video game boss battle. There was no tension.

Okay, I've done nothing but complain throughout this whole article but there are good things. It is nice that they had an arc with Thorin and his dragon sickness, and I've probably said this before but I like how the dwarves are given unique personas, though I think Thorin was done a bit better in the Rankin/Bass version (Spoilers). But still what Jackson did was more than what Tolkien did in the book. My favorites of the bunch are Ken Stott as Balin and  James Nesbitt as Bofur. It could be the hat for the latter and it could be that Scott sort of reminds me of Jon Pertwee, I don't know I just like these two. Though I do wish Bilbo gave them more of a personal goodbye to them, espcially to Bofur. Mainly because of this scene. Even if it came down to a Dorothy-Scarecrow 'I think I'll miss you most of all' kind of thing. But anyway they're still cool, and that hat is still cool.

And the performances from Ian McKellan and Martin Freeman are good. But my favorite moments are with Luke Evans as Bard. I really dug this guy and I felt for him. I especially love the intro scene with him confronting Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch). That scene was probably the best of the whole film. 

So in the end, these films have been frustrating. They have been kind of like the Star Wars prequels. While there are good elements they just fall short of what the originals were. But I'm sure if you're already a big big fan of these movies, then you'll dig it. As for me, while I certainly have my problems with the films, I can't say I'd be oppose to seeing them again.

What did you guys think? Leave your thoughts in the comment section.

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