Ok so I'm a huge Middle Earth fanboy so there was a very small chance that I would walk away from this movie not liking it...
... and there's a good reason for that! The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is directed by Peter Jackson and is the final instalment in the Hobbit trilogy and the final movie out of 6 in the Middle Earth saga. After the dragon Smaug is let loose and shortly defeated afterwards, an inevitable war between men, elves, dwarves and orcs ensues on the slopes of Erebor over the huge reserves of gold and jewels that lie under the mountain, and essentially we get one giant action sequence which rounds off the Hobbit movies in style!
What I loved about this movie was the sense of urgency that it had. I criticise An Unexpected Journey for being too slow with its build up and overall pacing, however this film does not share that same issue. Right from the get go you see Smaug lay waste to Lake Town and shortly after that the so called "Battle of the Five Armies" is building up straight away.
As you should probably expect by now, Peter Jackson's direction is spot on and once again he delivers those small, emotional character moments that these Middle Earth movies have become synonymous with. While The Hobbit never reaches the same level as the Lord of the Rings (very few movies do reach the level of my all time favourite films) its still an incredibly fun adventure that I will revisit many times.
Martin Freeman again is spot on as ever with his delivery as Bilbo, Ian Mckellen is of course amazing as Gandalf. All the characters in this movie had their time to shine. In previous films Thorin has been the one to be the chief badass of Middle Earth. While he has a lot of badass and heroic moments, its really Bard who shines as this movies true hero. Slaying Smaug didn't hinder his cause at all but he was still the one character who spoke sense, the one who I could understand his position most and connect with him.
Every movie that Legolas is in is guaranteed to have that one "Legolas moment" where the laws of physics don't seem to apply anymore. I counted 2 in this movie! However he isn't the only elf in the film to have a kickass moment or 2; Galadriel (played by Cate Blanchett) has one as well that I think may be forgotten behind the endless battle sequences that take place.
While I felt that sometimes the pacing was too quick and the film's romance didn't seem to lead anywhere important, the film seamlessly connected the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogies by giving us a satisfying ending that was to the point coupled with the resolution of "the Necromancer" storyline . I said in my review for the Desolation of Smaug that I was curious as to how they were going to do this, and I think they pulled it off very well indeed.
The cinematography is stunning as always, the musical score uplifting and epic as you also should expect from the genius that is Howard Shore. The battle sequence itself completely lives up to the best battle scenes from the Return of the King and delivers some top quality entertainment. The action sequences were tremendous coupled with some good CGI, although it does seem weird to me that the special effects of the Hobbit films feel less polished and refined compared to the Lord of the Rings, which came out over 10 years ago! I'm truly nit-picking at this point!
The change of title to "The Battle of the Five Armies" was a wise marketing decision in my opinion because it took up well over half of the runtime, which was also the shortest of any Middle Earth movie. At times the whole film felt like a third act, which was fine but in my opinion lacked an emotional build up and an escalation of tension. Although you could argue that the other films do that, as a standalone feature this movie does suffer from that.
But it's a hugely entertaining send off and it delivered to my high expectations. It concluded the Hobbit story very well, it answered the questions which needed answering and stitched together the Middle Earth saga in a very impressive way. It was a very satisfying film to sit down and watch.
Rating - A-
1 sentence summary - While quickly paced, the Battle of the Five Armies excels with it's ambitious action sequences and warming character moments, a fun ride indeed!
Thanks for reading,
Matt
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