THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES: PROS: * The art direction, design, VFX and model-work are still rather top-notch as expected (although to be fair, the first two looked rather outdated after a year). * Some solid build-up to the five armies conflict. * The battle between Sauron and his evil spirits Vs. Elrond, Saruman and Galadriel was pretty well visualized with its nightmarish graphics and fun hinting at Sarumans eventual betrayal. * The animated dream sequence with Thorin going mad and realizing how much worth all his riches will eventually be is well-done. * The earlier portion of the Five armies battle was well delivered and easy to focus on. * Billy Connolly steals a good chunk of the scenes he appears in. * Howard Shores gripping score is reliable and a great listen as expected. * Some of the crane camera shots of the Hobbiton countryside near the end are beautiful as one might expect. * Bard is given far more to do and Bilbo gets to be one of many who help end the debate between the Elves and Dwarf clans. * The final scene focusing on Bilbo was well panned out and makes a fun transition from Freemans portrayal to Holms more familiar older form. CONS: * The battle between Bard & Smaug lasts far too long prior to the main conflict build-up; we know Bard will turn out alright, why take this long to establish tension when one can just escalate the conflict from the get-go? * Much of Thorins sulking and his debate with the Elves becomes rather tedious after awhile; we know already where everyone stands, we dont need any more details. * Connollys rather vulgar tone does unfortunately feel out of place in a Tolkien fantasy world and he also suddenly disappears during the battle. * Evangeline Lilly is given virtually nothing to do once again and as a result her scenes do feel like wasted ones. * After the initial five armies battle, it flat out ends up being just Thorin & Co. willingly entering into a trap and the rest of the narrative and focus on the battle is thrown out in favor of being a just a display of elves fighting more nameless Orcs. The self-centered end fights end up feeling far more welcome in some kung fu or medieval epic, not a LOTR adventure. * The eagles are even later than usual to this battle than they were during either RETURN OF THE KING or the first HOBBIT flick. The whole battle couldve been concluded this way as much like in the novel, it was an easier way of concluding all the mayhem that had gone on. Alas, this didnt happen because the filmmakers were far too in love with their world to give it up already. * Beorn (the woodsman who can transform into a bear) doesnt get any introduction, he just flat out jumps off one of the eagle and briefly takes out swarms of Orcs. * One of the Dwarfs is killed in action for what feels like a sudden excuse to get an emotional rise out of the audience when we didnt know any of them near as well as Thorin or our title character. * This can be labeled as nitpicking, but near the end with Bilbos return to Hobbiton, a clear horse riding double who is not Martin Freeman sticks out like a sore thumb and you dont have to blink to see how obvious it is. * There is a random Laketown native who much like the King is rather cowardly and selfish thief who is kept around for no reason other than cheap humor and to be an annoying plot device (because apparently no one found Gollum annoying enough in the original trilogy? I have no clue why hes here and the movie doesnt seem to want to bother explaining it either other than unleash this annoying man upon us). 3/5 STARS- see it in the theater for the overall enjoyment then forget about it afterwards and just rewatch your extended LOTR trilogy set.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 08:42:52 +0000
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