The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (Film Review)

Picking up immediately after ‘The Desolation of Smaug’, ‘The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies’ didn’t take any breath and starts off with Smaug unleashing his wrath over Lake-town after being sent-off by Bilbo and the dwarves. Not really a beginner friendly, the film gives you the impression of what’ll come in the next 40 minutes in this opening—that what comes after is an hour-long clash between the five armies (dwarves, elves, orcs, etc.), and it’s gonna pretty exhausting.

The main issue of the first two ‘Hobbit’ films will have to be the lack of action. This movie answers all those problems since this stands as a two-and-a-half hour climax to this franchise, but does it actually leave an impression?, well not really. I have to be honest with you I didn’t really like this movie, sure enough those parkour moments with Legolas looked cool but everything felt necessary in the first place. Two movies is enough to cram all moments in this trilogy, no need for boring ‘Lord of the Rings’ tie-ins and forced romance.

The movie didn’t get to the actual battle until its 40-minute mark, and always come back to Stephen Fry’s assistant in the last movie, which appears to have a bigger role here. Totally forgot the character’s name, but that dude dragged the movie a lot. The filmmakers tried to make him as the comic relief, but the guy’s never funny. Actually, f**king annoying.

Did anyone forget that the title of this trilogy is “The Hobbit”? Well, because the only Hobbit in this movie got left out and serves as the supporting character. The scenes with Martin Freeman were terrific, and the only memorable thing about the movie is when he’s with Thorin Oakenshield. Their interaction together felt organic, and Thorin’s arc was better, serving as the emotional core of the movie.

I’m a tad disappointed to how this film became of, but it’s still a satisfying way to cap off this franchise. ‘The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies’ may not be the best of this trilogy, but no one can argue Legolas is still f***ing awesome!