The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies

Running Time: 2hrs, 24mins.

Genres: Fantasy, Action, Adventure

Director: Peter Jackson (The Hobbit Trilogy)

Screenplay:

– Fran Walsh (Lord of the Rings Trilogy)

– Philippa Boyens (Lord of the Rings Trilogy)

– Peter Jackson (Director)

– Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth)

Story: J. R.R. Tolkien (Author)

Critics Reviews:

Early Reviews (Before Release)

Rotten Tomatoes: 60+  Metacritic: 59/100  Cinemascore: (No Early Result)

Box Office Performance:

Early Estimates: (12/16/14)

Opening Weekend: $68,000,000

5-Day Domestic Total: $110,000,000

First, before I start off, I would like to thank Warner Bros. for allowing me to see a pre-showing. Readers, please know that this will not sway my opinion about the film in any way. Thanks again! Also, SPOILER ALERT!

With over six hours of footage to tie together, The Hobbit: The Battle of The Five Armies is cinematic gold, to those who can keep up. Right away, from the very start, the race begins. Unlike the first installment, Five Armies flies straight into the action, with Smaug unleashing his flames. Those who have read the book will start to notice a few differences about the Laketown Massacre, but the film does well with adding the right elements to fix it’s changes. In the first thirty-minutes, we see great, solid performances by notably Luke Evans (Bard) and Benedict Cumberbatch (Smaug), as well as the magnificent scream-proficient extras in the scene. Surprisingly, the film is able to keep up it’s momentum through the very end.

Now what is a Hobbit movie without it’s visuals? Many complain about this trilogy’s revolutionary screen quality, and I just nod politely and say, “A decade from now, when we are in a theater watching The Silmarillion Part 1/5, we’ll be saying, ‘the Hobbit Trilogy had much better visuals.'”  With innovation comes a general wave of disapproval, just think back to when the Iphone was introduced, that went over so well. I didn’t see much of a difference between the second chapter’s visuals and Five Armies, but on a different but completely related note, the 3d effects were much better. Even if you don’t enjoy fantasy, or adventure, or anything beyond one’s normal imagination, go see the movie because of the visuals.

The Hobbit 3 has many flaws, without a doubt, whether they are important to you or not is entirely your choice. Even from the first chapter, An Unexpected Journey, with so many characters being introduced and all of them resembling one another in some way, the trilogy was bound to have some character development issues. 13 dwarves, all dwarvish, with little screentime for each, it was hard to connect to them individually. For general viewers who have never read the book, the end may surprise you, but after the scene, you realize just how much that something was to you, just another something. Yes, I used a lot of “somethings” in that sentence, sue me, wait, I take that back, I’m already broke 😉 . Back to the flaws, besides the lack of emotional depth, and similar “The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King”, Five Armies is just overwhelming. The visuals are magnificent, but with such a large scale, your eyes get too distracted by the scenery and loss focus of the story. Also, having to wrap up a mega-trilogy in 2 1/2 hours has it’s difficulties, some that I truly don’t believe could’ve been avoided. It was like watching an endless explosion, with every second causing it to grow larger. For those who often take restroom breaks in the middle of their movie experience, you may come back to your seat with no idea what is happening, again, it depends on the viewer.

Overall, Peter Jackson concludes his massive “Hobbit Trilogy” in a bang, which is good for movie-goers who love bangs, but those who don’t, you may have a problem sitting through the entire movie. I’m not upset over the film, it helps knowing that Jackson isn’t going to stop with this trilogy, while it hasn’t been announced, The Silmarillion is next, hopefully in my lifetime.

Pros:

= Impressive Visuals +10

= Great Performances by talented acts +10

= Score masterfully crafted and implemented in film +10

= Storyline grim, fast-paced and “final” worthy +10

= Perfect theater experience, Blu-ray could never compare +10

= Battle-scenes and overall movie well polished +10

= 3D used in excellent spots of the film +5

= Design of Middle-Earth and Smaug still impressive +2

Cons:

= Overwhelming during most of it’s runtime -13

= Lacking overall emotional depth -10

= Ending not as strong as I would’ve liked -10

Final Score: [100] – 33 = 67/100

For a more in depth analysis, please check out my own blog at: https://everythingmainstream.wordpress.com/

Thanks for reading, the second movie of this series was reviewed by me, and has been my most viewed article ever, thanks again, everyone please, pat yourselves on the back for me.