'The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies' A Review

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is the third and concluding installment in The Hobbit trilogy. The movie begins with Smaug destroying Laketown in a fiery rage followed by his subsequent slaying. Shortly after that the titular battle begins humans v elves v orcs v dwarves v beasts. That long, drawn out, tiresome battle eats up most of the movie's 144 minute running time. At the end Bilbo gets back to the Shire in one piece and we see a brief glimpse of the beginning of LOTR.

Although the climax of the book is the battle of the five armies the film in and of itself falls flat. We're not particularly invested in anyone involved. Bilbo the titular protagonist is sidelined, unimportant, and not focused on. The over CGIed battle is over produced, over long, and over-the-top. Ultimately there are no stakes and everything looks fake. Because this final installment is almost all action it is ineffective and uninspired. There is too much of it and the characters participating in it we barely care about. The emotional stakes were all set up in the previous two movies and are not revisited.

This concluding installment has little life and lands with a hallow thud. For decrying big budget mass produced Hollywood superhero movies Peter Jackson has created something equally thin and lacking the heart of even Thor 2.

A meaningless trilogy. A disappointing adaptation. A wasted opportunity.

Don't See It.