The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

The Hobbit

The Battle of the Five Armies

An epic finale to an action packed trilogy

Grade: A-

By Moriya Bradley

What can I say? I absolutely adore The Lord of the Rings trilogy, so when The Hobbit was being made into a movie, it was like Christmas. And on top of that, it was being directed by Peter Jackson, the fantastic visionary who made The Lord of the Rings wonderful. And he has not disappointed with any of The Hobbit trilogy- least of all The Battle of the Five Armies. 

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is a great film for anyone who is a fan of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, books and movies alike. I'm going to pretty much skip summarizing the plot for the most part because, let's face it, if you haven't seen the first two movies already, then you aren't reading my review. 

I know one main concern about The Hobbit is that it is irritating for die-hard fans who are dedicated to the book see changes made to the plot and have things added in that aren't in the books. I'm going to say it right here.  If the above statement applies to you, this will not be your favorite movie.  Changes were made to make these films stretch from one book into three movies, HOWEVER, this does not make them automatically bad cinema! I'm not the first to say it, and I won't be the last. Just because these films did not stick as closely to the original novel plot line (as opposed to The Lord of the Rings, which stuck very closely to the original plot line) does not mean that we shouldn't go see it. I don't know about everyone else, but I love the world of Middle-Earth, and the more movies made about it the better.

Now, with that pesky business out of the way- the review.

The acting in The Battle of Five Armies is superb. I was very pleased with the original casting choices, and even more pleased that they all pulled through to the end and made a strong finish. I also felt that there was a delicate balance to be tread when it came to drama vs. action, and it walked it perfectly. This film was positively chalk-full of emotion, relationships, tear-jerking moments, as well as blood, sword-fights and epic showdowns. Having said that, I would also mention that having all that in there did make for a very climactic movie- the whole way through. But do try to remember that it is summing up the whole franchise; there were a fair amount of loose ends to be tied up.  I also very much appreciated that it was a good bridge, connecting the story of The Hobbit with The Lord of the Rings.  It was fun to see the story come full circle.

Visually, I was much more impressed with The Battle of the Five Armies than The Desolation of Smaug. Another huge complaint that I've heard from die-hard fans was that in the second installation of the series, it was largely disappointing to have CGI orks instead of real people in costumes (as seen in The Lord of the Rings). I must say that I was in this boat, but was very impressed with the improvements on the CGI in this last installment to the series. As always, the scenery is gorgeous and all of the fighting scenes were very well constructed. In conclusion, my only main complaint was that I found the sectioning of the movies strange- meaning that I would not have ended The Desolation of Smaug where it did. I would've ended it about 15 minutes into The Battle of the Five Armies. You'll understand why when you watch it. Also, side note for parents with little ones, the violence (though mostly fantasy) was quite intense and I don't think it's one for the kiddos.