The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)

Simply A Masterpiece

Don't listen to the negative reviews

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

I'm a little surprised by all the negative reviews here on IMDB. Sure, it's not as good as Return of the King but it did conclude the adventures of Bilbo Baggins and the dwarves in their quest to free the dwarves' ancestral home. There was action and thrills plus battle scenes that could make everything else look tame. The Hobbit trilogy may not be as good as the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but it's still better than the Star Wars prequel trilogy. If you don't care for the Hobbit trilogy's theatrical cuts, at least give the extended editions a chance. You can find a boxed set of the extended cuts at any movie store. I watched them and enjoyed all of them, especially the third one. They're a little long but they're worth it. Anyway, I'm getting off-topic here. There are some creative liberties taken, but don't let that throw you off. It's a decent conclusion and don't be too judgmental or expect a lot. Just expect to be entertained, all right?

Unfortunately, The Hobbit did not know what it wanted to be. It jumped between being the fun adventure that the book is to being a dark brooding setup for the LOTR trilogy. Far too many extraneous side stories found their way into this overly long and bloated children's story. The film should have been cut down to one 3 hour or, at the most, two 2 hour movies. Filling up some extra minutes with some Middle Earth backround information was ok, but a lot of extra junk that was unnecessary was thrown into this trilogy and especially into the Desolation of Snaug. In all honestly the best parts of these films were the stuff that was taken directly out of the book.

The battle scenes. as a huge trophy of a film in which CGI is the basic ingredient. and all is spectacular. but not convincing. first, because it is a fake option to transform "The Hobbit" in a trilogy. second, because, contrary to "Lord of the Ring", the new serie has not...magic. like new "Stae Wars" serie, all was said, and the only real problem is than "The Hobbit" has its personality. to transform it in another LOTR is not the most inspired idea.but, the end saves the appearences. and this could be a good poiny.

The Battle of the Five Armies title is a great exaggeration of what an army entails. The movie is about more or less a skirmish with some rather imaginative weaponry. The plot goes sideways and after two three hours long previous films we get a two hours and a half mess that is half completely over the top battle scenes and the other half people talking out of their asses. It is pure chaos, where orcs are either mighty unbeatable beasts bred for war or cardboard armor wearing morons easily defeated by fishermen's wives and children, as the action demands. Things start to remind of Pirates of the Caribbean, and not only because it's the same actor doing kind of the same stuff. There is even a prolonged ending with Bilbo Baggings returning to the Shire, almost as if wanting to undo the good idea in the Lord of the Rings movies in which they removed the boring book ending with Saruman taking refuge in the Shire, and that portrays hobbits as petty bureaucratic creatures, rather than kind and resilient and courageous as declared everywhere else in the films. If I enjoyed the first two movies and wanted to see how it will all end, the third was a ridiculous failure, trying to do too much with too little: making a country brawl look like an epic battle, keeping the lighter more children oriented tone while killing characters and trying to express deeper heroic emotions, trying to somehow raise on the same level three organized military groups and a bunch of fishermen and animals and tying up lose ends that were there only to make this a trilogy rather than a pair of decent movies. It is now when all the jokes about the eagles made in good fun in the first two movies (and in Lord of the Rings as well) turn smirky, when the only logic to the plot and action seems to be the panic of production companies trying to achieve their financial goals rather than tell a good story. It is here where the disappointment that everyone talks about when referring to The Hobbit movies raises its ugly head and grows on the small mistakes of the previous two movies. So in order to enjoy the trilogy, one must somehow detach themselves from the ending and see it as an imperfect finish to an otherwise fun movie, maybe imagine their own.