Movie Review - The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Why Peter? Why?!

So here it is people, 

The last of the movies, the end of the chapter, the final conclusion to the first success of Tolkien. Peter Jackson has ten years of work on this so the question we all ask is "was it worth the wait?". The answer... "Well... No!"

Let me just start by saying that this was definitely and by miles, the worst adaptation Peter jackson did of any of the Tolkien books. I mean we can't really be surprised cause turning one small book into three movies when we Oh so well compacted the whole of "Lord of the Rings" in three movies. But, if in the first two movies we can be a little forgiving, this was the last and my friends... I felt like I was watching Michael Bay most of the time.

Too much action, too little content, not all character have the same relevance during the battle, some of them we hardly see actually, plot errors, mistakes and things added that make no sense... It's a mayhem! I would forgive all this if it made any point at the end but even the end was disappointing. Remember the full disclosure we had on LOR? Forget that here. Once the action stops the movie carries about more ten minutes and it's over.

You'd think for a full two hours movie you'd have a equal share of action, plot, drama, story and emotion. Only thing is... Not really! The movie is 10% Tolkien, 90% fanboy lets-sell-some-more-toys action.

[SPOILER ALERT]

So here's my final take on this trilogy. 

I liked the wizards back-story and the Dol-Guldur fortress battles. I liked it if Beorn would have a little more camera and action time (which it would be truer to the book) and I liked the personal conflict between Thorin and Thranduil.

Things I didn't liked.

Three movies that would nicely fit into one. The slip-between-over-excessive-long battles. The make up romance between Tauriel and Kili (Tolkien rumbling in his grave). Why the hell is Legolas almost a secondary character? (Just a cameo on the last battle would be more than enough). And the too much focus on Bard and his family (He's a hero... that's more than enough).

Basically the movie is good and you'll be entertained. The full CG and 60fps helps you gather everything and have a good time. But the sense, the journey, the smell, the mist of middle-earth feels a bit lost in the overall too much action. By the end of the three films you have more than six hours of movie for a story that you can tell almost (in full) in ten minutes.

Note to Peter "Sometimes too much of something can ruin everything".

Gets a noble three (out of five) for effort.