Movie Review: The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies
They say it's more about the journey than the destination. The destination was dreadful.
The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies
After the Dwarves released Smaug and reclaim their riches, the villagers and the elves come to the dwarves with requests and/or help, which the dwarf king denies. Meanwhile, the legions of Orcs and Goblins come to take the mountain for themselves. This results in a battle involving the five races.
I am greatly disappointed with this movie. The first half of the movie felt embarrassing to watch.Sure there are some Cameos from the LoTR movies, but the film was like a theater camp production with a larger budget. Now I know these actors have talent, but it felt like the makers of this franchise just wanted this movie to be done and over with. The battle graphics seem outdated and looked more like cinematic gravel being mixed together.
Tauriel still has her love triangle, which feels stupid and forced upon the characters. I like the idea of a tough female figure to put in the franchise, but she seems more like a Disney princess who ends up needing a man to depend on. Actress Evangeline Lilly, who plays Tauriel, also agrees that this is an issue with her character. Nothing moderately interesting happens in the first half of the movie. They could have done so much more with Smog than to use him as an anti-climactic beginning. The scenes with the Ironfoot, played by Billy Connolly, and the dwarf army were the best highlights of the film.
Bilbo and Gandalf don’t have much of a presence in this movie, which disappoints the fans who came to see them. Alfrid, played by Ryan Gage, is the Jar-Jar Binks of The Hobbit films. He was overused and every scene with him was annoying. It seems like they ran out of ideas to fill this 3 hour movie, so they wanted to focus more on making Bard, played by Luke Evans, look more like a hero and protagonist. By using Alfrid as a cowardly thief who continually compares his values to Brad's, the movie directs the audience into liking Brad to the point where it feels force-fed.
We also learn that greed is bad and love is what’s important. These themes will give new meaning of "beating a dead horse" like no other. Now I love the LoTR movies and I liked the previous hobbit films; but this was supposed to be the great finale. They can't just use cheap dialogue and repetition until they run out of film time. If this movie catches your eye, I suggest you walk away.
