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

So we are here, I have now re-watched all of The Lord of The Rings films and now I have watched all of The Hobbit films and here is my review for the final film in the latter trilogy The Battle of the Five Armies. The premise of the film sees Bilbo & the company of Dwarves have to engage in a war with different combatants to defend Erebor. 

Main Character

One thing that has been consistent throughout this trilogy is that Martin Freeman is an absolute treat as Bilbo Baggins, again he is just so likeable and as we get to the end of this particular journey you just see how much he has grown from the first film to this film and it has been great to see on screen. Richard Armitage is given more to do as Thorin in this film and he is the one character that actually gets something residing of an arc. His character shifts upon getting to Erebor and you see how much the quest has affected him, I mean I think the change is really quick but Armitage does a great job of conveying the change in character and the relationship between the two leads is handled really well here. 

Supporting Characters

Sir Ian McKellen is back as Gandalf The Grey and I mean no surprises to hear that he is great, once he gets into the story he is good in the role and is just such a good addition to the story being told and I think they show the relationship between him and Bilbo really well. Luke Evans is back as Bard and he is great here, it is tough to talk about his character without spoiler so all I will say is that Bard plays a more important part in this film then he did in The Desolation Of Smaug. But the rest of the cast don't fair as well and I don't really think it is their fault. Lee Pace is back in a bigger role as Thranduil and it is just that I found the character quite dull, he is just a bad guy, for being a bad guy's sake, his character is given very little development and it was a missed chance. The same can be said for Orlando Bloom as Legolas, he is barely in this film and he doesn't get any action scenes that are as good as the previous film, I just wonder why to have him in this franchise if he isn't going to be used very much in this film. I thought Evangeline Lilly did a fine job in the last film but she has so little to work with, the stupid romance is back and forced even harder this time and you can tell that she isn't really up for it and it is easily the weaker element of the story. 

Story 

Honestly there isn't a huge amount of story here, but they do certain character arcs well and give them more to do here such as Bilbo, Thorin & Bard, they are the best characters here and they do have interesting things to do here. There is also the stuff involving The Necromancer which is really interesting but unfortunately barely on screen. Something that isn't great is how they treat Smaug, after being the best part of the previous film, his whole character and story is dealt with in the first ten minutes of the film, I checked the time on the Blu-Ray and it was exactly 10 minutes, including opening credits which is a joke. Also it has to be mentioned that over half of this movie is just battle scenes, now don't get me wrong I love a battle sequence but when it is over half of the film and there is no story at all, just characters fighting where the majority of them you won't care about it makes it hard to get invested. 

Script

The script is still strong, I would say this film has the darkest script in terms of dialogue, there are very few jokes and funny moments, except for Bilbo, but it felt appropriate for the film that we are watching so I think it worked well. Some of the characters are given good arcs in the film and I liked how the majority of them end up.

Style 

The film feels pretty big in scale with huge battles that rival anything seen in previous films which is pretty cool. There are some decent action scenes, mainly the ones that are closer together and with less characters and this film is easily the shortest Middle Earth film yet which makes it an easier watch then if it had been 3 hours long. Though, I also feel like this film is a bit lifeless, there is so much CGI it is unreal and all of it is terrible, the reason the battle scenes in Lord Of The Rings are so good is because it blends CGI with practical, but this film doesn't. It goes all in on the CGI and it just feels like computer images hitting each other and it makes it hard to care, also how does this CGI look worse then films that came out 20 years ago, it is absurd. 

Overall

Overall, a good final film in this franchise that falls short of being an epic ending. I mean this is a film for Middle Earth films and is worth a watch, just when you watch this film and the whole Hobbit trilogy, set your standards a bit lower and you will enjoy them. 

Rating - 7/10