The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies Review

Starring: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellan, Richard Armitage, Benedict Cumberbatch, Orlando Bloom, Evangeline Lilly, Luke Evans, Lee Pace, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving

I've been so consumed with prestige movies, that The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies got pushed back in my mind. In a sense, I doubted the movie, so I felt like I needed to see the "good" movies first. Well, some of my most anticipated movies ended up being bad, so on the last day of vacation, I turned to Bilbo and co. And I was surprised at how spectacular this movie was. I am a huge fan of the original Lord of the Rings trilogy, and that's without reading the books. I have read The Hobbit so I knew what to expect. And like most fans, I was angry that they split it up into not two, but three films. Once I saw The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, I was so done with Middle-Earth and Peter Jackson. It was slow, dull, and nothing like the book. I didn't even see The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug until it came out on DVD. And I was blown away by how good it was. My faith restored, I was adamant I would see this one in theaters. Until the trailers came out and it looked nothing like the book...overblown so as to give the franchise a strong finale. Is it overblown? Probably. But to Middle-Earth fans, you will be taken away on a magic journey, and won't complain.

The plot of this film draws very little from the book. Smaug the dragon has escaped, and he's going to burn down Lake-town. Once Smaug has been defeated, the rightful owner of his mountain is disputed. The dwarves, who have made the long journey to reclaim the mountain and treasure as their own, have the obvious upper hand, it being there land after all. But the people of Lake-town want the mountain as a shelter, because the dragon has completely obliterated their whole village. The elves want the gold and jewels. So while the elves and humans join forces to take down a power-drunk Thorin and his dwarves, the Orcs plan to bring back Sauron (the dark lord/eye in the LOTR movies) and attack the mountain. The fifth army I'll leave as a surprise. So anyways, all these armies are fighting over the mountain and its riches, and that's basically the entire movie. I'm serious, the battle is about 5/8 of the movie. It's so epic, if you're a fan like me, you will be flipping out on the inside.

Everyone does incredibly well, and in all three movies, I think this is Martin Freeman's best performance as the titular hobbit. While he was stiff in the first film, and not the forefront in the second one (Smaug stole every scene), Bilbo was a huge part of this movie. And Freeman did a very fine job. I prefer Bilbo over Frodo any day. Ian McKellan is always amazing as Gandalf. Nothing new was brought to the character, but he was great nonetheless. Benedict Cumberbatch has about 20 minutes max in this movie, and he makes such a huge impression as the dragon Smaug. Once you know it's him, you can tell, but otherwise you'd never guess. Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, and Hugo Weaving appear as cameos in a part not from the book (and a little ridiculous) but give solid performances for those fans who know Galadriel, Saruman, and Elrond so well. The only other things that are ridiculous are some of the action sequences that are just out of this world crazy. But I was okay with it, since I was totally in the zone. It's just a fun movie. A bunch of giant rams just appear and the dwarves jump on them and ride them into battle. A bridge collapses in slow motion so Legolas can jump from one side to the next defying physics. It makes no sense, but it's a fantasy movie that's allowed to do things like that. I hope Peter Jackson makes LOTR spinoffs. I don't want to have to say goodbye to Middle-Earth. But this is a very formidable farewell to such a magical film series.

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