“I will not hide, when others fight our battles for us. ” – Kili
Number of Times Seen – 1 (12 Jan 2015)
Brief Synopsis – Bilbo and the Dwarves must find a way to stop Smaug from destroying Laketown while fending off an attack by the Orcs
My Take on it – How does one describe a feeling like the one I just experienced?
As a kid, I was much more fond of The Hobbit than I was of the whole LOTR series of books.
It had a much lighter tone and was very aligned with my love of Dungeons and Dragons.
I read the story in some form or another numerous times and also saw the cartoon movie adaptation again and again so it’s possible to say I’m slightly familiar with the source material.
That being said, I was slightly disappointed by the way Peter Jackson made this finale.
The battle was epically created and visually it was amazing watching what he and WETA created for us to enjoy, but it felt like he was trying to turn this story of hope and friendship into a pure action movie.
The focus was on the fighting and unlike in the previous Middle Earth series, this movie’s story felt lacking because of that.
LOTR had lots of fights and battles but they adding context to the fight against tyranny and evil that was the essence of the story.
Here it was just a 45+ minute bloodfest which enhanced the visual aspect of the movie but detracted from the bottom line, the story of Bilbo Baggins’ journey of self discovery.
It is bittersweet having to leave Middle Earth once again, but this time it’s an easier feeling than it was 11 years ago.
I think the decision to expand this series into 3 movies (instead if 2) was a decision solely based on financial reasoning as opposed to just telling the story as it should have been told.
Weakest film of this trilogy, but still has parts that are wondrous to watch.
Loved the song over the end titles sung by former Hobbit Billy Boyd (Pippin) called The Last Goodbye.
It is such a fitting end to the journey that we have all taken in Middle Earth over the last 13 years and the video clip sums it up amazingly!
Hear it here
Bottom Line – Unfortunately, this movie felt very anti-climactic because it turns a story of adventure and self discovery into an action movie and seems to lose its way along that journey. Bittersweet feeling of it ending. Amazing visuals done perfectly by Jackson. Recommended!
Rating – Globe Worthy
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MovieRob 
It’s an end to a trilogy that I won’t miss too much, but I at least had fun with while it lasted. Good review.
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Tnx Dan. Unfortunately, I completely agree 😉
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Wasn’t it just SO amazing to have the little guy fight the big guy to end it all?? Ha ha
I was like we went through all of this to get to that?!? I felt a little disappointed after the sword won and the blood flowed.
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completely agree on both accounts. it was cool to watch, but ultimately, the finale felt unfulfilling
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Each movie in the Hobbit trilogy was unique in its own way. I liked them all for different reasons. #1 I thought was the more humorous of the three, especially in the beginning during the scene where the company converged on Bilbo’s hobbit hole. Most of the time with trilogies I’ve found the second movie to be the best of the three (“The Empire Strikes Back” being the most exciting of the Star Wars trilogy, for example), but with The Hobbit I found the middle movie boring and couldn’t wait for it to be over…although Smaug was cool. 🙂 But as a movie itself, I found “Battle of the Five Armies” to be the most entertaining of the three. It held my interest, and many times I was at the edge of my seat. Although Bilbo’s part was downplayed with most of the focus on Thorin, I thought it was emotionally engaging. The only complaint I have about #3 is that I wish more of its content was from Bilbo’s point of view.
Overall, Peter Jackson did a wonderful job on both Hobbit and LOTR trilogies. But I can think of two things that could have made it even better. First with The Hobbit, the Tauriel/Kili aspect could have been left out completely, she wasn’t even in the books to begin with and the story would not have suffered without it. Second with LOTR, both Glorfindel and Tom Bombadil were left out completely; those characters were instrumental to Frodo and company’s quest.
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Good Review Rob!
I hated this film so much. Peter Jackson should leave one of my favorite series alone now 😦
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Excellent reviews Rob. I agree that this should’ve been two films instead of three, and as a result the third one suffers from being stretched for material and over-saturated with action (and therefore the weakest). Still, it’s a fun trilogy based on a really fun book.
Adam.
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Tnx adam. Fun but too much of a good thing….
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Once again, we are pretty much 100% on the same page. It’s still a good film, and I actually think I might like it slightly better than The Desolation of Smaug, but it’s so much fighting and so much content that Jackson created…You can’t help feeling Tolkien is rolling in his grave. Lol. But it’s a fun enough trilogy in the end, so at least there’s that. Glad you got around to this, Rob. Nice job!
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Me too. JRR has definitely rolled around a few times 😉
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