Film Review: The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies

The journey of Bilbo Baggins and Thorin's company of 13 dwarves was always destined to end one way: all out war. In their struggles, these 14 characters managed to cross paths with goblins, orcs, eagles, wood elves, and men. Inevitably, once Smaug is dealt with, they would all converge on Erebor to split up the dragon's treasure, and their bickering would escalate into the Battle of the Five Armies.

With most of the journey completed up to this point, the film's sole purpose is the climax: there is no rising action or build-up, the film jumps right into showing Smaug decimating Laketown, the White Council confronting the Necromancer, and five different armies breaking out in all-out combat. In spite of this, the film is easily the most action-packed and evenly-paced movie of the entire saga. There is tons of action and visual splendor, from the decimation of an entire town to the showdown between iconic characters in an ancient snow-covered ruin. The film is always shifting gears from one huge setpiece to another, as the battle constantly changes and new foes erupt to take the film in exciting new directions. The film is the shortest of all Middle Earth films, but its sheer amount of action makes it feel longer, more epic, and more breakneck than the others.

Where the film falls short, unfortunately, is the storytelling. Truth is, most of the burden of the storytelling was left to the last two films, so there's little left but to have all the characters fight. The film is at its best as it shows Thorin's madness from "dragon sickness" (or rather, unbridled greed), Bilbo's intervention in the brewing conflict, Bard's efforts to lead others and protect his family, and the occasional burst of drama involving Tauriel and Legolas (although both could have been cut from this whole series without much impact). Once the battle's over, however, there are loose ends that the film only partially addresses. It does round off a few characters and make connections to The Lord of the Rings, but then it leaves other strands hanging, or just cuts them off. Even though having "many endings" like Return of the King would have strained some viewers' patience, I would have personally appreciated at least a little more dialogue or scenes to explain what happens to the folk of Laketown, the wood elves, Tauriel, Dain, Beorn, Radagast, and other characters introduced for The Hobbit specifically. Overall, this only feels like half a movie. It's the half of a movie that should have been tacked onto the end of The Desolation of Smaug. On its own, it's a rather flat and shallow storyline. In the larger context of the whole Hobbit saga, it generally works and it is a thrilling endgame, but a few more words concerning the characters and events would have made this a stronger ending, and maybe even a more powerful film.

Fortunately, the film looks as good as the rest, with good, sweeping photography and concise editing. Acting is still strong from the whole cast, with Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage being the biggest standouts among the veterans of the series. Writing is still great. This production has great-looking sets, props, costumes, locales, and special effects. The music score is pretty decent too.

The film is definitely jam-packed with all the great fantasy-action we've always loved to see in the Middle Earth saga, but once studios made the decision to stretch The Hobbit into three films, there was little choice but to cleave off the climax and turn it into this odd standalone feature. On its own, it's rather dry, but with the other movies, it's a must-see. My only wish is that there could have been a longer and more pronounced farewell to all the players involved with the whole affair.

4.5/5 (Experience: Perfect | Story: Pretty Good | Film: Very Good)