"The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies"

Title: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Director: Peter Jackson
Writer: Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson & Guillermo del Toro (screenplay), J.R.R Tolkien (novel "The Hobbit")
Category: Adventure, Fantasy
Duration: 144 min
Rate:

Rating this movie was the hardest thing to do, because I am a huge fan of the whole saga, and I swear that one day I will read all of the books.

However, even though I enjoyed this third installment, I have to be objective and say it as it is for me.

Everyone knows that the book from which they took inspiration, because at some point it became just that, "inspirational", is a short cautionary tale. However, Peter Jackson really would not let this saga go, maybe because he was attached to the story and the many characters as much as we all were (he actually did tell this while answering some questions during the London premiere) or maybe because he caught some of the "dragon sickness" and wanted more money, so he tried to make this short story REALLY LONG, by dividing it in three movies. The third one, "The Battle of the Five Armies", was the one that suffered the most.

Let's start by listing what I loved about it. The CGI was obviously on point, the panning shots, or bird's eye view were breathtaking, I particularly love the few scenes that involved the talented Cate Blanchett, her Galadriel was powerful, wise and scary. The choreography used in the duels, mostly Legolas VS  Ogre and the group fight against the dark knight spirits, who will become the Nazgûl in the LODR saga (this was really great, seeing some sort of connection between the two sagas), were detailed and spectacular. I was mesmerized by the fluidity of movements and the artistry with which each character moved in the right way to complement the whole scene. Martin Freeman, as well as Luke Evans and the whole cast portrayed flawlessly once again their characters, so much so that I was genuinely moved during the most touching scenes. The OST was impeccable and it helped in creating the connection between audience and story, enhancing every moving moment.

Unfortunately, some things were wrong as well. I would have loved if the sequence with the dragon was longer than the 10 minutes or so that we saw on screen, they build up this devastating Smaug figure for two movies, and when his time to shine came, everything was resolved rather quickly. I thought that they could have developed better Thorin's dragon sickness, instead even this one was barely mentioned to leave more time for the epic battle among Elves, humans, dwarfs and Ogres.

The main problem with the movie, for me, was the battle itself. It was too long and it seems to me like a huge sequence made of the same scene repeated over and over again, it was epic yes, it was not boring, but it was a tad too much for me.
All in all, I did enjoy watching the last movie of "The Hobbit" saga, however, I believe that in some cases quality would be better than quantity, and maybe for this saga two movies were more than enough.

Till next time,

Fred.

Here the trailer: