I keep wanting to call this Return of the King which it’s not it’s Battle of the Five Armies the final movie in the Hobbit trilogy which I drove two and a half hours to see with my friend earlier this week.For me I thought it was the best of the Hobbit movies even though it had problems that stood out more to me. I had more of an emotional reaction to it if that makes any sense.
On a rating scale 6/10 and the good, the bad and things I’m still trying to figure out…
I’m an optimist so I’ll start with the bad (for me of course):
I saw the film in 3D which was more a time thing than an actual choice and I thought it made some of the scenes look off. It’s hard to explain but some of the fighting just looked like it was slowed down to me which added this unbelievable element especially with the townspeople fighting the bad guys at the end. I don’t know if it was just me because my friend said she didn’t have any issues with it, maybe it was the 3D effect but parts just looked off.
Speaking of unbelievable pretty much everything with Legolas and action was off. He’s not an elf so much as a gravity defying acrobat.
And then Tauriel. I actually liked her addition in the second movie I even liked the dwarf/elf thing they had going but it all went to poop in this one for me. Why on Earth was she running around during the big fight screaming Kili’s name? Way to be a distraction there!
Alfrid and the secondary characters in the town got on my nerves too. He was funny at first but then you had supposedly smart characters who knew exactly what he was asking him to do things like, “Take the first watch Alfrid, watch the hobbit Alfrid, protect my children Alfrid.” Me: Your all idiots.
Still Thinking:
Smaug Attack! It played really great too me. There were a couple of shots where I could actually feel the fear but it was over in the blink of an eye! I’m mostly a believer it should have been in the last movie but it was also a good way to leap into this movie and keep the momentum going strong. I can see the point of that as well. A strong start. So I’m still back and forth as to where it would have been best.
Goodies:
The above mentioned dragon attack!
Yeah, in the end I still appreciated Tauriel. Didn’t necessarily work but still it’s the thought that counts and that whole love thing still made me cry.
In the end I think what sold it for me was the actors. Richard Armitage and Martin Freeman really made the Thorin /Bilbo friends/enemies thing work (which was something I had worried about in the first two movies). They sold it when they needed too. It was nice to see Bilbo’s heart, brains and courage working all together. I also loved Lee Pace as Thranduil for some reason I remembered the character as being a much bigger douche in the books but he kicked butt here. I especially liked the part where he pointed out that Gandalf does love the drama. I think Thranduil is my Aragorn of this series meaning the one I would totally marry if that was an option.
Recommend? This is one of those movies that I don’t think recommendations matter but I say yes despite all the problems this was my favorite of the three movies if for no other reasons they finally let Thorin and Bilbo do their thing. Plus the dragon attack really should be seen on the big screen.
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