The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies - Review

“I have no right to ask this of any of you... but will you follow me... one last time?” – A review of The Hobbit – The Battle of the Five Armies. 

So here we are, at long last. The third and final instalment of The Hobbit films. Films which I had been so excited for, films which I had so much hope for. I put my trust in Peter Jackson, I went in with an open mind, I enjoyed everything I could about them…but Five Armies is, by far, my least favourite of the trilogy.

The film is centred around the battle for control of the Lonely Mountain, with Smaug the dragon having finally being defeated. The battle is between dwarves, elves and men initially, but are soon joined by Sauron’s orc forces and eventually the Great Eagles. The stakes are high, as the Lonely Mountain sat in a pivotal strategic position, and it is the first major conflict in the War of the Ring, setting up the events of The Lord of the Rings.

I must admit, it’s never been the battles that made me a fan of Tolkien’s work, and perhaps that makes me slightly biased about this film as a whole. Don’t get me wrong, there battles of The Lord of the Rings were epic, but it would often be an impassioned speech before the fight which proved to be more memorable to me, or a character being willing to sacrifice themselves for their comrades. With this said, it’s hardly surprising that a film completely dedicated to battle didn’t exactly grab me, but there’s more to it than that.

First of all, Desolation ended with a cliffhanger which was neatly tied up within the first ten minutes of the last film. I cannot be clear enough how frustrating this is. A moment which would have added so much more to the second film feels a little cold here, and after the first ten minutes, Smaug is no longer of any importance. I will never understand this decision.

The battle itself is disappointing too, largely due to the film once again being overly reliant on CGI. There are odd moments where you see a character have a one-on-one fight with another, or an occasional scene with some sort of emotion in it, but for me this film doesn’t really feel like a film. It just feels like something that should have been way shorter and tagged on to the end of the second film. Just like the trilogy as a whole, Five Armies feels bloated.

I really quite liked the dwarves throughout the trilogy, but I don’t feel like they had nearly enough dialogue here. Balin and Thorin are the only two who seemed to come close to getting attention on camera, and I honestly spent a great deal of this film wishing someone would knock some sense into Thorin. Even our little hero Bilbo, who I still believe was perfectly cast, couldn’t save this film for me.

I am genuinely so sad to have to write such a scathing review. Whenever new Tolkien content is announced, I am genuinely excited. I was very vocal in my defence of the Amazon Prime series “Rings of Power” when it was announced, as I felt frustrated at the amount of hate it got before we’d even seen anything, and I was likewise excited about the anime adaption “The War of the Rohirrim”, which I actually ended up really enjoying. The point I’m making here is that it’s not just that this film isn’t canonical. The issue isn’t that it doesn’t completely follow the book or that there are new subplots. The issue is, however, that the additions feel poorly thought out, and this Five Armies is a disappointing ending to an already bloated trilogy.

On top of all of this, this is a film which really puts spectacle above emotion, and it left me feeling cold. Whilst I will never turn down an opportunity to return to Middle-earth, the only way I can describe this film – and the trilogy as a whole – is like butter, scraped over too much bread.

Written by Tam Page

Posted by Mr. Tomney

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