A Film A Day: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)

Cast

Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Benedict Cumberbatch, Orlando Bloom, Evangeline Lilly, Luke Evans, Lee Pace, Graham McTavish, Ken Stott, Aidan Turner, Dean O'Gorman, Mark Hadlow, Jed Brophy, Adam Brown, John Callen, Peter Hambleton, William Kircher, James Nesbitt, Stephen Hunter, Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Christopher Lee, Sylvester McCoy, Manu Bennett, John Tui, Billy Connolly, Mikael Persbrandt, Stephen Fry, Ryan Gage, Mark Mitchinson, John Bell, Peggy Nisbitt, Mary Nesbitt, Simon London, Ian Holm

Plot

Enraged, Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch) rains his fiery wrath down upon the defenseless men, women and children of Lake-town. Obsessed above all else with his reclaimed treasure, Thorin (Richard Armitage) sacrifices friendship and honor to hoard it as Bilbo's (Martin Freeman) frantic attempts to make him see reason drive the Hobbit towards a desperate and dangerous choice. But there are even greater dangers ahead.

Opinion

The Hobbit trilogy started out wonderfully - not as great as the Lord of the Rings trilogy though -, but the closing chapter is far from being wonderful.

Visually stunning, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is a tedious, shallow and unsatisfying conclusion.

A ongoing problem with this new trilogy has always been the running time; although this film is not as long as the others, the disrespectful plot hasn't been able to fill the 144 minutes of it: there is so little left to say and more than a stand alone story it seems like a long, never ending closing paragraph.

I thought the title implied there was going to be a real and epic battle, you know, mayhem, arrows flying, swords clashing, dead bodies everywhere, but instead we got some sort of battle filled with unrealistic duels and a love story between she-elf Tauriel and dwarf Kili. Then, five armies are way too much, and who the heck are the Wereworms?

I did like some of the characters development, especially the inner conflict of Thorin, the magnificent relationship between Thorin and Bilbo, and the opening scene with Smaug is breathtaking but that's it. Smaug, the primary antagonist of the trilogy, dies, and so the film with it.

On the other hand, the performances are good. Martin Freeman grows along with Bilbo. Richard Armitage delivers his best performance of the trilogy. Orlando Bloom brings a good performance. Aidan Turner well plays Kili. Ian McKellen knocks his role as Gandalf. Luke Evans has more screen time, and uses it properly.

Quotes

Bilbo Baggins: You are changed, Thorin! The Dwarf I met in Bag End would never have gone back on his word! Would never have doubted the loyalty of his kin!