The Hobbit - Battle of the Five Armies

Hello, and welcome to Sarah’s Reviews!

Let me preface this by saying I've never read The Hobbit. All of my opinions, such as they are, are formed purely off of the movies. And I'm going to keep this as spoiler-free as possible.

The pacing was awesome. It didn’t drag at all. When you go through an entire movie without one checking your cell phone to see what time it is or begin making mental lists of things you need to get done, the movie is doing something right.

The characters made this movie.

One of my favorites was Galadriel and all because of her scene in this movie. The woman is a badass, and the scene where you finally getting to see the extent of what she can do with her ring and the toll it took on her was wonderfully well done. That scene made me go back home to re-watch The Lord of the Rings – Fellowship of the Ring specifically for her scene.

You can’t help but cheer for Bilbo. Considering he’s the main character, that’s a good thing. You could see how much Thorin’s actions were hurting him, and how conflicted he became. He wanted to do what it right, even when it could have gotten him killed, and nearly did.

Thranduil was kind of a jerk. Okay, he was a complete ass. But Lee Pace did such a wonderful job with the character that I enjoyed every moment he was on screen.

Now for the things I thing kept this movie from being as good as it could have been.
I have to admit, I thought Smaug's attack would have lasted longer. I wanted to see more of the dragon.

I still can't figure out why they needed to include Tauriel I still don't know what her purpose was.

I honestly thought they were going to kill her off in this movie. It would have made sense She creates a loose end - Legolas was in love with her. Or in lust, at the very least. But in the Lord of the Rings movies, he doesn't mention her at all. Doesn't mention anybody. So what the hell? Why was she there? To fall in love with Kili? To save his life before he really died? I'm sorry, but I think she was completely unnecessary. There are better, and more creative, ways to create drama and tension than a half assed love triangle and some sort of Romeo and Juliet thing.

And speaking of drama. Thorin going mad with the gold sickness, practically becoming Smaug reincarnated. That entire build-up was extraordinarily well done. That's an example of creating tension and keeping the audience interested. And he's not in love (unless you count the gold as a love interest)! But the CGI effects with the gold floor were a bit hokey. As in, 1980s hokey. And it kind of ruined the payoff. But still, his character development was possibly the best in the trilogy.

Actually, the CGI in general seemed like it could have been done better. Like they put it together and said “good enough”. Don't get me wrong, I thought some of it was awesome, like the part with Galadriel I talked about earlier. But the majority of it was kind of meh.

All in all, I really enjoyed these movies. Will I buy this one to complete the set? Hell yeah. But Peter Jackson didn't really want to make these movies and I think it shows.

One more good thing, because I like to end on a high note – this movie did not have the fake-out endings. There was just the one, Bilbo’s homecoming, and that was all. Thank you, Peter Jackson!