The Hobbit: Battle Of The Five Armies Review (2014)

The Hobbit: Battle Of The Five Armies

  I didn't go into this movie with high expectations because, well, they made a 3 hour movie out of the last 40 pages of the book. If we're all honest, we'll admit that those last 40 pages were pretty boring. 

  When the film started, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it! And not for the reasons you might be expecting.

  Martin Freeman should win an award for best facial expression ever. He makes Bilbo such a likeable character and really nails that loveable, possessed, loyal, thief. Luke Evans and Richard Armitage also do a great job in their roles. Thorin's character arc is super engaging and Armitage does excellent at making it believable. 

  Now here are my gropes. There is this character called Alfrid in the film (the villager with the unibrow) that is meant to be there for comic relief and ends up with more screen time than Bilbo. Anyway, this guy changes the entire mood of the movie as we go from him being incredibly stupid to a death scene in one take. He gives this lightness to the film that really took me out of it and had me laughing at parts that weren't supposed to be funny. The execution of certain scenes took themselves so seriously and could have been avoided so easily that they were honestly just laughable. 

  I can't say that this made the movie bad, because I enjoyed laughing my head off, but if I had tried to take it seriously, I would have probably just felt like those parts were stupid. 

  As you can see, I have mixed feelings for this film. I'd have to give it a 2.5 out of 5 stars. (Watch If Free)