I realize that this film will be condemned by a lot of people,and yet I liked it. I will be the first person to admit the fact that it's not a perfect movie. But this is an undeniably fun movie. The best dumb action movie of the year with "dumb" only being used to highlight the fact that most of it is action,and the story has kind of hit a wall. But again it's fun,and well worth the price of admission. I don't exactly know if it's a perfect movie to close all of the Middle Earth films on,but in it's own right I enjoyed watching it. The Battle of the Five Armies starts with Smaug the dragon destroying Laketown. This is one hell of a sequence,and I was glad to see Smaug for the small amount of time he got in this film. Unfortunately he is not given much to do,and is killed in the first 10 minutes of the film.Then it's on to wrap up all the stories,and stage a big battle with all the characters. The film doesn't succeed in doing this completely, but feels epic enough and the battle's actually engaging. Actually I find the reason why the whole movie has the ability to hold it's narrative (what little it may have) together is the fact that the entire thing carries the "Peter Jackson" feeling to it. Sure there's flaws,but this guy is just throwing everything at the screen. And he's doing it with unmatched determination. This does give the film the aforementioned "dumb" feeling,but it's just too exciting to really collapse on itself. There's fantastic sequences of Elrond,and the other powerful Middle Earth characters fighting Nazgul. Also the battle against an Orc army with dwarves, and elves fighting side by side is really cool. It's not smart,but it holds together through a giddy sense of just how fun the battle is. What also holds it together is there is quite an emotional punch to the film. It has a lot of stories to wrap up,and most of them at least have some emotion to them. Especially the one with Taurial and Kili. Yeah that one really hits you. The cast is surprisingly game for the entire thing as well. Martin Freeman kind of falls into the back of the film,but suits himself well as Bilbo. Richard Armitage is still the best part of these films as Thorin. Luke Evans as Bard is also a good supporting character. Weta Digital has also brought their a game with some fantastic effects. It all looks a little animated at times,but that doesn't take to much from the film. All of this just snowballs up building momentum, and keeps everything together. There are some problems though. Some large ones, however a film should distract you from those,and this one as everything above says does,but some of it obviously slips through. The plot of the film is kind of over by now which is disappointing, and the film feels a little like the entire thing is winding down at times. There are quite a few unnecessary moments in the film,but all of them are still fun. The whole resurrection of Sauron story that the film has ends with one of these,and it's a little jarring. Also there's a plot line having to do with Thorin being corrupted by a treasure called the Arkenstone that could have used more screen time it feels a bit rushed. Oh,and Legolas has one moment in this film that is one of those hilarious "invincible" moments. However I felt this to be outweighed by the good things in the film. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies may not be the best Middle Earth movie in fact it's far from it,but it's not a bad movie. It's consistently engaging,and has an emotional punch to it at least. It's big and even a little dumb and it's gonna piss some people off, but I stand behind my opinion that it's still an enjoyable film. I give The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies an 8 out of 10. And P.S. I saw the film in 3D,and it's actually not that bad. It took a while to get used to it. Once I did it was actually quite impressive.
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December 2017
CategoriesAuthorHello welcome to FilmAnalyst. My name is Stephen Tronicek, and I really like movies. This is a way to get my opinions out to people. Thank you for visiting. |