THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
The reason that it is a bad idea for a book to be stretched into three films is because of the possibility that one would not hit the right mark. Sadly, this was the case for the third Hobbit film, The Battle of the Five Armies.
PLOT
The film opens with Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch) attacking Laketown. While Bard's children, as well as she-elf Tauriel and the dwarves that stayed behind are able to escape from the destruction alive, Bard (Luke Evans) is able to slay the beast with his only black arrow. When its corpse fell from the sky, it landed on top of the master of Laketown (Stephen Fry), along with all of the gold needed for the town to start over. Bard is now looked at by the people as a hero, and he leads them to take refuge in the destroyed city of Dale. He plans to ask Thorin Oakenshield for a share of the gold as he promised the town before leaving. Legolas (Orlando Bloom)& Tauriel go to investigate Mount Gundabad as Bolg (John Tui) is heading there. Gandalf (Sir Ian McKellen) is rescued from Dol Guldur by Lady Galadriel (Cate Blanchett), Elrond (Hugo Weaving) & Saruman (Christopher Lee), and is sent to safety by Radagast (Sylvester McCoy). The group duels with the Nazgûl, but Galadriel banishes Sauron to the East. Fíli (Dean O’Gorman), Kíli, Bofur (James Nesbitt) & Óin (John Callen) make it to the mountain, to discover that Thorin has lost his mind due to dragon sickness, obsessing over the Arkenstone. Bilbo Baggins however was able to retrieve it when retreating from Smaug, but hasn't given it to the new king under the mountain. He asks Balin (Ken Stott) if giving it to him would make him better, only to be answered that it'd make it worse. Meaning that its best for it to be kept lost if found. The next day, Thranduil (Lee Pace) arrives to Dale with his army to reclaim his gems, meaning he's willing to go to war for it. Bard tries to reason with Thorin to keep his word but the king refuses. Gandalf arrives to warn both armies that Sauron is sending an army to take over the mountain for its strategic position. Bilbo sneaks away to warn everyone that the dwarves won't back down and gives the Arkenstone as leverage. The following morning, Bard reveals that he has the stone to the dwarves, in order to convince Thorin to keep his word. Oakenshield thinks it's an illusion, but Baggins returns to admit what he did. The king attempts to kill him for his betrayal, but Gandalf stops him from doing so. At that moment, a dwarf army led by Thorin's cousin Dáin (Billy Connolly), appears and is ready to fight. As the dwarf army prepares to fight the elves, the orc army led by Azog (Manu Bennett) arrives as well, taking advantage of the conflict. All three armies of men, dwarf and elf align to fight the orcs, but Thorin tells the twelve dwarves of his company to stand down. During the second wave of the Azog's attack, Alfrid (Ryan Gage) ditches the battle, stealing gold in the process. Thorin eventually comes to his senses after breaking from his sickness, leading him to rally. He goes to call out Azog and is accompanied by Fíli, Kíli & Dwalin (Graham McTavish). Legolas & Tauriel arrive to warn of the next wave. Bilbo gets to the four dwarves to warn them but Fíli is quickly killed by Azog. When Tauriel gets there to aid Kíli, who she's quickly grown feelings for, she fails as he is killed by Bolg. However, Legolas is able to kill the orc and returns the Ocrist to Thorin, as he remained weaponless during the end of combat against another orc, and originally took the sword from him during his imprisonment. The Great Eagles then arrive to wipe out the last wave. Thorin does fight Azog on a frozen pool and he tries to drown him when the ice breaks. However, the pale orc reemerges and stabs him in the foot. When pinned down, he realizes he's strong for him, leading him to allow him to be impaled by him, in order to have his clear moment to do the same. While Azog is slayed, so is the king. As the battle has ended, Legolas is encouraged by his father Thranduil to look for a human ranger nicknamed 'Strider'. Bilbo heads back home to the Shire with the company of Gandalf. The wizard tells him that he knows of the ring he took from the goblin tunnels but the hobbit lies to him, saying he lost it. When he returns to his home, we see that he still has it implying that he lied. The film ends forwarding 60 years later to where Fellowship of the Ring begins, as an older Bilbo (Ian Holm) welcomes Gandalf to his house for his birthday.
THOUGHTS
When seeing this film in 2015, I had big expectations as the marketing of this film had the identical hype compared to The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Although I've enjoyed this movie ever since its release, the problem is that it doesn't exactly live up to the said hype. The biggest problem mainly went to the editing because there is so much scenes missing that it makes the extended cut this film's saving grace. We see more action that makes it feel clear as it felt difficult keeping track on who was where. We see the dwarves actually fight the elves before Azog shows up. We get a glimpse of Thorin's company in action outside where they rallied and we see more of Gandalf and Bilbo defending themselves. We also see Alfrid get killed when fleeing, which makes a lot of sense because his flee felt anticlimactic. There's even a scene where Bofur allows Bilbo to sneak out which is more realistic than him not being spotted. We see that the Arkenstone was buried with Thorin which made better sense considering that I felt as clueless as the audience was, unaware of where it was by the end. Then there were two major scenes for Gandalf that are bigger than one would think. He is given Radagast's staff by the other wizard which adds up again because since Sauron destroyed his own, I kept wondering how he got another. And before that, the orc that attempted to kill him was also trying to take his elven ring, one of only three as the other two belong to Galadriel and Elrond. I don't understand why all of this was taken out because they unintentionally made more plot holes than any other film I've ever seen. If they were all kept in theatrical, then they would've worried for one plot hole: What happened between Sauron and Saruman. Saruman claimed to go after him but we sadly don't know how that plays out. Considering that when first introduced to this wizard in Fellowship of the Ring, he has made allegiance to the dark lord. It is a massive shame that no scene is shown on what made it so. Having said that, there are still some stuff that bothered me in theatrical. The romance is significantly rushed here between Tauriel & Kili and I sadly don't feel the chemistry between Evangeline Lilly & Aidan Turner which hurts for me to say because I know they're trying. It's sad to see him and Fíli die mainly due to relation with Thorin, as it was his obsession that set up their deaths. The one thing to pull me from the film the most was how Legolas was able to leap off of falling rubble. I know it's a movie but the visuals on that scene were so unreal I almost wanted to stop watching it. And the icing on the cake of being unnecessary is the were worms as they have one scene and disappear short after. Seeing them made think of sand worms from 1984’s Dune, which isn't exactly good. Getting all of the infuriating cons out of the way, I still have some that ensure I find a way to enjoy it. This film may not have the best visuals compared to the entire franchise but it's convincing enough to keep you satisfied. The best example goes to the opening of Smaug's attack and defeat. It's short lived but worth it. I mean seeing Bard become a dragon slayer is pretty badass to witness. I thought of the scene where Thorin kills Azog and Legolas kills Bolg was a fair change from the books where in the books, it’s implied that Azog had died before the journey began, and Bolg was in full command. As the pale orc was killed by Dáin, his son was crushed by Beorn. What we get in the movie makes sense because as the movies displayed, they wanted Thorin to get revenge and that was the big payoff. Plus, I don’t think it would be taken serious if Beorn actually killed Bolg onscreen. The big performances that keep me on board are Richard Armitage & Martin Freeman for the third time in a row. I enjoy the irony how Bilbo is secretly obsessed with the Ring yet calls out Thorin for the dragon sickness, obsession with gold. Again, Armitage pulls it off going from insane to regaining his sanity overtime. The only time we see Bilbo's obsession is near the end as we see him glare him after lying to Gandalf. Their friendship is really defined here because it is here where they show their care for each other. I mean Thorin gave Bilbo the Mithril vest because that's how bad he wanted him to live; Bilbo on the other hand is the only one who admits aloud he's lost it, proving he wasn't afraid of him. Their respect was presented throughout this trilogy and that respect became an unlikely friendship. The final nail on the coffin is how Thorin told him he could go back home to his books and armchair, referencing what he missed. If he remembers that, then that proves he cares. And that is what makes his death sadder, because the hobbit lost someone who cared more than he imagined. So when coming home after the Shire hysterically presumed him to be dead and proves identity via signature, it is a pull of the heart strings when another hobbit asks him who Thorin is. But it's a smile when he replies that he was his friend. Their dynamic was the selling point in teaching the lesson how it is possible to overcome evil no matter how difficult it feels. In this case, their friendship helped Thorin overcome the greed and die a hero. Going back to the action of the titular battle, there were definitely cool moments within that make it worthwhile. From Beorn (Mikael Persnbrandt) cleaning house as he turns into a bear, to Thorin's rally, those were eye opening moments that kept me on board. As for Billy Boyd's song 'The Last Goodbye', it is a clever way to say farewell to this depiction of this iconic franchise. To come to a close, Peter Jackson may have not been able to replicate the perfect finale as he had done with The Return of the King. But The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is a solid send off to this iconic franchise. If you read the books, saw the past two films of the trilogy and are able to ignore all of the flaws I've described, then this will hopefully be an entertaining finale for you to witness.
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