Review of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014) by Cedarsave — 23 Dec 2014

It wasn't bad. The battles (battle?) were (was?) pretty impressive, and the characters weren't devoid of emotion. In short, the film wasn't soulless, but that isn't saying much. The film's main problem comes from its conception, the fact that it's based on the third act of a single novel.

That makes this film, in effect, just one big third act stretched into two and a half hours. So it starts with finale-style action (Smaug dying) and continues with it right through to the end. Because of its source material, it can't really have a beginning, middle and end; that's what the first two parts of the trilogy are.

The Lord of the Rings was based on three books with their own three acts, each part of a greater story arc; Peter Jackson has his greater story arc with the Hobbit, but that's just the plot to the book.

Each individual film doesn't really have its own individual story, and that really tells in the Battle of Five Armies. It feels like the end of a film and not a film in itself. That said, it doesn't do too badly at concluding Middle-earth.

It's no classic, but it's still worth seeing, if just to get a sense of closure with Tolkien's universe.