Review of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014) by Art A — 07 Aug 2015

Bloated, self-indulgent, and over-reliant on CG, this superfluous sequel has no business even existing except as a cash-grab.

What Peter Jackson did for Lord of the Rings - condensing a story I always felt was also overlong into three spectacular films was astonishing. Here, he ruins a near-perfect book by taking the focus off the titular character. Legolas, who does not appear in the book at all, occupies as much screen time as Bilbo.

Clumsy foreshadowing of the events of the Lord of the Rings abounds and drags out the story with unnecessary exposition. We all know what ring Bilbo found. We all know Sauron is returning. These sidebars add nothing to the story and only serve to make a Hobbit film that barely features said Hobbit.

It's a shame too because Martin Freeman's performance is excellent, and I admire Richard Armitage's portrayal of Thorin, but the movie too often veers from the source material. In fact, the entire battle it's based on takes up only a single chapter in the book, and is recounted to Bilbo past tense upon recovering from unconsciousness. Here it's a 60 minute spectacle of CG, and Bilbo takes a backseat.

I'm not so married to Tolkien's lore that I abhor any change to it, but those changes should be for the better. There isn't a single instance in any of Jackson's Hobbit trilogy films where I felt this was the case. The Hobbit is my favorite book of his, but the films are not worthy adaptations.