"Will you follow me.....one last time?"
Smaug has been awakened, and due to a misunderstanding, is going after Laketown. But even after that conflict is finishing up, the Dwarves of Erebor have even worse concerns. Thorin (Richard Armitage) is getting obsessed with the gold the mountain offers, legions of orcs are making their way to the mountain to take over all of Middle Earth, and the Elves and Men are hoping to get a share of the treasure of Erebor. With all these clashes and his greed front and center, Thorin declares war on all of them. How is this all going to end?
As with the previous Hobbit entries, this one's biggest strengths are in its visual effects, cinematography and production design, which are all exquisite and fantastic. Middle Earth looks beautiful, and while the long-distance camera shots of New Zealand's mountains and scenery are lacking in comparison to the first two movies, the sets are still beautifully-rendered. The green screen effects are used to their strongest. I didn't see this in 3D, but there's plenty of 3D-ish shots here and there. The battle scenes are shot with exciting precision and camera angles.
The actors do a good job, as usual. Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, and Armitage lead with solid emotion and wit to their roles. And thankfully, unlike the last movie, there's a bit more of a clear focus here (the last one kept switching its focus especially in the second and third acts). It is made almost clear that this story focuses on Thorin more than everyone else. Its his journey between greed to learning the value of self-sacrifice. The other actors, including Evangeline Lilly, Orlando Bloom, Cate Blanchett, Aidan Turner, Luke Evans, Lee Pace, and Sylvester McCoy give added support, as well as many others. Howard Shore does terrific work with the music score, as well.
One other good thing about Five Armies is that it takes its' time to reach the culminating battle rather than rushing to get there. This allows some much-needed character development, tying up of loose ends, as well as wisely opening doors to further connect this with The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It also provides some emotional balance to the story as well.
On the downside, as I mentioned before, this one lacks the breathtaking shots of New Zealand we see in the previous movies. This is mostly green-screen and artificial sets. The first two Hobbit movies (the first one especially) featured a lot of beautiful natural scenery and helicopter camera shots that added more oomph to the overall experience . Now this isn't a huge problem as, at times, it would have been distracting from the battle taking place, but, at the same time, it does make Armies a bit more fake-looking than the first two.
While writing this review, I realized that the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit situation is nearly the same as Star Wars, with the exception of less years separating the first trilogy to the second trilogy. In this case, the final movie in a trilogy always brings a bit of bittersweetness. But considering the huge popularity and respect for Jackson's franchise, this is definitely a major event. While not as keen on knowledge of Peter Jackson's Middle Earth movies as probably 3/4 of my friends, these movies are still worthwhile even for those that don't know much about them. They are exciting and carry exquisite production values.
And, considering the huge amount of fantasy flicks in theaters nowadays, Hobbit and Lord of the Rings can easily be noted as the inspiration for many of those fantasy visual fests that followed, including The Chronicles of Narnia, Eragon, Jack the Giant Slayer, Snow White and the Huntsman, the Disney live-action fairy tales and many others.
So, how do I compare Battle of the Five Armies to its' two predecessors? I will say that out of all three, I was more on the edge of my seat for this one. But, like anyone else who has watched the first two, by now, you've grown to care for these characters. My heart got heavy when a few key characters died and I felt for those who were left behind. I was rooting for peace to eventually come. And, going from the major battle to the connection bridge between both film trilogies was very exciting. Its these factors that make Armies perhaps the best of the three, if by a tiny margin.
On a technical standpoint, Armies is just as proficient and visually stunning as the other two movies. Its' also a great action movie to boot. Yes, some moments can be scary (thank goodness the spiders are gone though!), but they rarely ever mar the experience. Its also good to see most major characters (with the striking exception of Gollum) from both movies come together here to take their curtain calls (of sorts).
These movies haven't been my favorite. But they are super fun and exciting to watch. Culminating in a heck-of-a-staged battle, Battle of the Five Armies sends Middle Earth off on a thrillingly-astounding high note.
Score: 8.0/10
Content Problems Families Should Be Aware Of:
Language: One use each of "b---ards" and the British profanity "b-gger". Strangely here, none of the other Peter Jackson Middle Earth movies had any language.
Adult Content: Tauriel kisses Kili once. A cowardly character cross-dresses briefly.
Violence: The most intense of the three Hobbit movies in terms of camera-shaking violence, though it amazingly avoids spilling a lot of blood (save for a few splotched-up faces). Swords are plunged and kill many things repeatedly, including orcs, humans, dwarves, and other creatures. Some have their heads chopped off. Some are impaled. Three main characters are killed. Smaug burns down a town and we hear a lot of screaming.
Alcohol/Drugs: None (as far as I remember).
Other: Three unfortunate deaths will cause tears out of sensitive viewers.
