Unknown's Movie Review of The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies

Less Filler, More Killer
Unknown - wrote on 12/20/14

'The Hobbit' trilogy reaches it's fitting conclusion. As with 'Return of the King', this third part ends our long journey in grand fashion. Battles upon battles. Lots of PG-13 carnage that doesn't feel watered down. What we've come to expect. The 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy was three parts of one story, but they were all separated enough narratively to work as proper standalone films. Here, it's plainly obvious that all three 'Hobbit' films are just acts 1, 2, and 3 of one extremely long movie. That's been my only major problem with the series. There's so much unneeded filler in the first two installments that it dampens the experience for me. So much extra content is explained that doesn't even matter to the story at hand, and is only present because it was in a 'LOTR' written text at some point. AND, on top of that, we got new original characters and a tacked on hokey romance in the second. Much unnecessary additions only used to stretch, and warp, this fun smaller adventure into an epic. Despite my complaints, I've still enjoyed all three movies in some capacity. 'Battle of the Five Armies' is the shortest and swiftest of the installments. It's all one big multi-climax of giant battles, small battles, cooperative politics, character resolutions and redemptions, etc. Much less unneeded filler to be had. It's all very entertaining, yet very expected in it's cliched nature of resolve. There's only so many times I can watch the overdone moment of someone crying over a dying hero as they force out their last words before fading into silence for good. Martin Freeman's terrific portrayal of Bilbo is still underutilized. I give the actor major credit for always exuding heart into these films. He's the only character to really bring out the emotion. His farewell to the dwarves was almost tear worthy. All my personal complaints aside, I have still enjoyed this series for what it is and am happy that it's ended on a seriously high note. Fans will not be disappointed.