Rating of
2/4
The Eagles can't save this one.
Cavernstones - wrote on 01/08/15
As much as I love fantasy (and sci-fi) sometimes I'm unable to just let things go and say "ooo wasn't that neat" I need something I can hang my brain on from a logical progression stand point. And there are wayyyyyy too many instances of what I can only guess at the director and writers saying exactly that before filming. "Wouldn't it be neat if...." the whole of Lake Town burning to the ground, yet the highest place in town, the most visible, the spot from which the horrible dragon Smaug would see first, is left standing (despite the fact that fire travels upward first) so the imprisoned Dale of Laketown can escape his cell, run on the rooftops to this vantage point and using his son as a guiding point......well yeah. And as it is a Peter Jackson film you need to have 25 minutes worth of wrapups to the plot line.
For a title of The Battle of the Five Armies I was looking forward to a very intense drawn out tactical battle with twists and turns as each new army arrived and battles raged on. We got some of this but that part of the film seem very... condensed. It should have been given more weight. I know it was there, just maybe I expected EPIC and got meh.
Unlike The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the third installment of the Hobbit seems more anticlimactic, more CGI'd and by the end I care less about the characters than ever.
The cinematography was excellent of course, the sweeping vistas of the scenes and action sequences were very well done, and kept the story moving along at a quick pace. Evangiline Lily brought out a nice touch of emotion and showed an athletic ability as well which fit her role. Orlando Bloom is 14 years older than from LotR: The Fellowship of the Rings, and it shows. His fun banter and charm now come forced instead of like youthful exuberance.
Look, the original book the Hobbit and its appendices comes to about 450 pages, which might make two movies, but not three. The added material Jackson and the writers put in did nothing to enhance the quality of the story. Certainly the overall story was enjoyable, but as a trilogy it doesn't come close to comparing to LotR in the fantasy genre.
