(Extended Edition)

“If you don't like my burglar, then please, don't damage him! Return him to me!”

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies picks up immediately where The Desolation of Smaug left off, where Smaug is now a huge threat to the people of Lake-town. There is an even bigger threat coming, however, with a battle seemingly on the way, as forces of orcs, elves, and others are now on their way to claim what lies beneath the Lonely Mountain. This film is the pinnacle of the entire Hobbit trilogy, not just because it’s simply the last film, but because it is the biggest and has by far the most stakes out of all three.

It also happens to be the darkest as well, which I think works quite well, and helps it to start to feel more Lord of the Rings-esque too, almost like a soft transition. Considering that there is a huge battle that takes place after all, it is definitely the most violent and goes places that you might not expect in terms of its characters. There are definitely downsides to this, but for the most part, I really enjoy how this is almost kind of a foreshadowing of what is to come in The Lord of the Rings films, at least if you watch the Middle-earth franchise in chronological order rather than release order.

Speaking of foreshadowing The Lord of the Rings, this one definitely caps off and has the most material that ties into that trilogy. I’ve already stated that this was a controversial move in the first place with the first two Hobbit movies, so I won’t talk really anymore about it other than saying (if you didn’t read my other reviews) that I do like this change overall quite a bit for the most part. Most of the tie-ins occur very early on in this film, and they do a really nice job of helping the pacing while the movie is in the sort of “before the big battle” phase, where armies are still on their way, and conversations are still being discussed.

For better, and for worse (again), The Battle of the Five Armies easily has the best action out of this entire trilogy. It can be completely outlandish at times, but it’s such a blast, and pretty much half of the whole runtime is devoted to it. I know this film’s existence is a whole controversy of its own, as this part of the story wasn’t even really in the book, and the part of it that was is only a few pages, but I like what they do here quite a bit. It’s not just simply “Bilbo is knocked out, and we see the sudden and shocking aftermath of everything that happened during the battle.” No, we actually get to see what happens and all the bad that came from it.

When it comes to the narrative, the main thing that really carries this story is definitely Thorin, and he definitely carries it. This is easily the weakest Hobbit entry storywise, as well as the one that has sort of the “least story,” which you’ll somewhat see come up later in this review, but I do think that what they do with his character was pretty well done for the most part. Now, there are definitely flaws to it, but for the positives, it is still at least really compelling. It very much ties into the overall main themes of the film: responsibility, truth, idolatry, and especially corruption, making this somewhat easily also the deepest of the Hobbit movies.

This is where the main part of his arc in this entire three-film story takes place, and I think this is also where his character is the most interesting, even though I was already a fan of him to begin with (not sure if that is controversial or not). You get to see the pinnacle of the conflict between him and the orcs, and specifically Azog, and it’s both very satisfying and just plain awesome. The last thing I’ll talk about here is that I’m definitely a big fan of the development of the relationship between him and Bilbo, especially by the end of the movie.

It’s definitely a very flawed character arc, though, not just because the character has some flaws, but mainly because the writing does. The whole theme of corruption, while again compelling, still feels very much rushed by the end of the day. There wasn’t a huge sign of this that had been building up inside of him in the last two movies, and especially the direct predecessor, aside from a couple of foreshadowings (mainly from Smaug), and this film kind of just jumps right into him being a character that has gone down a dark path. It feels extremely sudden and a bit off for most of the time he is in this darker place, simply because it wasn’t really ever earned. Now, where it eventually goes is very well done, so I’d say this is probably more of a mixed.

A definite negative with Battle of the Five Armies, however, is related to what I talked about earlier, with how outlandish it can be. What really hurts this movie (perhaps the most) is how cheesy it can be at times, a lot of the time with its action. There is a bit in the third act with Legolas that has been memed to death, but even aside from that, there are things that happen here that feel pretty ridiculous, and are pretty ridiculous during the battle sequences. To be honest, though, the cheesiest part, and my least favorite part, of not only this movie, but the entire trilogy, is the continued romance between one of the dwarves and an elf. I get what they were going for, I really do, and I think there is definitely a way that this could have worked, but I’ve seen this trilogy twice now, and both times it has come off as incredibly cringeworthy and, quite frankly, just dumb. There are times with it where the story is trying to get an emotional reaction out of you, and to be honest, I was having a hard time keeping myself from chuckling.

The last negative I’ll talk about might not be a huge deal to a lot of people, and it honestly bothers me the least out of all the other negatives I have, but I still think it is worth mentioning at least. While this might be a very fun and epic way to conclude this trilogy, especially with how it ties into The Lord of the Rings, it doesn’t feel like this was what the previous two movies were building up to, mainly because the vast majority of the material in this story just simply wasn’t in the book. For the most part, I like that we get to see this whole battle take place, which was hardly talked about in deep detail in the book, but it was also not really a big part of The Hobbit book for a reason. The Hobbit wasn’t really ever supposed to be an epic tale of tragedy or war; it was supposed to be an epic tale of fun and adventure, which is why it was such a small part of the novel.

The last time I watched this trilogy, which was for the first time, I really enjoyed it and thought it was pretty good, and honestly, on this rewatch, I’ve grown a lot more fond of these films. I liked the first two in the trilogy quite a bit, but was mostly mixed on this third one; however, I actually quite liked it this time. The trilogy as a whole I think, definitely has its flaws (if I haven’t already made that clear enough), especially starting with the second film, but overall, while it probably shouldn’t have been a long trilogy akin to The Lord of the Rings, I at least think that what they did with making that decision was pretty well done, and I like how it ended with this third one.