Here we are at the end of the Hobbit trilogy. The adaptation of English author J. R. R. Tolkien’s 1937 fantasy novel. One movie turned into three and after watching The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug I am left unsurprisingly comparing the first two films to the last one and as much as I want to be a mindless fanboy the third film left me disappointed.
The Battle of the Five Armies picks up right where the 2nd film left off with Smaug the magnificent barreling towards Laketown. Before the opening title screen though he meets his demise and somehow after that I started watching an overstuffed summer action film with poor dialog, disjointed acting and no real highlight in the form of a character or a scene.
Worst in the Hobbit Trilogy
As usual I try to keep things spoiler free and welcome your thoughts after watching it via comments bellow or on Twitter @Jamaipanese but I have to say that compared to The Battle of the Five Armies, The Desolation of Smaug was a masterpiece. The comparisons to the Lord of the Rings trilogy is also to be expected but doing so only magnifies the flaws of the Hobbit Trilogy. There is no tension, no building towards a finale, no attachment to any characters (with the exception of Bilbo) – basically all the things that made the Lord of the Rings trilogy great.
Comedic Action
Some of the action scenes come across as almost comedic; a 4 foot tall Dwarf standing toe to toe with and at times overpowering a 10 foot tall Orc? Orlando Bloom buried in 10 inches of makeup causing me to grimace every time his dolled up face and blond wig was on screen? Gliding along on a market cart to slay a poorly rendered computer generated ogre? Giant worms digging through solid rock to transport an army but not participating in the battle themselves? Highly trained deadly fighting orcs being slain by women and children? I might go see The Battle of the Five Armies again with friends just to hear their opinions but in my mind the movie was a steaming pile of shhhh… disappointment that peaked with Smaug then tricked me into expected good things only to be served up scenes that wouldn’t look out of place in a Transformers movie.
I still encourage persons to go see it, especially if you are a fan of the first two. In the end this may be the last adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s work to make it to the big screen, so enjoy the last few bites even of its a bit soggy, burnt in the middle and taste like metal.
Pops you have made some valid points … i must point out though that in the book there wasn’t much between Bard killing Smaug and the victory over the Orcs. The producers made clearly a weak attempt at trying to provide a movie filler. I doubted they would have pulled off from i saw the 2nd instalment. And yes i have read the books 🙂
I understand the lack of material but the poor CGI among other things cannot be excused.
Oh dear, how very sad. I discovered Tolkien at college, decades ago and obviously long before the movies. It was a “cult book” in the UK at the time. We all read, re-read and discussed it. The LOTR film trilogy worked pretty well for me – although I wasn’t so enamored with the third – but I couldn’t understand how they could make three films out of one average sized book for The Hobbit. Too much CGI and pomposity for me in the first film. This sounds like a real mess. Poor Prof Tolkien would be turning in his grave, I fear!
The Original LOTR movie trilogy was indeed well done. Maybe it was a mistake to expect the Hobbit to keep to those high standards.