‘Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies’ Review: Best in series
Just as director Peter Jackson did with LOTR: Return of the King, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies delivers on all levels and is the best in the series.
The adventure comes to a heated climax as the dragon Smaug (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) attacks the village and Bard (Luke Evans) must find a way to save his people. Erebor is back until the control of Dwarves, but Thorin struggles to live up up to his promises and the curse of the gold.
In an interview with EW earlier this year, Jackson stressed that it was important to keep cutting back to main characters during the action scenes, “otherwise the audience gets battle fatigue.” Only once does Jackson fail to take his own advice and have the audience wonder where Legolas is.
The movie certain to anger the Tolkien purests as Galadriel and Gandalf (Ian McKellen) are lost in the shuffle and Orlando Bloom’s unrealistic fight scene is too much like a video game.
The star here is Martin Freeman’s Bilbo Baggins and he delivers each and every time Jackson’s CGI sequences get too tedious or you feel a bit lost to the meaning behind the war. Freeman proves again that he’s an excellent actor, worthy of Oscar caliber roles.
Jackson wraps up the saga, sets up the LOTR (almost too neatly) and gives fans the “big CGI” battle scene they’ve been waiting for.
Overall The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies receives 4 1/2 out of 5 stars.