The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies fan reviews... SPOILERS

[Beutlin]

So I went there and back again, and have returned to tell the tale.

I will post my lengthy, chronological review in several posts. I will reveal several key plot elements, changes from the source-material and other things which might spoil your experience in advance. So beware and read at your own risk! But in my opinion in this case it is better to know what will come instead of stepping into the void...as I did.

I might post a spoiler-free abstract too.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Did you like it?

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[Beutlin]

Did you like it?

Yes, and no.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Fair enough. I will look forward to your thoughts.

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[Beutlin]

Fair enough. I will look forward to your thoughts.

Though I have a hunch that you will like it a lot, Voronwë.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Well, that is good, I think. I'm curious to know why you think I will like it better than you did!

[Dave_LF]

Did you like it?

Yes, and no.

You...elf, you!

[Beutlin]

As you might know, my brother and I decided to watch the Hobbit marathon. It started around 6 p.m., with “The Battle of the Five Armies” starting at midnight. So all in all nearly nine hours in a crowded cinema. Was it a wise decision to do so?

Frankly, I did not feel too tired when BOFA began. I was sort of feeling a little bit exhausted in the break between films 2 and 3 but as soon as that Warner Brothers logo appeared on the screen for the last time my heart started racing and my eyes were fixed to the screen. I was afraid that the cinema would smell terribly by that time but that too was not the case. Surely, it smelled of Red Bull and nachos from time to time but none of that bothered me. If you decide on seeing the trilogy all at once I would recommend getting a good sleep in advance, choose a large IMAX screen, and avoid eating anything heavy before the screening.

But now to the more important question: How did the marathon affect my Hobbit experience? Paradoxically I would say the first film profited the most from the marathon; not because it is so much better than films 2 or 3 (which it isn’t) but because there is a sense of urgency that will forever be lost after seeing the final film. When Bilbo meets the dwarves for the first time you know that in several hours, after many hardships and perils, something waits which you have not seen before. All of this helps to elevate films 1 and 2, and for that I would wholeheartedly recommend seeing the marathon. I was strangely surprised how much I truly loved the first half of “An Unexpected Journey”, and the same rings true for Martin Freeman’s Bilbo. If you watch the whole trilogy all at once these movies truly belong to him. Surely, he gets lost from time to time but he always comes up on top and turns nearly all of his scenes into such wonderful little gems. Freeman and Jackson deserve my greatest respect for that.

[Beutlin]

So now to “The Battle of the Five Armies”:

Fire and Water

Hidden text.

The film starts with the burning of Lake-town. The scene is rather short but it is well done. There are some impressive shots of Smaug flying across the city (especially his first attack). I have heard some say that they did not like Smaug’s demise but for me it was a very nice scene. Alas, Bard does not kill the dragon with a normal arrow but this too did not bother me. The acting between Bard and his son is touching in those scenes and Smaug once more revels in striking terror in the hearts of his prey. I also was pleased that Smaug does not eat the mayor. Arguably, this scene feels way too short in the broader context of things, a.k.a. the marathon. The forges scene in “DOS” is not really shorter than the Lake-town scene in “BOFA”, and that feels somewhat strange. On this occasion I would say that this scene would have better worked if I had not seen the marathon. But I am being overtly-critical: on its own, it is a very nice scene, the moment when Smaug dies is “beautiful” and Luke Evans shines as Bard the Bowman.

[Beutlin]

The Lady of Lórien

Hidden text.

Dol Guldur is also rather short but once more a very nice scene. There are some truly beautiful shots of Galadriel. Saruman and Elrond both manage to hold their ground against the “nine” and none of that action felt over-the-top. I was especially afraid that ol’ Saruman would go ballistic and do a thousand Van Damme kicks but all of that felt pretty realistic and I could not really spot the difference between Christopher Lee/stunt double/digital double. Galadriel’s face-off with Sauron is also impressive, although there is one line by the Dark Lord which feels redundant (and I quite liked the original quote from Gothmog! But it feels out of place when it is uttered by Sauron himself. I think a simple variation: “My time has come!” would have been sufficient). But again, this is what the layman calls nitpicking. Dol Guldur was brief and exciting, featuring splendid performances by McKellen, Lee, Cumberbatch, and Blanchett. And the ringwraiths' design was unqiue and splendid.

[Beutlin]

The Gathering of the Clouds

Hidden text.

I enjoyed nearly everything up to the beginning of the eponymous battle. Thorin’s descent into madness might not be called subtle, but it’s not cartoony or off-putting either. He’s not just crazy the whole time and some of the best scenes of the entire trilogy are in that part of the movie. In fact, I would say everything inside Erebor is splendid. Voronwë, you will especially like the scenes between Thorin and Bilbo. Freeman and Armitage are just so good in those scenes. One professional critic wrote that these films are best when they are about friendship, and “The Battle of the Five Armies” is a film about friendship, the friendship between Bilbo and Thorin. I do not want to reveal too much about those scenes…

Alfrid is indeed a comic-relief character but I would say all of those scenes with him before the battle work. There is one scene right after Smaug’s demise where the Lake-town people gang up on him and it has a nice, for the lack of a better word, “medieval” quality to it. I was not very impressed by the character in “DOS” but Ryan Gage does some splendid acting here. There is also a scene in the beginning between Kili and Tauriel (before the dwarves reunite) which also works in the context of the films.
The lead-up to the battle is exciting and Peter Jackson once more shows his talent to build up the tension for the great fight. As you might already know, the ravens make in fact several appearances and another great scene follows when Bilbo enters the tent of King Thranduil.

Dain is not CGI, my only explanation for the confusion about that might be that they airbrushed his face a little bit (similar to Ian Holm) but I did not recognize anything odd here. Some have said he is overtly goofy but those people are dead wrong. He’s just Billy Connolly and when that Scottish guy opens his mouth it just sounds humorous. But by no means in a bad way! He’s more like an old battle-hardened warrior who likes to crack a joke or two (and I know from experience that soldiers can be very funny). And there’s a funny line by Gandalf about him. So two thumbs up for the Ironfoot!

PtB, you will be pleased that the arrival of the dwarven army is very epic (I know, a dumb, inflated word but I am using it here anyway). The fight in formation and that is always nice to see.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Really enjoying your thoughts. Keep them coming.

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[Beutlin]

The Clouds Burst

Hidden text.

And now we come to the battle which sadly disappoints on so many levels. There are a few nice shots hidden in there but overall it is by far the least satisfying battle of the Middle-earth films. Others might disagree here but the Battle of Helm’s Deep and the Battle of the Pelennor Fields were monumental achievements, ranking among the greatest battle scenes in film history. Surely there were some bad moments there too (Legolas-Mumak) but all of that can be ignored in the face of a countless awe-inspiring scenes, whether it was the initial onslaught of the Uruk-Hai in Helm’s Deep, the arrival of Grond, or the best cavalry charge in cinema, the ride of the Rohirrim. One might counter that argument and point out that BOFA is just a smaller battle with fewer stakes and fewer combatants. All of that is true and I was pleasantly surprised that the “armies” of this film were not too large (the dwarven army for example surely does not exceed a thousand men, and even the orcs do nut number in the ten-thousands). But there is no flow of battle, there are hardly any really good shots, and the film constantly switches perspective (far more often than it did in LOTR). I cannot agree with several design choices either: The large half-orcs (or whatever they are) look truly dreadful and reminiscent of some of the more ludicrous creatures from “300”. The Bard-riding-a-cart scene is pretty dumb and Alfrid’s appearances now stretched my patience. There is one scene with him in the battle involving a large amount of coins that just feels dead wrong at that stage of the film. Characters also have a tendency to find each other all the time on the battlefield which sometimes seems strange. The wyrms actually look interesting (they only appear for a few seconds). They are even some funny scenes that work, in my opinion; one of them involving a “strong-headed” troll, and another Dain dispatching his enemies in a similar fashion.

So the large battle itself is predominantly a let-down, but where the movie truly fails is with the personal “duels”. I now wish I would have known more of these scenes in advance. Sadly, Fili and Kili do not die protecting Thorin. This is probably what bothered me the most, and looking back now I think it was a mistake on my behalf. Let’s face it: Fili was never more than a secondary/tertiary character in these films. I think it is revealing that the only memorable scene in the entire trilogy of him was the scene where the elves confiscate all his knives. So when he died, I did not feel anything, and that is what saddens me. I was filled with terrible grief when Gandalf past into the shadows and when Boromir said good-bye to his king, but here I felt nothing. Kili dies defending Tauriel. From the love-arc-perspective it admittedly was a good scene but all I could do in that moment was raging about the complete disconnection between Fili’s and Kili’s death and Thorin. Arguably, in the books that is their defining trait: to die for their mother’s brother. And I cannot understand why the makers of the movie failed to follow Tolkien here. I am a very calm person in the cinema, and I would never shout out in anger but during that scene my brother looked at me and he later told me that I was visibly upset. The final duel between Thorin and Azog is mediocre at best and awfully predictable from start to finish. The worst scene in all of that involves Legolas, Bolg, and a crumbling bridge. I am not a hater when it comes to Legolas but there are a couple of truly atrocious scenes in there with him that beautifully align with the Legolas-Mumak-scene of the Pelennor Fields.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

And this is why it is better to get spoiled beforehand, at least for me.

[Dave_LF]

So the

Hidden text.

Bard-cart

is in after all?!

[Beutlin]

The Last Stage

Hidden text.

So after trashing the battle in my last point I want to write about the ending. And the ending starts with Thorin and Bilbo.

Thorin’s death is truly sad and beautiful. I felt my affection for Peter Jackson rekindle, when I heard Thorin say the famous words to Bilbo. Bilbo’s reaction to Thorin’s death is very raw; it’s earnest, real and hits you somewhere deep down in your soul. I would argue those brief seconds after Thorin dies are the most powerful scenes in the film. It is better than I had imagined it; and I am not saying better than I imagined the scene would be in the film, but better than I imagined it whenever I read the books.

Some say, the ending is both too brief and too long. There has been some confusion about this and I think it can easily be explained: The farewell scenes in Erebor are rather short, but the trip home and the arrival in Bag-End could be interpreted as too long by some movie-goers. For me, both “scenes” worked perfectly, the last-goodbye to the dwarves, saying farewell to Gandalf and arriving at Bag-End. Some might say that the ending aligns too closely with FOTR but in my opinion it has a very nice quality.

Ultimately, those last scenes between Bilbo and Thorin, the dwarves, and Gandalf, help to revive the film, and giving Middle-earth a moving and excellent “last good-bye”.

[Beutlin]

So the

Hidden text.

Bard-cart

is in after all?!

Yes.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Thanks for sharing such extensive thoughts, Beutlin! I think you are right that I might like it better, at least on first viewing, than you did, simply because the things that bothered you I am more prepared for. I am, however, excited about the things that you did like.

[Beutlin]

There and Back Again

Hidden text.

Interestingly, I think one of the major let-downs of these films were the action scenes. There are some who say that PJ can only direct action scenes. That is, of course, nonsense. For the Hobbit films it is in fact quite the opposite. There are so many scenes from the book which are handled with exceptional detail and love, and that also rings true for this last chapter (Thorin-Bilbo, etc.). Most action-scenes in the Hobbit on the other hand pale in comparison with LOTR (which granted also has to do with the source material).

A couple of days ago my brother booked the tickets for our second viewing on the 16th. To be honest, when I left the cinema yesterday, we both felt for the first time a sense of disillusion. We did not look forward to a second viewing at all.
But I think that had a lot to do with the marathon run. I knew the bad things which would come with AUJ and DOS, so maybe that’s why the bad aspects of BOFA hit me so hard. It could also be that this truly was the last Middle-earth film of my life (or at least my youth). And with that a part of childhood ultimately died yesterday (and would have even if the film had been a masterpiece.)

Voronwë, I think now you understand why I said that you would like the film. You wrote somewhere that the most important thing for you with this film is that the Bilbo-Thorin-relationship is portrayed in a positive light, and I think the film not only delivers here but exceeds expectations. And you know now what else to expect.

I might have been overtly negative in my last posts. As of now, I am already looking forward again to my second viewing. This is not a perfect film by any means, and it serves as a final piece of evidence that “The Hobbit” trilogy cannot compare itself with that hauntingly beautiful miracle which Peter Jackson crafted more than ten years ago. And for that I will be ever grateful to him. That said, the last Hobbit film is arguably the strongest of the three in the first ninety minutes, with immensely powerful character performances, a classic build-up to the big battle, and a wonderfully acted ending.

I am happy to answer any further questions!

[Telemachos]

It's funny how everyone approaches things differently. I've learned to stay away from ANY details at all... and my enjoyment of the films is much greater than if I knew what to expect and what changes were going to happen. If I had known about many of the details you guys were already quite familiar with, I think I would've liked it less.