Best of the Three, But Average At Best

Rating: 6/10 (17 December 2014)

The Battle of the Five Armies marks the end of Peter Jackson's second trilogy in Middle Earth and it could not have come soon enough. This trilogy was average at best average and nothing compared to the original trilogy, Jackson seems to have lost his magic. But getting that out of the way I think Five Armies is the best from this new trilogy, it features some solid action scenes and more emotion than the previous two. Though the action went on for too long, it was still a very welcomed given the previous two films. There is something entertaining about watching a group of diverse people (elves, men, dwarfs etc) all battling it out. And of course Thorins madness and obsession with his mountain and gold was great to watch.
But the movie does have quite a few faults, mainly to overuse of CGI. Too much of the scenery was fake, as well as every single character on the enemy side. There was a reason Sir Ian Mckellen broke down on set, it was because he realized he was merely talking to a green screen. Jackson completely dropped the ball here, the costume and makeup design from the first trilogy was something special and noticeable. Here, the movie comes off as too fake for its own good, even if it is top of the line CGI. As for the story aspect, the movie managed to conclude the journey on a decent note, nothing more, nothing less. Nothing to brag about, but it brought an end to character relationships and multiple story lines, some more than others (Tauriel anyone?). As for the overall experience, as I said, this was my favorite from The Hobbit Trilogy. That being said, I will most likely never watch any of these films from beginning to end, the same cannot be said about The Lord of the Rings trilogy!
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