Liked it more than I should

Rating: 8/10 (7 January 2015)

Like most people who grew up in the 2000s I deem LOTR to be a modern day classic fantasy film series like Star Wars was for the kids back in the 70's. This makes me biased when it comes to the Lord of the rings series. Yup I am a HUGE LOTR nerd but even then I am not blind enough to see that the Hobbit trilogy doesn't hold a candle to the original trilogy simply because Peter Jackson decided to make three films out of a single book whereas the each of the book of Lord of the rings got a whole movie treatment. The original Hobbit movie was decent but the lack of quality became most apparent in the second Hobbit film Desolation of Smaug (which is easily the weakest of all 6 films of the series), thus I was a bit skeptical while watching The Battle of the Five Armies (should have been called There and Back Again like in the book in my opinion). Well, I am glad to say that I was wrong I really like this one, it has some good old LOTR charm, hopeless battles in which good guys almost lose, good guys win, bad guys die, some good guys die too, predictable yes but LOTR has always been that and it's still so awesome.
What has made Hobbit films unique are Martin Freeman (Bilbo Baggins) and Richard Armitage (Thorin). Bilbo is probably my favorite Hobbit ever! he is charming, funny, resourceful and most importantly isn't at all whiny (yes Frodo you could learn something from your uncle Bilbo). Thorin started out as an Aragorn prototype of a king without his kingdom but he quickly stands out as an ambitious focused individual who doesn't mind breaking a few necks to get his kingdom back, him under the influence of the dragoncurse is an interesting angle as well. Sir Ian McKellan as Gandalf has always been a fan favorite and he is impeccable as Gandalf in the final movie of the saga. Sir Christopher Lee as Saruman has always been the unsung hero of the series his booming voice is in all its glory even at such a late stage in his life. Hugo Weaving and Cate Blanchett aptly portray their old roles.
As far as criticsim of the movie goes there is quite a few of them, rest of the dwarfs are forgettable, Bard is such a boring character (they had three movies to develop this guy and he still his character can't match Boromir who was introduced half way into the fellowship), some terrible and unnecessary romance between a dwarf and an elf, some really bad cgi action scenes and finally, weak female characters with some terrible acting by Evangeline Lily. However don't let this deter you from watching this film, it hits some great emotional highs and I nerded out when at the end of the film Thandruil told Legolas to search for a certain Dunedain ranger who goes by the name of Strider, the film is filled with such small easter eggs for the fan of the series and the last shot in which we see an old Bilbo Baggins hearing Gandalf's knock on his door which starts the events of the Fellowship of the ring is perhaps the best end I could have hoped for, it was beautiful. I would love to own the entire Hobbit trilogy extended edition because this film was clearly butchered to adhere to studio runtime (especially Saruman angle), it would look good beside my original LOTR extended edition.