A satisfying conclusion to a franchise

Rating: 8/10 (4 January 2015)

And so the Hobbit trilogy ends. After 2 quite plain and frankly boring films the final movie offers more action and less Tolkien (which in this case isn't a bad thing). Battle of 5 armies reminds more of the original LOTR films in both: production quality and advancement of story, of course the film is overly stretched, but that should be expected by anyone who's ever seen a Jackson movie. The film builds upon the story of the first 2 Hobbit movies, but is more independent than Descolation of Smaug. The dragon is a second- order character, which suffers a surprisingly early demise and the story focuses around the storyline of elves and orcs. This does make the story quite anticlimactic, since the initially introduced main antagonist has a net screen time of roughly 40 minutes (over the 9 hour long journey), but BO5A makes up by some of the most beautiful fight scenes I have ever seen and that is enough to make the movie enjoyable. Battle of 5 armies presses strongly on the nostalgic feeling many have toward LOTR with the introduction of a fight scene between Saruman, Galadriel, Gandalf and Sauron, as well as by honoring the "well-tested" movie progression of: actual storyline(1hr)-> an epic senseless battle(2hr). The rating I give this film is largely inflated by my fanboyism towards Lord of the rings, since the Hobbit series on their own aren't anything game changing. But this movies is a must-see for anyone who liked the initial series by Peter Jackson and will offer a very nice nostalgia trip.