Pretty good but certainly not good enough

Rating: 7/10 (14 December 2014)

Compared to any standard action movie, The Battle of the Five Armies is pretty good. The action sequences are fast paced, the CGI is above medium and the music is somewhat epic.
But this is no standard action movie! This is a high budget movie based on the absolutely wonderful universe of J.R.R. Tolkien. There are so many things you can do and so many stories to tell. The cast is great, the production crew is experienced. What could possibly go wrong? Well, quite a lot actually:
Just to mention a few: - What is up with Legolas being a superhero? If he was over the top in LOTR he is Superman in BotFA - Why does the CGI armies look like CGI armies and not just armies? Surely they could have looked better. The CGI looked way better in 2001 (The Fellowship of the Ring) - Is that love story with the random elf lady, Legolas and Kili really necessary? It comes off as an annoying cliché - And what is up with that elf lady? First of all she falls in love with a dwarf (which is unheard of: Gimli ADMIRED Galadriel and that was shocking! He was even called Elf-friend and Lockbearer because this was so unique). Second of all she threatens her own king with a bow when he commands his army to fall back. I could go on, but her behaviour is simply anti Tolkien. - Where is the army of wargs? Peter Jackson removed them!! (Instead he gave us the worms from Dune because he misread Tolkien) - What is up with the bats and the eagles just appearing for 2 seconds and doing nothing? - What is up with Beorn being dropped from an eagle and killing orcs for 2 seconds, then disappearing? - What is up with Beorn NOT turning the battle, picking up the wounded Thorin and killing the orc leader (like in the book)? Why change it? - What is up with the rams suddenly appearing? - Why do the dwarfs charge into battle without their plate armour? And why do they even make a difference when there are already hundreds of dwarven warriors who are actually wearing heavy armour? - Where does Dain go after the battle. He is the new king for crying out loud!! - And what the heck is up with the cowardly Alfrid acting like a clown every two minutes?
I can accept some changes when a book is adapted into a film. But the changes in BotFA are simply unnecessary. Why ruin a perfectly good story with ridiculous buffonery and over the top matrix-like maneuvers? Why not show Thorin as the old noble dwarf he was in the book? Why not show Dain as the king he was in the book? Why not include the wargs like in the book? Why not show Beorn fighting like he did in the book? All those things would not make the film worse: The film would be better! But still Peter Jackson and his script writers chose to ignore them and instead include clowns, interracial love triangles and matrix-like action. It's a shame.