It's good enough...

Rating: 6/10 (21 January 2015)

The Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies- As we come to the conclusion of not just the Hobbit franchise but to the Lord of the Rings universe as well, Peter Jackson's final installment has a lot to live up to. If you have seen the trailer or just look at the title, you can tell a lot of war will take place in this film and in turn, an enormous amount of CGI. The CGI was average at best, and even though it was eleven years ago, The Lord of the Rings had much better CGI effects (again, it is a lot to live up to). The acting was solid by every member of the film, which is saying a lot considering this is a very large cast. The story could have been better, but it was still entertaining. All in all, The Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies may not be as critically-acclaimed and groundbreaking as Return of the King, but the film was satisfying enough to conclude the franchise.
My main problem with the film is the lack of story involved. The movie is basically just constant fighting and battling and unlike the last Harry Potter film, there is very little depth taking place in the two-hour long battle sequence. All of this battling then forces the special effects department to CGI the hell out of the film in order for the battling to be entertaining. There is never really any build up in the fight, it is just the same thing one after the other. This makes the final battle sequence of the film to be far less dramatic than the director intended. The abundance of main characters in the film was also not handled well. They either needed to make the movie longer and give the characters more screen time, or cut out other characters. By doing so, the audience would actually be able to feel for the characters much more and get a sense of their development over the course of the film instead of just a couple of them.
The acting definitely carried the film for me. Everyone gave a terrific performance and you could really tell the cast was having fun while they were filming. Martin Freeman was nothing short of spectacular as Bilbo Baggins. Ian McKellen definitely gave it his all as this was his last time at playing the legendary badass wizard Gandalf. The one who really surprised me though was Lee Pace who plays Thranduil, King of the wood Elves and father of Legolas. His performance was nothing short of masterful and without a doubt stole the spotlight in every scene he was in. All of the actors have also by now, come to develop great chemistry with each other and it showed on screen. Overall, the acting was the best part of the movie.
Even though this film was not 'in my standards' great like the Lord of the Rings franchise, it is still wildly entertaining. When it comes down to it, that is all a movie has to be. I still very much enjoyed watching this film and I recommend you see The Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies at some point while it is in theaters.
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