A bombastic bore

Rating: 3/10 (5 January 2015)

If I had to describe the book The Hobbit in one word, it would be "charming." Bilbo Baggins embarks on an epic adventure, but we are charmed all the way—because we feel as though we take the journey with Bilbo. Despite the grand scale of the world of Middle Earth, the story is immensely personal.
The Battle of the Five Armies, on the other hand, is anything but charming. The narrative revolves around armies combatting other armies—all mechanistically conveyed through large-scale digital action scenes. This is not a personal, relatable journey. It is a broad, bombastic, disjointed spectacle—one that fails to engage precisely because of its scope.
By contrast, another series of films adapted from books—the Harry Potter films—have been enormously successful in building a large world and telling a fantastic story while maintaining its focus on its title character, which Harry Potter producer David Heyman stated in interviews was his intention from the beginning. With The Battle of the Five Armies, it is clear just how underwhelming the results can be when the story is unfocused.
Perhaps future directors and producers of ambitious franchise films will take heed of the criticism of this movie and focus more on story and character than on special effects. One can only hope.