Birthday Special - MR - The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Today I turn 24 and we now come to the last of the Hobbit films and presumably the last we'll see of Middle-Earth for a long time to come. Despite how unnecessary the film is because the story could've been done in just one or 2 films, I actually think this one is the best out of the 3 and that's not because its shorter and its the end of the trilogy. Its just great all the way through, but like with the others, there are problems with it. So let's take a look at the last of the Hobbit films and see if it gives us the satisfactory end we wanted:

Those of you who haven't seen the last two films, there are going to be a handful of spoilers so make sure to watch those films before reading on.

So Thorin and the Company of Dwarves have successfully reclaimed the Lonely Mountain from Smaug who has revealed himself to Lake Town and begins to burn the small town down, causing massive damage and a few casualties along the way. However, despite pleas from the other Dwarves, Thorin gets everyone looking for the Arkenstone and Bilbo believes he is suffering from dragon sickness and therefore must decide to either warn those of his sickness, or just go with it. Meanwhile, Gandalf having been imprisoned by a newly reformed Sauron in Dol Guldor, is rescued by the other members of the White Council and with help from Radagast, makes his way to Dale with an army of Elves led by Galadriel not far behind. With 2 armies of Orcs fast approaching along with armies of Elves, Man and Dwarves approaching as well, a battle to save the Lonely Mountain will begin, dubbed "The Battle of the Five Armies".

So let's first of all answer some questions that you may have. Yes, the film does tie in to Lord of the Rings despite Jackson's claims that it wouldn't with mentions of characters from that trilogy and the theme briefly being played at some stage. Yes, out of all the Middle-Earth films, Gandalf is the only character to have been seen in every single one of them (though in his "the White" form in Two Towers and Return of the King). And yes, all the characters (the still living ones anyway) from this trilogy make at least one appearance in this film. Now reason why I like this the most is that its less messing around and more action is going on. It manages to do the battle well (even though it is 40 minutes long but compared to Transformers, there is a good enough reason for it), there is plenty of drama and suspense and generally, its pretty much fighting and violence for the majority of it with all loose ends tied up and setting the tone for Lord of the Rings which as you guys know, these films are a prequel of. And that's pretty much all I need to say there. Compared to Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit films are visually more impressive because of the technology been upgraded to such an extent at the time of the making of each film, but don't really live up to the standards of Lord of the Rings as its more light hearted, has less deaths in it (but all that is saved up for this film) and when you compare all the enemies seen in both trilogies, Lord of the Rings has a much better variety of them (even though they all work for the same cause), but I will give credit to how Smaug looks and that he is more visually impressive than Gollom which in my opinion, was a tough act to follow and the motion capture of him is great too. So yeah, the films aren't as vastly superior and awesome as Lord of the Rings, but if we were to have one last trip to Middle-Earth, I'm glad that we got that chance with this film and its predecessors. 9/10