The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies (2014)

I think I can safely say this was the finale of the first book that the series deserved. As a person not all that concerned with “movies following the books” all I really wanted was something close to the spirit of the book and that is what we got. If there was one thing I would have skipped it was the high frame rate that Peter Jackson wanted this shot in. At least for the first 20 minutes or so the scenes shot in the village almost made you feel like you were in the set…like on a studio set, not in the village. It was kind of strange. After that the movie balanced out and we are put on a cliffhanging ride into and out of madness, that only Wingnut Films can provide.

In this one the stronger performances were put on by Martin Freeman, Evangeline Lily, Lee Pace and Richard Armitage as Thorin, but don’t be confused, there were a ridiculous amount of excellent efforts made in this. I won’t spend too much time on the plot, but I did spend a lot of time in the theater trying to figure out who exactly made up the “five armies” represented. I don’t know if for me this was as mind blowing as THE BATTLE OF HELMS DEEP, but it was way up there.

Cinematically and effects wise, it doesn’t really get any better than this series as a whole, but even that in some cases here was better than I have ever seen.  Giving this any less than a 7 out of 7 seems like an injustice.

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF WINGNUT FILMS AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.