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Message: <blockquote data-quote="horacethegrey" data-source="post: 6468226" data-attributes="member: 40123">So, just watched this yesterday. So what's my verdict? It was.. okay. There are some definite highlights to be found, along with some disappointments. That's unfortunately what you get when you adapt a single novel into three gorramed movies filled to the brim with stuff that could have been cut out. I loved Peter Jackson's LOTR trilogy, so it's a damn shame his take on The Hobbit doesn't live up to it. Anyway, on to what I liked and disliked about this final installment.[sblock]PROSMartin Freeman - As I said before in my reviews of the first two films, Freeman is a perfect Bilbo Baggins. He just brings to life that everyman quality that made the character so endearing in the book. I loved the slightly befuddled look on his face whenever things seem to overwhelm him, yet despite seeming like someone who's way in over his head, he's able to marshal whatever courage he has in him whenever it's needed. I also liked how it's played up that Bilbo seems to be one of the few people in this story to have his head on straight. While everyone else seems to caught up in a lust for gold or revenge, Bilbo looks to be the only sane man who can make decisions rationally. Freeman does a fine job in making us root for him, it's just a damn shame that at times it feels like he's being relegated to just a supporting character in his own film (a complaint I had with An Unexpected Journey, not so much in The Desolation of Smaug).Thorin's descent into madness - I wondered how Peter Jackson would portray Thorin's manifest greed for his grandfather's treasure hoard overruling his common sense, leading to the confrontation with the Men of Laketown and the Mirkwood Elves. And I must say, what Jackson does here is very good. As Thorin further descends into the "dragon sickness" as they call it, he seems to lose whatever noble qualities and just obsesses over his newfound bling. Big kudos to Richard Armitage for some fine acting here.Bard - If the film ever needed a true hero to shine other than Bilbo, then Bard fits the bill. From being the only person in Laketown with the balls to try and take down Smaug (which he does of course, thanks to some Middle Earth Macguyvering <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />), to shouldering the load of being the leader of the survivors, Luke Evans gives a commanding performance throughout. While I have many problems with the additions Jackson introduced to the film, Bard's expanded backstory isn't one of them. It really helped in fleshing out a character who only appears in a few scenes in the book.Dain Ironfoot - Holy S**t. Did I just see the most badass dwarf on film? And played by Billy Connolly no less? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> Despite just a few minutes of screentime, Dain just steals the film from the other dwarves (and not just this film. He's even more badass than Gimli was in LOTR). The huge warharmmer had me wondering if a character from Blizzard's Warcraft had somehow wondered into Middle Earth by mistake. What an awesome character.The White Council vs Sauron and the Nine - I still think the inclusion of the White Council could have been cut, but I'll not deny how completely awesome this scene was. The spectral Nazgul, Saruman going all kung fu wizard, and Galadriel hulking out and banishing Sauron to the East. The Great Powers of Middle Earth onscreen and duking it out in all their glory. What's not to like?Smaug the Terrible - Okay, so he only appears for the first few minutes of the film and promptly kicks the bucket. But those few minutes of Smaug descending on Laketown and turning it to ash are a sight to see. And that scene with him taunting Bard is chilling. Benedict Cumberbatch does such a great job in making Smaug such a malevolent and evil a**hole.CONSBloated 3rd act - Okay, what the hell? Did the titular Battle of the Five Armies really need to be such an overwrought affair? I would have been fine if all the principal players met on the field and just knocked each other silly. But no, we had to have a scene where Thorin, Dwalin, Fili and Kili go all commando mission to kill Azog. Compound it with Legolas going all super elf once again and trying to hog the spotlight, Tauriel and Kili's starcrossed story, the duel between Thorin and Azog that goes on for way too long, and you're wondering when it's all going to end because it's all too much. I really wish Peter Jackson had cut down some this stuff and kept it focused.Legolas the Super Elf - Again, did we really need all those scenes of Orlando Bloom looking fabulous and kicking ass left and right? The reason said scenes worked in the LOTR trilogy was because they were few and far between. Here though, it seems Peter Jackson is spending too much time trying to show us how awesome Legolas is and that we should all bask in his awesomeness because it's just so awesome. Urgh. I really wish Legolas had just ended with up with a cameo, rather than being a main character here. But to be fair, he's not as bad as...King Thranduil the Dick - Wow. Did they really need to portray Legolas' dad to be such a iredeemable ahole? I know the elves of Middle Earth are not big on dwarves, but the scorn King Thrady showers on the Sons of Durin is full on racism. What the f**k did Thorin and his kin ever do to you Thrandy?! And it's shame that a fine actor like Lee Pace is wasted on such a badly written character.Tauriel and Kili - Oh man, did they really need to shower us with starcrossed lovers subplot? To be clear, I had no problems with Tauriel and Kili's growing attraction in The Desolation of Smaug, but did it need to become a full blown romance in so short a span of time? Tauriel barely knew Kili and yet she's weeping in anguish over his passing? Come on. That's stretching it.The Aragorn Easter Egg- Urgh. Did they have to be so obvious with it? "Go Legolas to the Dunadan and find the one called Strider, his real name you have to figure for yourself." Yeah.... okay. <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/yawn.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":yawn:" title="Yawn    :yawn:" data-shortname=":yawn:" /> [/sblock]So there. Overall, I'm a bit disappointed that Jackson was not able to match his success with the LOTR trilogy. There's just so much fat he could have trimmed to make all of this flow better and stop from being such overbloated mess(Going with their two movie plan originally would have helped I think). Still though, it's not as big a letdown as the Star War prequels. But man, such a wasted opportunity. That said, I enjoyed myself.</blockquote>

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