The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies 7/10
While the action is very good, this feels like the weaker of the three movies. I'll be honest, when I left the movie theater this film was in second place in the trilogy, but after I sat down and whittled away the bias (nostalgia) of it being the last film (for now), I honestly couldn't put it above the other two. There a few reasons why. For me the main reason is because, I was pretty bored with a lot of the movie -- even the action. The first film was fun, the second film was exciting, and the third film was mostly boring. There are quite a few moments with 'mugging' - trying really hard to make moments something they aren't. Some examples of this would be the comedic moments which don't quite land for me and linger a bit too long, and the Tauriel/ Kili relationship which just doesn't feel like anything above a puppy love. Now I mentioned comedic moments not working, there are however unintentionally funny moments that did make me laugh. Tauriel/ Kili share a moment in the first 10 minutes that is hilarious! The dialogue is soap opera worthy and Tauriel even has an overly dramatic look away off camera/ hand grab/ gasp/ dramatic turn back moment. The acting for these films have been very good and this just felt so out of place. I laughed. It was bad.
Being familiar with the book -- I didn't agree with how the second film ended. It makes for an exciting opening to this film, but -- to me if a movie is a good movie, even if it's part of a series of films, all it's moments can stand alone in the film, it makes sense to people who haven't watched the other films, and are earned anew in the film itself. If I didn't see the other two films the opening would have made no sense at all. Not only that, but it is arguably one of the more exciting moments in the entire film and to start your movie with that makes it difficult to follow up for the rest of the movie.
The film is not bad, the acting is very good (Tauriel/Kili Days of our Lives moment not-withstanding), the action is done well (even with old guys/ stunt doubles), and the emotional impact of Thorin's journey/ finale is done well it's just a boring movie and to me the weaker script of the Middle Earth series as a whole.
Jackson's team has done an immense job bringing these six films to us and I hope they get lots of deserved rest. I can't wait until the next trilogy of Middle Earth films, in which we follow Sarumon's decent into being a villain, ending with the film The Hobbit: Revenge of the Servants of Sauron. :)
