The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)

After a singularly slow start to the series and despite the fact that I still can’t quite engage with Martin Freeman’s title character, I reckon that this is the best of the trilogy with some superb visual effects underpinned by a solid and characterful story right from the start. With the marauding “Smaug” breathing fire all over the town, it falls to “Bard” (Luke Evans) to try to save the day. Meantime, “Bilbo” (Freeman) is having to contend with the increasingly megalomaniacal dwarf king “Thorin” (Richard Armitage) who is suffering from a golden…

83/100 Events have now culminated into a war between dwarves, humans, elves and two armies of orcs. This is such an exciting film that fails miserably in the theatrical version. I believe that much of its negative reaction is simply because of the continuity errors and rushed nature of the theatrical version ...like they're in a hurry to get it over with. Entire action sequences weren't included to satisfy a PG rating and for length. I personally hate the theatrical version but the extended version rocks, even when its silly with its unrealistic action…

Exactly what it says on the tin - to a fault. Don't get me wrong, I like it. However, towards the end 'The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies' definitely begins to drag quite heavily - the impact of what eventually happens did not, to be honest, hit as strongly as it could've/should've. The pure action is good, but there's not much to remember about everything else. None of the characters, with the exception of Richard Armitage (Thorin) and Luke Evans (Bard) I guess, stand out amidst the wall-to-wall battle. Martin Freeman (Bilb), Ian McKellen…