The Hobbit: The Battle of The Five Armies

2014 • 144 minutes
4.5
14.6K reviews
59%
Tomatometer
PG-13
Rating
Eligible
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About this movie

Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson returns to Middle-earth with the final of three films based on J.R.R. Tolkien's enduring masterpiece. Set in Middle-earth 60 years before the epic Lord of the Rings trilogy, the adventure follows the journey of Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom from the fearsome dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the wizard Gandalf, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of dwarves on a journey into wild, treacherous lands swarming with beasts of every ilk. After reaching Erebor and encountering the dragon Smaug, Five Armies assemble for an epic battle that could decide the future of all in Middle-earth.
Rating
PG-13

Ratings and reviews

4.5
14.6K reviews
Bradford Shaw
December 29, 2014
What happens when you take the shortest of the Middle Earth books by Tolkien, and attempt to stretch it into three separate movies in order to stay relevant and make tons of money? You apparently have to fabricate filler...After having recently read The Hobbit, I can assure the general populace that there were NO orcs in the original book. No Sauron either. In addition, anyone familiar with the world Tolkien created, knows that an elf would never have a hint of a romantic inclination with a dwarf.
2 people found this review helpful
Kenneth Ring
December 31, 2014
The Battle of the Five Armies is a good action movie. The acting is good, action and battle sequences are great, VFX are very good as well. As far as the story, yes, I'm a Tolkien fan from the heart and I didn't appreciate how much the story was changed from the book. Without giving spoilers(something that a lot of other reviewers don't seem to be concerned about), parts of the story that should have had more attention got less than parts that weren't even in the original story to begin with.
24 people found this review helpful
Jevan Sinnock
March 13, 2015
I can't fault the approach of adding material to tie The Hobbit more closely to Lord of the Rings and the wider world of Middle Earth. It's a good idea in principle. The problem is the execution, with all three Hobbit movies playing out like poorly written fan fiction, which is unfortunate. I'd been hoping for better, and found myself more often wondering how much more ridiculous and overwrought things could get than actually enjoying the movies.