Battle of the Five Armies

[Aulayna]

Saw it again yesterday because, why not.

100% decided that this film was just rubbish.

There was pretty much 0 character development in it, 0 story, and was just 2 hours of various fantasy races beating each other up over a mountain that the supposed strategic importance of was never really clarified. Don't get me wrong, I still laughed at Ogre headbutting wall, at Dwarves on Rams etc but by the end of it I was like... well that was pretty much all style and no substance.

This film completely lacked the novelty, charm and quirky humor of the first two. The camaraderie between all the characters was sparse at best and it's attempts at humor were pretty much on a Beadle's About level of slapstick that at times I often asked my self "was that really necessary?"

All in all, a disappointing end for me.

If you're looking for 2 hours of various CGI'ed fantasy creatures beating the crap out of each other, then it nails that. But for a climax to the charming adventure we've had in the first two films, it fell miles short of the mark.

I must admit I was expecting a further hour of exposition at the end with evil wizard guy frolicking around with Sauradouchebag to tie into the first LOTR film more... so glad that didn't happen as I think I may have pulled my eyeballs out with the straw from my drink.

edit: Also I have never read any of the books, I'm also fairly liberal and easy going when it comes to films. I didn't really have any expectations going into this and it still left me feeling disappointed.