The recent trend of adding part IIs and IIIs has likely happened for monetary creative reasons, but if the road to hell is paved with good intentions, maybe the road to heaven is paved with bad intentions? I don’t agree with detractors on the slower pace and extended setup of the first two parts of Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy. An Unexpected Journey and The Desolation of Smaug, while not up to par with The Lord of the Rings, were both decent entries. I didn’t love them, but they didn’t make me harshly question the decision to split the book into three parts. Unfortunately, the disappointing The Battle of Five Armies makes me consider changing my mind.
Jackson either painted himself into a corner by running out of good material for the 3rd movie, or he intentionally made the questionable decision to devote the vast majority of the running time to a very bloated, boring battle. The Smaug cliffhanger is hastily resolved, there’s brief setup for the events of The Lord of the Rings, Thorin has an awkward arc of being obsessed with the Arkenstone before coming back to his senses, the armies are gathered at Erebor, and now comes the climactic battle… that’s almost 2 hours long. The worst part is that it runs shockingly low in excitement and high in exhaustive repetition. Seemingly endless in many parts and strangely abrupt in others, nothing about it works. The trilogy finale aims for the sky in spectacle but comes up short as a hobbit.
Dogomon 