13 Problems That Almost Ruin The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies

By Simon Gallagher /

11. The Idiotic, Unsatisfying Villains

The problem for the end of the Hobbit was always going to be the lack of a really compelling Big Bad: both Smaug and the Necromancer are seen off in the first third (which feels rushed to get to the battle) and the source book€™s lack of a replacement (other than Bolg, who was killed by Beorn in the books rather than a dwarf, elf or hobbit) didn€™t offer any solution. Instead Jackson changed Middle Earth history, saving Azog The Defiler from death in the opening battle of the first movie and giving him elements of Bolg€™s story. Bolg then became a secondary villain, splitting one underwhelming villain in half, with somewhat inevitable results. The problem then was that two villains had to be dealt with, and the writing simply didn€™t match up to Tolkien€™s original. Instead of being skilled, genuine threats, both of them end up being killed because they both stand on some ice and then break it themselves. Seriously, it happens twice.