The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies - 5 Reasons It's Awesome (And 6 Why It Sucked)

5 Reasons It's Awesome...

5. Smaug Destroys Laketown

The Battle Of The Five Armies opens in spectacular fashion, wasting absolutely no time in depicting Smaug's (Benedict Cumberbatch) destruction of Laketown, burning it to a crisp in what is easily the movie's most technically sound display. It's a superb way to start the movie, as it provides plenty of hope that the flick will be 144 minutes of pure pay-off, and though this isn't the case, it at least doesn't waste more time building up Smaug's assault. The scene arguably doesn't last long enough, and Smaug is perhaps killed a little too easily by Bard (Luke Evans), but it's still a supremely bada** moment, with some exemplary visual effects giving this movie the strongest intro sequence of the three Hobbit films.