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

4. Bard Steals The Show

Though Bard was already introduced as an extremely likeable presence in The Desolation Of Smaug, he becomes easily the most entertaining character in the third and final movie, and it all begins once he breaks free from his imprisonment by the Master of Laketown (Stephen Fry) and kills Smaug with a black arrow given to him by his son. Bard then becomes the reluctant de facto leader of Laketown's survivors, and proves a voice of reason when attempting to forge an alliance with the Elves and Dwarves. In the first half of the movie prior to the titular battle taking place, Bard hogs much of the screen time and frequently wins a greater focus over protagonist Bilbo (Martin Freeman), and as such it's easy to feel that Bard is really the protagonist of the piece in more ways than one. He's more bada**, more charming, surely better looking and simply, Luke Evans is infinitely more watchable than Martin Freeman in this movie. Perhaps this reflects a failure on Jackson's or Freeman's parts, or merely that Evans is so brilliant in the role that he can't help but own pretty much any scene he's in. Needless to say, his fine work here will give the up-and-comer another fine career boost.