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

4. The Build-Up Is Too Long

As thrilling and exciting as the final battle is, this Hobbit film, despite being the shortest of the lot, still feels front-loaded with far too much bloat. After the brilliant 10-15 minute opening attack on Laketown, things calm down for about an hour, where a number of lengthy diplomatic dialogues take place that simply don't move things along quickly enough. The movie could easily have clocked in at a square 120-130 minutes without losing anything of importance: Jackson rakes the same points home several times, and by the time the final battle begins, audiences may be struggling to maintain their interest through the relentless chattering. Is the payoff worth all that build-up? Basically, yes, but had Jackson cut it down in a few key areas (ditch the comic relief for one), then the movie would feel all that much tighter as a result, and it might not feel quite so much like a film of two halves, one slow and meandering and the other visceral and intense.