The Weekly Movie Watch Volume 41

This week I watched The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, Election, Godzilla.

I watch movies every week and then write down my thoughts. Read my previous reviews!
My rating is simple, Watch It, It Depends, Skip it.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies - There's a lot of fighting.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)
Watch The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Written by: Fran Walsh & Philippa Boyens & Peter Jackson & Guillermo del Toro (screenplay), J.R.R. Tolkien (novel)
Directed by: Peter Jackson
Starring: Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, 
Rated: PG-13

Plot: 
Dwarves, elves, and humans prepare for war at Lonely Mountain as Orcs amass an army to destroy all of them.

Review:
This is the close to another sprawling Tolkien epic. Before you watch, read a synopsis of the first two movies so you have a basic understanding of what's going on in the beginning. I did not and had a lot of questions. Once you get into the story it's engrossing and enthralling. It's a great end to the trilogy, and I liked it much more than the second Hobbit movie. The scope and scale feels huge, though it felt less about Bilbo and more about Thorin Oakenshield. The tone takes a few odd humorous turns in certain scenes and there is an unnecessary reoccurring comedic character.  While this character hammers home that greed is bad, the movie has already conveyed that idea. Legolas is more agile than Spider man, and I couldn't help but laugh at how ridiculous his scenes became. The orcs were pushovers. I would think a race bred for battle with superior armor and weapons would fare better, but simply hitting them in the head with the hilt of a sword is enough to incapacitate them. The battles were mostly satisfying, though there was never a sense of real danger that the dwarves and elves would lose the battle.
It depends.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies - Azog the Orc

Election - Getting to the top is one thing, staying is another.

Election aka Hak se wui (2005)
Watch Election
Written by: Nai-Hoi Yau, Tin-Shing Yip
Directed by: Johnnie To
Starring: Louis Koo, Suet Lam, Tony Ka Fai Leung
Rated: --

Plot: 
Rival gang leaders vie for the position Triad chairman.

Review:
A note, this is a Hong Kong film that is subtitled. It's directed by acclaimed director Johnnie To.  Ever changing alliances between gang leaders add to the intrigue. At it's heart, it's a mobster movie. Will the brash Big D or the contemplative, quiet Lok gain the upper hand? The ending is excellent. The sequel Triad Election is supposed to be even better. I will let you know.
It depends.

Godzilla - That thriller Mr. Zilla, the savior of the cities.

Godzilla (2014)  
Watch Godzilla
Written by: Max Borenstein (screenplay), Dave Callaham (story)
Directed by: Gareth Edwards
Starring:  Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Bryan Cranston 
Rated: PG-13

Plot: 
Godzilla fights giant spiders in this unnecessary addition to the Godzilla franchise.

Review:
Wow. The writing in this is surprisingly bad. Bryan Cranston feels wasted. I get Gareth Edwards who wrote and directed the very good Monsters didn't write this, but I have to wonder why he agreed to direct it. It's such a disappointing movie. The issue is plain when you compare this to Monsters. Monsters was less about giant creatures and more about a human relationship. Godzilla is a vehicles ostensibly created just to showcase a CGI Godzilla. It's illogical that the main character would ever wind up in such a predicament. The military has a chain of command, yet somehow this is the soldier we can send to fight a monster.
Skip it.