Benedict Cumberbatch – Hobbit 3: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014, New Line)
These days, Cumberbatch is less of an actual person and more of an avatar for a certain sort of imagined posh “Britishness.” His choices, even when they have not been in great movies, have generally avoided true disasters. One can hardly blame him for this one.
While he’s pretty entertaining as Smaug, and uneventful as Sauron, there’s no getting around the fact that the third film was mostly just the climax of a story stretched to its limit. A non-stop battle scene, despite some cool moments and some good work by Martin Freeman, ultimately has the feel of watching someone else play a video game.
