Review - 'The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies' Is A Mythic Marvel

We, the public, have been visiting Peter Jackson’s cinematic Middle-earth on and off for 14 years. But Mr. Jackson has been immersed in the process of adapting author J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantastical world for the better part of the last 18 years, since he first convinced Hollywood to trust his vision and invest in an unprecedented huge simultaneous three-film production spanning several years.

That bet paid off, with the $281 million budget (covering all three films) launching one of the most successful and critically acclaimed franchises in cinema history, spawning a second equally successful trilogy. To date, the six Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films have amassed a stunning $5 billion in worldwide box office, and several hundred million more dollars in Blu-ray/DVD rentals and sales. And the sixth film hasn’t even really gotten started at the box office yet. But it’s about to, and it’s gonna be a doozy.

The Hobbit Battle 5 Armies 16The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies hits domestic theaters December 17th, although it has already opened in Germany, France, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Finland, and New Zealand, and opens in most other foreign countries this weekend. As the last entry in the cinematic Tolkien universe, this film is going to at least match the performance of the previous entry in the series. That movie — The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug — grossed $950 million around the world. Meaning the smart money should be on The Battle of the Five Armies to do in the neighborhood of $1 billion.

Let’s get a few things out of the way right off the bat. There are going to be a lot of people anxiously hoping for a weak opening domestic weekend, ready to declare just about anything a failure or underperformance because such headlines and grim pronouncements attract attention and generate link clicks. The first two Hobbit films had the two highest opening weekends of the entire six-film series so far, and both grossed more than the first two installments of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Yet despite those big opening weekend numbers, the additional ticket pricing for 3D, and the immense anticipation worldwide for the Hobbit films in the aftermath of the mega-success of the first trilogy, there were a ridiculous number of people walking around insisting that the Hobbit movies might flop, looked likely to underperform, and so on.

What happened is simple: Jackson delivered an incredibly brilliant and wildly successful film trilogy, and so like any artist who has great success he became the target of backlash as a certain predictable segment of folks in the press and just the population at large waited for him to fail and rooted for it to happen. They aren’t a majority, obviously, since the love for the films clearly outweighs the hate of the detractors. But they are a loud bunch, and they do their mightiest to sway the discussion and push the negative narrative. Luckily for Jackson and the studios, few people standing in line to buy theater tickets pay any mind to such voices.


What should we expect for opening weekend here at home? I’d think $65 million is the lowest end of expectations, if the film suffers from diminished enthusiasm and 2014′s generally slightly lower domestic turnout, plus perhaps larger than expected loss of target audience to other films. The high end of expectations is probably somewhere in the range of $85 million, if the film’s “final entry” status helps it enjoy the same intense anticipation that accompanied the release of the very first Hobbit movie after so much Lord of the Rings good will. Which leaves $75 million as the middle number, and $70-75 million as the safest moderate estimate.

Long term isn’t hard to figure out here. Let’s say it opens on the lighter side, to the tune of $65-70 million. And let’s say it has a particularly weak domestic run in the $220 million range. These films always — ALWAYS — make about twice as much overseas as they do at home. The last two films have topped 70% of receipts coming from foreign markets. But let’s say The Battle of the Five Armies merely does the average of 66%. That would mean it’s lowest possible box office would be $660 million. That’s the equivalent of a “flop” for this series, with the lowest opening, lowest multiplier, and diminished domestic-to-foreign ratio.


Continued from page 1


None of which is happening, just to be clear, however much there are going to be folks dying to write that story. A realistic lower-end, moderate performance will be maybe $800-850 million worldwide, with the higher-end being anything from $900 million to in excess of $1 billion. That’s simply how the math adds up at this point for the series, where the average box office performance is $984 million. The lowest gross of any of the Tolkien series was 13 years ago, when the very first movie made $887 million.

And The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies has much going for it, besides its inherent high quality (which I’ll get to momentarily). It’s the most action-oriented and narratively straightforward entry in this trilogy, has the best visual effects of the trilogy, is the fastest-paced film of the trilogy, and at 2 hrs 24 minutes is by far the shortest of the entire six-film saga. But it retains all of the characters, magic, and emotional energy of the previous installments, packed into this tighter climactic chapter. These are things that will draw more viewers, and more repeat viewings, adding to the other advantages it has with audiences.

Here’s something to think about: With $5.6 billion so far in worldwide receipts, Peter Jackson appears to be the third most successful director at the box office, behind only Steven Spielberg (whose $9.3 billion is a mind-blowing cume) and Michael Bay (with $5.7 billion). That’s right, Jackson even tops George Lucas, James Cameron, and Robert Zemeckis in box office dollars, even giving Lucas the total for all of the Star Wars movies. And this is before The Battle of the Five Armies delivers its mountain of gold into Jackson’s tally. And he’s been around a lot less than any of the others, for added bragging rights.

I’ve been a fan of Jackson’s Tolkien films from the start, and I just don’t get why anyone who loves fantasy films or Tolkien wouldn’t love these films. There is so much reverence for the stories and characters, so much detail and care put into crafting each film, and the final products are so damn entertaining and ambitious. Few film series have so firmly and brilliantly created living, breathing worlds filled with different cultures and creatures and history and sense of being, as Jackson accomplished with these movies. And I certainly don’t understand how any fans of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy could fail to appreciate the Hobbit films.


That the Hobbit movies have more humor to them than the Lord of the Rings series is due to the difference in source material; and that despite those differences they still fit together as a unified whole is due to Jackson’s keen storytelling and diligent work helping them connect better than the original stories really did in their individual forms. Too man people seem to also ignore the fact that a straight adaptation of The Hobbit book would simply not work, in light of that story’s many limitations arising from the fact it was written for children and contains plot weaknesses and omissions that adults would find rather intolerable in a mainstream feature film.

Tolkien himself actually did rewrites to The Hobbit while he was writing The Lord of the Rings, and even attempted (but discarded, due to pressure) a significant rewrite to change the tone into a more serious, expansive story that fit better alongside the sequel story. So keep that in mind when you hear anyone complaining that Jackson did the precisely those same things in his film adaptation of The Hobbit — Jackson did pretty much exactly what Tolkien himself wanted to do, but was prevented from doing.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies begins with the battle against the dragon Smaug. And it is the the best depiction of a dragon to ever grace a film, without a doubt. I saw the film at its LA premiere at the Dolby Theater (read my full report on the premiere and after-party here), where the Dolby Atmos system made it feel as if Smaug were flying around inside the theater. I wrote in detail about it here, but let me just repeat that the brightness of the four-projector presentation made the 48 frames-per-second 3D images absolutely pop off the screen with wondrous clarity and effect.

And about that high frame rate — I know many people insist it looks weird, or looks cheap, but that’s not true. It’s simply that they have a personal association between the clearer, smoother imagery and certain types of other mediums they dislike (namely, television soap operas and certain other productions that have long used higher frame rates). There is nothing at all actually inherently lower quality or less artistic about higher frame rates, it just suffers the stigma of having happened to be used for other things that are looked down on.

Many film purists once insisted color film made movies look cheap and tacky, and that it was a fad that would quickly fade. The same was said when sound came to the movies, since actors who could speak and be heard would supposedly not have to really have as much acting talent to convey emotion and ideas. Yet today, we laugh at the absurdity of the claim that color in films somehow inherently looks cheap, or that sound in films inherently reduces the quality of acting.



The higher frame rate quite simply creates a much clearer picture, and after a few minutes you get used to it and stop even noticing it. The only reason it looks strange at first is because we aren’t used to it, we’re simply used to films with less clarity and less smooth movements. Changes in film technology consistently bring out doubts and naysaying and predictions that this or that latest thing won’t last, but like any art form new techniques that are scoffed at or dismissed as undeserving of serious consideration quite frequently become the new norm after a while, or at least gain acceptance as having a place alongside standing traditions and preferences.

For The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, the high frame rate is important to the beauty of the imagery and grand quality of the visual effects. The clarity and precision of the movements makes it all fit seamlessly with the live action, and it makes the 3D some of the finest you will see to date on the big screen. I can think of only two or three other films that have 3D this lovely and sharp.


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Big, bold, and outrageously fun from start to finish, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies caps the trilogy perfectly and is a terrific final act for Peter Jackson’s beloved series. It transports us to a fully realized world we are very fond of, for one last grand adventure before we must sadly bid it goodbye once and for all. Bravo, Mr. Jackson.

All box office figures and tallies via Box Office Mojo and TheNumbers. Predictions are my own.

Bravo, Bilbo! What a way to go: Peter Jackson's six-part JRR Tolkien epic finally ends - with a spectacular, blood-soaked triumph
By MATTHEW BOND FOR EVENT
PUBLISHED: 22:01 GMT, 13 December 2014 | UPDATED: 22:01 GMT, 13 December 2014


The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies
Cert: 12A 2hrs 24mins ★★★★★
In years to come, you really can imagine a houseful of bored young teenagers spending a rainy weekend watching all six films, starting with what is chronologically the first

I vividly remember reading The Hobbit as a child, anxiously surveying the dwindling number of pages that remained, desperately hoping that it was never going to end.
As an adult, however, watching Peter Jackson’s three-part adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s classic, there have been moments when I wondered if it was ever going to end.
On and on and on again goes the tale of Bilbo Baggins, dwarves and Middle-earth.
But eventually, after a total running time just short of eight hours, it does come to a close, with The Battle Of The Five Armies, bringing things to a final halt in spectacular, mildly moving and blood-soaked fashion.
One dragon, a few key characters and, by my guess, about 100,000 orcs die in the course of the siege of the Lonely Mountain.
Or, to be more accurate and to cut to the film’s central theme – the corrupting power of greed – the siege of the Lonely Mountain that is chock full of gold.
When we last saw it in the second film, this horde was in the scaly clutches of Smaug the Dragon.
This time around… well, let’s just say ownership moves swiftly on once Smaug’s fiery attack on Laketown gets part three off to a truly spectacular start.
Dragons, of course, are a staple of fantasy adventures but I can’t recall one ever being brought so vividly to life.
Breath somewhere between napalm and a nuclear bomb combines with superb sound design to make Smaug – voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch – one of the highlights of the film.
This being a Peter Jackson Tolkien film, Cate Blanchett has to turn up for her obligatory 30 seconds as Galadriel, the elven queen

Just a shame he has to crash out so early.
What else happens? Well, the human residents of Laketown, led by Bard the Bowman (a rather good Luke Evans) head towards Lonely Mountain to seek shelter after being burnt out by the dragon.
Inside, King Thorin (Richard Armitage) has finally got his dwarfish hands on all that gold and is slowly succumbing to the Dragon Fever of greed and paranoia.
Oh, and this being a Peter Jackson Tolkien film, Cate Blanchett has to turn up for her obligatory 30 seconds as Galadriel, the elven queen.
This time we actually get a little more of her as she arrives at the dreaded Sauron’s stronghold of Dol Guldur in her nightie to rescue Gandalf.
I have to say I don’t remember anything quite like that happening in the book, but Jackson and his co-writers have been honest about plundering Tolkien’s other writings on Middle-earth for extra material.
It’s become clearer with every instalment that their intention was never to make a straightforward film adaptation of The Hobbit, which is first and foremost a book for children.
What they set out to make was three more of the somewhat more adult, not to mention hugely lucrative, Lord Of The Rings films.
And in this they have undoubtedly succeeded.
In years to come, you really can imagine a houseful of bored young teenagers spending a rainy weekend watching all six films, starting with what is chronologically the first.
But that’s not The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring from 2001, that’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, released in 2012.

Thirteen years after Jackson and Weta Digital dazzled everyone with the first Lord Of The Rings film, they’re still producing the most wonderful fantasy action
If the second Hobbit film was Martin Freeman’s finest hour as Bilbo, this final film belongs to Richard Armitage, one of the best brooders in the business.
As Thorin, he succumbs in true Shakespearian style to the corrupting influence of greed and power.
And at true Shakespearian length, too, with scene after scene filled with agonised monologues of avarice and distrust.
But that’s what happens when you make more than 140 minutes of film out of what my old Unwin paperback suggests is just 54 pages of book.
IT'S A FACT
Another name for Hobbits is ‘Halflings’, which comes from the medieval Scottish word for a gawky teenager – hawflin
The comedy padding I could have done without – we see too much of Ryan Gage’s cowardly Alfrid, and the non-Tolkienian romance between Tauriel the elf (Evangeline Lilly) and Kili the dwarf (Aidan Turner) is in trouble every time they stand next to each other.
Thank heavens, then, for the spectacular and, parents be warned, violent battles, which start early and go on very nearly for ever.
Thirteen years after Jackson and Weta Digital dazzled everyone with the first Lord Of The Rings film, they’re still producing the most wonderful fantasy action.
But visual effects move ever on – as do our expectations – and every now and then there’s an undeniable, if brief disappointment as a giant mountain goat fails to totally convince or serried ranks of identically clad elves/dwarves/orcs strike us as somewhat old hat.
There is also a good giant-antlered elk ridden by Lee Pace, who is slightly dull as elf prince Thranduil, but is offset by Billy Connolly, who is a potty-mouthed hoot as the dwarf king Dain.
All in all, this is a triumphant final instalment made all the more touching by the fact that it brings events not to a final close but leaves them – all expectant – slap in the middle.
Gollum, who likes a good riddle, would definitely approve.

Review: 'The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies' is best of the bunch
By Randy Myers San Jose Mercury News Correspondent
POSTED: 12/14/2014 03:10:09 PM PST1 COMMENT| UPDATED: ABOUT 16 HOURS AGO

We can squabble about whether there was a valid reason to stretch J.R.R. Tolkien's trim "The Hobbit" out into three long-winded movies, and grouse about how greed motivated Hollywood to cleave the final "The Hunger Games" book into two sections, a dubious trend cribbed from the "Twilight" and "Harry Potter" franchises.

But let's not. Instead, let's just agree to table the debate about whether padding a series is pointless, and simply take Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies" at face value. From that perspective, Jackson's final bit of Tolkien tinkering ends on a high enough note, giving fans of the author and director what they want: Middle-earth showdowns, sweeping spectacles and sorrowful deaths.

Martin Freeman as Bilbo in ’The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.’ (Mark Pokorny/Warner Bros./MGM)
Martin Freeman as Bilbo in 'The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.' (Mark Pokorny/Warner Bros./MGM) ( Mark Pokorny/Warner Bros./MGM )
Unlike both predecessors, "Five Armies" doesn't sag in the storytelling. It starts with a thrilling opening, loads up the screen with a destructive dragon, evil Orcs, immortal elves, brave dwarves and concludes with bravo ending. The parts in between aren't bad either.

As a bonus, "Armies" is armed with one of the best performances in the entire Jackson Middle-earth series, and that's saying a lot when the cast includes Cate Blanchett and Ian McKellen. As Dwarf Lord Thorin Oakenshield, Richard Armitage perfectly embodies one of Tolkien's steady themes about man's eternal war with his own inner demons. Even when the showy director can't restrain himself and allows that epic battle sequence to run on too long, Armitage's performance brings the film back to its classic literary firmament. He taps into his character's "dragon-sickness" -- coveting riches at the expense of the soul -- and does it with a mad glint in his eye one instance, a conflicted expression the next. His performance is a highlight, as is the presence of Martin Freeman whose hobbit Bilbo Baggins feels the tug of his own dark side. And, yes, "Ring" veterans Blanchett, McKellen and Christopher Lee contribute as well.

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"The Battle of the Five Armies" picks up right after the cliffhanger that ended "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug," starting with the dragon Smaug pulverizing the waterlogged Lake-town. To recap, Bilbo and the dwarves of Erebor have awakened the dragon Smaug and taken back their homeland, Lonely Mountain, which was also the dragon's lair, where he protected his treasures, including the coveted Arkenstone.

(L-R) Evangeline Lilly as Tauriel and Orlando Bloom as Legolas in ’The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.’ (Mark Pokorny/Warner Bros./MGM)
(L-R) Evangeline Lilly as Tauriel and Orlando Bloom as Legolas in 'The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.' (Mark Pokorny/Warner Bros./MGM) ( Mark Pokorny/Warner Bros./MGM )
Unwittingly, Thorin and company have played a part in Smaug's unleashing his fury on the residents of Lake-town. But Bard the Bowman (a heroic hunk played by Luke Evans) has a bone to pick with Smaug, and after Lake-town gets fried, "The Battle of the Five Armies" brings us up to date with the cliffhanger dilemmas of key players. That character gallery is huge and a part of why the film is nearly two and half hours long.

The real villain remains the shapeless evil entity Saurom (who, along with Smaug is voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch). He eggs on the "battle" looming in the title. Seeking to dominate Middle-earth and descend it into darkness, Saurom summons the ugly, fearsome Orcs and gives them marching orders to attack. Meanwhile, Gandalf (Ian McKellen) escapes from a cage and an elf population that includes Elvenking Thranduil (Lee Pace), Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and Silvan Elf Warrior Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) must decide what to do. Jackson earned jeers for adding Lilly's character to Tolkien's world in "Smaug," but in this mostly male-dominated landscape she's a welcome addition.

And then there's Jackson's illustrious imagining of Tolkien's world, and one again he gets it right. All of it plays well together: the otherworldly production design from Dan Hennah, the large-scale special effects and the gorgeous New Zealand scenery. The 3-D, however, adds nothing.

Some puritans might argue the entire three-film series adds nothing. And while it's true that none of the "Hobbit" films were as good as any in the "Rings" trilogy, "The Five Armies" at least comes closest to capturing Tolkein's essence. And in this instance that is good enough.

'the hobbit: The battle of the five armies'
* * *
Rating: PG-13 (for extended sequences of intense fantasy action violence, and frightening images) Cast: Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Orlando Bloom, Lee Pace, Ian McKellen, Cate Blanchett, Luke Evans, Evangeline Lilly
Director: Peter Jackson
Running time: 2 hours, 24 minutes

Ist der Film tatsächlich so schlecht? Oder hat da jemand so gar keine Fantasie mehr?

The Hobbit brings closure to Middle Earth
THE AUSTRALIAN DECEMBER 27, 2014 12:00AM
Stephen Romei

Literary Editor
Sydney

PETER Jackson’s The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armiesis the New Zealand filmmaker’s sixth and final excursion into JRR Tolkien’s Middle-earth, the culmination of a near 20-year journey. No surprise, then, that he has given it everything he’s got — and then some. It’s an epic fantasy film that is both spectacular and of Shakespearean depth.

If that sounds a bit over the top, suspend judgment until you see Richard Armitage’s final turn as the dwarf king Thorin, who is the brooding centre of the film. It’s a performance full of sound and fury signifying something: he’s part Macbeth, part Lear (if you’re willing to imagine his dwarf lieutenants as the three daughters). I don’t think any one actor has so commanded one of the Hobbit-Lord of the Rings movies before, and it’s thrilling to watch.



At the end of the The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Thorin and his men, accompanied by Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), fail in an attempt to reclaim the treasure-rich Lonely Mountain from the dragon Smaug. When the maddened beast frees itself, Bilbo asks, “What have we done?”

His question is answered in an astonishing pre-title sequence in this new film in which Smaug, archly voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, unleashes his fury on the human settlement of Laketown, which had aided the dwarves. This terrifying scene is sumptuously shot, as is the rest of the film. Jackson is criticised for different things, especially the way he milks the source material, but when it comes to creating a fantastic world on the screen no one does it better.

If you think of dragons as snorting nostril jets of flame on to brave knights, think again. This is more like the firebombing of Dresden, a city-obliterating catastrophe. The only way out is by boat, and there are scenes of human bravery and bastardry that some may see as relevant to our present times.

Bravest of them all is the boatman Bard (Luke Evans). As this is a pre-title sequence I don’t think we need to activate the spoiler alert to say that Smaug bites the dust.

And this sets up the plot proper: the quest to secure the uncountable fortune inside Lonely Mountain. The dwarves, humans, aristocratic elves and psychopathic orcs all have a stake in this Middle-earth version of the Great Game.

Bilbo sticks with the dwarves, though is tested by Thorin’s instability, and the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellan) escapes his imprisonment of the previous film to be, as he so often is, in the right spot at the right time.

Billy Connolly returns in scene-stealing form as Thorin’s crazy-brave cousin Dain. There are conflicting loyalties, too, with the growing passion between the elf archer Tauriel and the dwarf Kili a huge complication, not least for elf lord Legolas (Orlando Bloom).

With no eye to another film, Jackson is free to kill some of his darlings, so come prepared. The long battle scenes are superbly done. My nine-year-old co-viewer, open mouthed in amazement, kept looking across at me, to make sure my dad brain was taking in the awesomeness of it all.

While the action scenes are eye-popping, for me the film becomes something special in stiller moments, with the megalomaniac Thorin ­raving, questioning, justifying, swerving towards evil.

Richard Armitage @RCArmitage

@TheHobbitMovie @wbpictures Thanks to everyone in OZ for this great turnout The Hobbit brings closure to Middle Earth http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/re ... 7165066853 …

Rarely does a plucky comic relief become a franchise lead. However, Freeman single-handedly carries this waning franchise. Peppering this franchise with Office-style comedic jabs, his range and charisma distract from his character’s surprising lack of authority or involvement. McKellen, goes without saying, is this installment’s heart. The Veteran thespian, facing up against Bloom and Evans throughout the action, is worthy of immense acclaim. Meanwhile, Armitage and Lily lend more to their roles than the screenplay. Sadly, as far as Jackson is concerned, these people merely exist to extend the trite closing credits sequence.

Marvelous end to 'Hobbit' series: 'Battle of Five Armies' is a must-see movie
Dec. 29, 2014

Written by
Angelica Rohr
VIBE


"The Battle of Five Armies" -- the third installment of "The Hobbit" trilogy -- picks up right where "The Desolation of Smaug" left off: the company of the rightful King under the Mountain, Thorin Oakenshield, has taken back their homeland, Erebor, but at great cost. The dragon, Smaug, left the mountain, only to wreak havoc on the people of Laketown.

Word of Smaug leaving the mountain has spread. Evil forces and old enemies come to take it from the dwarves. Orcs, elves, the people of Laketown and the dwarves of the Iron Hills come to Erebor, each with their own reasons. But with the darkest evil stirring in the east and a battle raging at the gates of Erebor, the elves, men and dwarves set aside their differences and unite against a common enemy.

When all hope is nearly lost, our favorite dwarves must decide whether to fight or to flee.

Director Peter Jackson did it again. I had my doubts about "The Hobbit" films -- I felt the story lacked what made "The Lord of the Rings" special. "The Battle of Five Armies" cleared those doubts almost instantly.

"I wasn't pleased with how 'The Desolation of Smaug' ended, but for sure 'The Battle of Five Armies' restored that with the amazing opening scene," says hardcore J.R.R. Tolkien fan Keith Manglona.

Within the first 30 minutes of the film, I was (emotionally) right back where I was when watching "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King." By the time the credits rolled and the music played, it was as if the nine years between then and now never happened.

Of course, no story comes to life without a talented cast. The 12 men cast to play the dwarves in Thorin's company each stood out with the little things they did. Richard Armitage, who played Thorin Oakenshield, performed so well to the point that he didn't have to speak for you to understand what he was thinking.

Martin Freeman captured perfectly what made Bilbo Baggins such a special little person. His compassion and loyalty drove him to do what was best for his friends no matter what the price and no matter how scared he was.

Tauriel, played by Evangeline Lilly, a captain in the Elf King Thranduil's guard, was a well-written and refreshing addition to the story.

"I thought (the director) brought good things out of characters we otherwise wouldn't have seen," says Anastasia Vaughan, a sophomore at Southern High School.

Jackson took many liberties in making "The Hobbit" that would transform a children's tale into a blockbuster. If there is any director who should be trusted to make changes while adapting Tolkien's novel to three films, it's Jackson. The additions only enhanced the story and made all Tolkien fans giddy with nostalgia when characters that didn't make an appearance in the book appeared suddenly on screen. Other changes Jackson made were based on notes from Tolkien's journal.

While I would not advise small children to watch it, "The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies" is a must-see. Whether you have read the book or not, it's a well-made movie with something for everyone.

It's a tale about friendship, courage, adventure and, most importantly -- a hole in the ground, where there lived a hobbit.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Written by: Luke Whitticase on January 1, 2015
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Rating:
Director: Peter Jackson
Cast: Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage
Length: 144 min.
Country: US, New Zealand


Peter Jackson’s revisit to Middle-Earth in the form of this audacious, somewhat overestimated retelling of J.R.R. Tolkien’s original text The Hobbit has followed a very jagged path. Originally a two-part prequel adaptation now extended to three, the series has been pumped up from its humble origins in order to stand in contrast to the epic grandeur of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. An Unexpected Journey was a steady if uneventful introduction, while The Desolation of Smaug reached for a more cohesive structure that benefited the story greatly, hitting many action beats with a pace that knew when to run and when to walk. Finally, over a decade later and shy of a billion dollars in the making, the Middle-Earth saga that Jackson & Co. set out to create is at an end with The Battle of the Five Armies.
The entire trilogy has been an exercise in excess
Following immediately from the climactic moments of its predecessor, Smaug the terrible, unleashed from the Lonely Mountain, sets out to wreak havoc upon Lake Town in a dramatic and thrillingly satisfying opening sequence of rubble and hellfire. Meanwhile, Bilbo and the Dwarves must now defend the mountain and its treasure trove from a quintet of armies, who are descending in droves to claim their stake of the riches of Erebor. All of which leads to a climactic battle that consumes the best part of the film – and this is where the film falters in typically dramatic fashion.
The entire trilogy has been an exercise in excess; bloating the original text up to immense size through addition and elaboration, adding pre-existing elements from outside of the material and entirely new dramatic conflicts. The scale has been expanded to encompass many different elements of Tolkien lore, as well as drawn-out action sequences and epic, sweeping shots to fully exploit their conceived universe. Unlike the first instalment’s humble roots, this is the only film in which you’d expect the scale to come into its own with the titular battle being the core plot point. Unfortunately, what the film ends up feeling like is an over-long third act to the second film with no centrepiece. It struggles to wrap-up many of the series loose narrative ends over the course of its surprisingly short runtime. Characters built up and inducted over the previous two are squandered in mere cameo roles as the delirium of one of the most cluttered, clinical looking battles of the entire series unfolds over 60+ minutes. It feels like the inevitable Extended Edition release next year will fill in many of the films narrative shortcomings, but it doesn’t help that plenty of the film feels like that of a rushed production.
HBT2-fs-249879.DNG
The story itself, while muddled and unfocused, lies mainly on the shoulders of Thorin Oakenshield, who is suffering his own inner crisis as the film hammers in the theme of greed and corruption being the burden of the soul. Richard Armitage pitched the performance greatly, balancing plain pantomime theatrics with genuine emotional turmoil on cue. While many of the other Dwarves fall into the backdrop of events, their presence is still felt as the final moments approach. Everyone performs adequately and many are given enough to do both on and off screen – with the exception of Bilbo. While he is certainly never forgotten and an integral part of the plot, his role throughout is distilled to that of an onlooker of events, and it can’t help but be felt that this terrific, defining performance by Freeman is taken advantage of.
Nothing is ever unengaging; you are with the characters at every swing and beat. But after a while your detachment from the image becomes apparent. In many ways, this is Peter Jackson’s equivalent to the Star Wars prequel trilogy; a trilogy of inflated self-importance and technological prowess that focuses too much on the wrong elements. The explicit overuse of CGI in every crevice of the frame begins a disconnect that draws you right out of the picture, and you fear that Jackson may have gotten too lost in both his world and ego to notice that what he’s accomplishing just doesn’t hit the mark like it once did.
The Battle of the Five Armies is, nonetheless, an entertaining epic of sorts – a boisterous blockbuster if there ever was one. To balance out the more tired elements and characters, there are plenty of comical, tense and straight up ridiculous moments to keep everyone amused, while Howard Shore’s bombastic score once again steals every moment. It’s the ending of a journey that began where many would have never dared tread, and even though many may feel as though it has outstayed its welcome, we must never underestimate the sheer will and dedication that has been taken to bring these gargantuan monoliths to the screen in such a way. Although the ties to the original films run deep and sharp at times, this has still been an engrossing journey back to a familiar land, and it’s a good enough farewell to expect for Middle-Earth.