Ahh, what a journey it has been in Middle-Earth. Unfortunate to see this franchise come to an end, but thankfully it does on a high note. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies takes place after the events of The Desolation of Smaug (Which ended abruptly I might add), so it wastes no time getting into the story.
The film starts off with Smaug burning his way through Laketown, jumping from the residents grieving in peril, to our main hero Bilbo and the fellow Dwarves seeking as to where we've seen them since their last adventure. Thorin is currently suffering from "Dragon Sickness", which deems him to be isolated. Seeing him in this state of mind is daunting, but this leads to a great performance from Richard Armitage. Thorin was a bit of a jerk early on when he's first introduced, seeing this slightly different take on his character is great.
The performances overall are solid, although the point of this final film is the action but nevertheless, Martin Freeman (Bilbo), Luke Evans (Bard), Ian McKellan (Gandalf), Lee Pace (Thranduil), Orlando Bloom (Legolas) and Evangeline Lilly (Tauriel) all pitch in to deliver fine work. With emotional depth, truly shines to have great character moments.
The score by Howard Shore is brilliant, epic themes throughout battle sequences and much softer tones throughout the dialogue scenes. The story in the film isn't fleshed out obviously, but like I've stated the big lead up is to the action. And it was kick ass, the fight scene between Thorin and Azog (Manu Bennett) was awesome. I've been waiting for a proper battle, since they've had a brief one in An Unexpected Journey. The battle sequences were long, but I didn't find myself tired of it, I was engaged the entire way.
IMAX 3D is the best way to watch this film, thankfully I've watched all three films in this fantastic format. Overall, this was a great way to close the film trilogy. And seeing myself tear up a couple times, especially towards the end was worth it. All I can say is thank you to Peter Jackson and the rest of the cast and crew for this amazing journey, I'll miss it. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies was fantastic from start to finish.
RATING: 5/5
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