Peter Jackson brings the curtain down one final time on his Middle-Earth saga with this last film in The Hobbit trilogy. These prequels to the almighty Lord of the Rings movies have been met with mixed reactions from critics and fans alike with many unhappy with the decision to split such a small book in to three films whilst also adding and changing certain aspects of the beloved book to please the movie audience. Well those complaints are unlikely to stop after seeing this film, but if like me you enjoyed the previous two entries into The Hobbit series then it’s more than likely you will love The Battle of the Five Armies as we are gifted with an exciting, dramatic and hugely emotional ending to Bilbo’s tale.
The film picks up exactly where the last one finished, Gandalf (Ian McKellen) is still being held captive in Dol Goldur awaiting some sort of rescue whilst a revenge fuelled Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch) is headed towards Laketown to unleash his full fury. Bilbo, Thorin and several other Dwarves remain on the mountain side only able to watch as fire fills the sky, Bard (the brilliant Luke Evans) is still desperately trying to escape his imprisonment whilst the rest of the Dwarves look to escape the town. This scene starts the film with an almighty bang as we witness Smaug at his most terrible and it is brilliantly shot by Peter Jackson who proves once again that he is a master at crafting exciting action sequences. Smaug ends up being defeated (this is not really a spoiler, the book has been around for about 70 odd years!) and then focus turns swiftly to the battle that is mentioned in the film’s title.
The battle is the main highlight of the film and I will get to that eventually but I think special recognition should go to the way the quieter and more personal moments of the film are handled with some excellent performances. Richard Armitage threatens to steal the show as Thorin as he struggles to overcome the ‘dragon sickness’ which is now torturing him and turning him against his own kin. Armitage has really grown in to the role of Thorin over the last few years, An Unexpected Journey showed him as a headstrong and unforgiving type whilst 2013’s Desolation of Smaug gave us a more heroic and loyal Dwarf leader, in this movie however it is a much more challenging role as he battles with those closest to him and also himself. One slightly trippy scene perfectly shows the fight going on inside Thorin’s head as his thirst for gold takes over him, it is unlike any scene from previous Middle-Earth movies but Armitage is compelling to watch.
Martin Freeman once again excells as Bilbo showing true courage at times yet never being afraid to show his sweet and caring nature that we have all come to love from the Hobbit. There is a beautiful scene he shares at the end with Thorin and if that doesn’t pull on your heartstrings then surely his final goodbye to the Dwarves will.
The romance between Kili and the elf Tauriel was one of the stronger points of the previous film however here it feels a bit too forced and almost unnecessary. If you feel you didn’t pay money to see a soppy film then don’t worry because there are some amazing action sequences where Lee Pace’s Thranduil, Orlando Bloom’s Legolas and Luke Evans’s Bard all look to be the most badass hero of the movie. Special mention to Lee Pace who is mesmerising to watch again as the is he good/is he bad Elven king.
So on to the battle then, there is about an hours worth of build up and preparation before we are thrown in to arguably the most epic movie battle all time. Dwarves, Orcs, Elves, Men and beasts all come together in a CGI mashup and it’s actually beautiful to watch. This is what separates Peter Jackson from a Michael Bay, or any other director really, only he could craft such a magnificent battle and as the camera soars over the battlefield you really sense you are watching something special. There is a slight over reliance on CGI though which can be distracting, especially with our two primary antagonists Bolg and Azog. Both play key parts in the film so it’s sad that they aren’t as memorable as Lurtz from the first Lord of the Rings movie who had such a fierce battle with Aragorn. Their final fights with Legolas and Thorin respectively are fun to watch but the sense of danger is never really there, I just feel prosthetics would work much better than CGI in these circumstances.
The Hobbit was written as a children’s book and even Tolkien’s biggest fans will admit that many of the characters are undeveloped with little to no backstory, Peter Jackson will not have pleased everyone with his attempts to adapt The Hobbit but what he has accomplished deserves a huge amount of praise. It was a brave decision on his part to return to Middle-Earth after all these years but one that I feel has ultimately paid off. There is a great deal of sadness in leaving this magical place one last time but it was one hell of an adventure which only a master like Peter Jackson could orchestrate.
9/10