THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES
Director: Peter Jackson
Cert: 12A 144 mins
The final instalment in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy is, as with the first two films, tonally and stylistically very similar to his epic Lord of the Rings trilogy. If you, like me, are of the opinion that no film can be too much like Lord of the Rings, then The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is excellent.
The armies of dwarves, elves, men, and goblins (with eagles swooping in later as the fifth army) converge on the Lonely Mountain for different reasons, including treasure and strategic importance. The dwarf king Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), having reclaimed his homeland of Erebor and the cursed treasure within, succumbs to dragon-sickness, resulting in increasing levels of greed, obsession, and paranoia.
Unity to face the enemy
It’s up to characters such as his dwarf brethren, the Hobbit of the title Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), and the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen), as well as Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans) – who’s a great picture of servant leadership – to try and reason with him. As a fearsome army bears down upon them, these characters attempt to persuade dwarves, elves and men to put aside their petty differences and unite in order to stop their common enemy before it’s too late.
The film builds effectively towards the battle, but doesn’t lose sight of the smaller character moments. ‘If more people valued home over gold, the world would be a merry place.’
As before, it concerns itself with the corrupting nature of greed, which is a valid point, though made a little heavy-handedly.
The film’s values are conveyed more effectively, however, when celebrating the positive virtues that its heroes exhibit and some of its more flawed characters learn. As with The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies champions things such as friendship, love, courage, honour, and sacrifice.
The film is visually stunning, thanks to consistent Middle Earth cinematographer Andrew Leslie, and 3D gives added visual texture. While not generally as scary as The Desolation of Smaug was, the film contains the usual level of intense battle violence.
