'The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies' - Review

Thirteen years since the beginning of Peter Jackson’s odyssey into Middle-Earth, we have reached the conclusion: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. The company of dwarves, accompanied by Bilbo Baggins, have reached the lonely mountain and unwittingly released the dragon Smaug upon the nearby Laketown, whilst the forces of the Elves, Orcs and Dwarves begin to converge upon the peak, determined to reclaim the treasure within.

Despite the title and the gargantuan war between armies, the film is centrally a three-hander split between the three actors that now own their roles: Richard Armitage is given front-and-centre stage in this picture, and all the better for it, one particular sequence in which Thorin is drawn into dragon-sickness is extremely well done and brings to mind the ring trances from the previous trilogy. Martin Freeman is Bilbo Baggins, meshing just the right amount of Ian Holm’s performance with the more subtle nuances of a more inquisitive and younger hobbit. Ian McKellen as Gandalf is always fun to watch, and one can only hope that the inevitable extended cut of the film gives us his scenes which we glimpsed in the trailer but were nowhere to be found in the cinema.

The titular battle itself, which takes up the entire second half of the film – with the exception of a lull in the middle where you’re not entirely sure who’s winning – is everything a war sequence should be. Unlike Michael Bay, Jackson understands that the crux of a conflict is both knowing and caring about who is involved, and having a stake in their survival. Though the odd colour saturation that pervaded the previous instalments is still clinging to the frame, there is enough flair in the battle cinematography that it doesn’t distract too much. It is also worth noting that the opening twenty minutes involving Smaug and the razing of Laketown are near-perfect and the much tighter focus somewhat alleviates the problems of the later battle where you find yourself having to count on your fingers to remember who’s involved.

But as intense and enthralling as the battle is, it still doesn’t quite match the awe of the Pelennor fields or even Helms Deep because the grit and grime and blood-stained aura of those battlefields are weirdly absent. There are also several moments of CGI ridicule that threaten to throw you from the immersion, and there are about three too many moments of someone looking on forlornly as loved ones are cut down. Impressively, this smattering of flaws does very little to ruin the experience and I can say with certainty that you won’t at any moment be bored, which is much more than one can say for half the fare currently filling the multiplex.

The Battle of the Five Armies is not a disappointment: Jackson has gone for broke and the spectacle, while flawed in places, is as enthralling as it ever was. Fans of the previous Hobbit films – and those of us who have grown to appreciate them more than the first time – have much to enjoy, and the ending is as satisfying as anyone could ever hope for. 

★★★½☆