The Hobbit – The Battle of Five Armies is the third and final instalment of The Hobbit trilogy. The battle rages for for Middle Earth!
It starts pretty much where the second film ended. Smaug the terrible dragon (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) is ready to raze Lakewood to the ground in revenge for the Dwarfs trying to drown him in gold!
Their unsuccessful attempt to kill Smaug has left the dragon boiling with rage and he takes it out on the nearest humans! Although, Smaug took their the dwarves’ city Erebor by force in the first film he has claimed it as his own. A dragon guards his gold with ferocity!
The surviving dwarf, grandson Thorin Oakenshield has waited a long time to mount a fight to reclaim Erebor. The gold’s allure begins to affect Thorin who starts putting it ahead of those around him.
Poor Gandalf (Ian McKellen) is far away and unable to intervene, held captive by Sauron at Dol Guldur. It looks like certain doom for the wise wizard. Can anyone mount a rescue attempt? Will the Lady Galadriel (Cate Blanchett) come to his rescue?
The Orcs march onto Lakewood spelling trouble for the town who are being attacked by Smaug! Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) are on hand to help fight alongside Tauriel and the dwarves. But their only hope might come from Bard (Luke Evans). A descendent of the last dragon slayer and holder of the last black arrow!
The CGI is still very impressive, the army sequences are nothing short of a dazzling spectacle. There’s not a thing out of place nor a character left hanging.
I did notice that this one, the last Lord of the Rings film was actually over three hours long (that might‘ve been the trailers – oh to have a shortcut feature!) but it didn’t matter. Time well spent and you mustn’t miss a second of this!
Peter Jackson as director still gives us a thrilling spectacle to behold! The man deserves a medal as does JRR Tolkien who wrote the stories.
I know some people aren’t happy with how much screen time Bilbo gets but for me the films are an ensemble piece. It’s not Bilbo Baggins and The Chamber of Dragons!
A well deserved 10/10 from me. It’s just so sad that it’s all over. Whatever will I do without Gandalf, Bilbo and the dwarves?
Image reproduced from wikipedia.com
Trailer reproduced from Warner Bros. Pictures