The adventures of Bilbo Baggins have come to a close with the final installment (or as the poster reads, “The Defining Chapter”) of director Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” prequel trilogy. It’s a series that many believe (though not Warner Bros. execs) should have been condensed into just one film, since J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” was just one book, and not a long book.
“The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” is the shortest of Jackson’s six Middle Earth movies. However, at 2 hours and 24 minutes, it still feels long considering this finale is packed with action scene upon action scene with very little breathing room in between.
One of the elements of this trilogy that I’ve never liked is the fact that Bilbo (played once again by Martin Freeman) is a supporting character in this tale and never the center of attention. Sure, everything is being looked at from his perspective, but the title is “The Hobbit” for a reason. It’s Bilbo’s story – or at least it should be. Freeman does get more to do this time than in the other two films and he’s very good in several strong scenes.
Another positive of “The Battle of the Five Armies” is that the film wastes no time in getting right into the action. The dragon Smaug is finished-off quickly (I couldn’t wait for that to happen in last year’s “Desolation of Smaug” but IT NEVER DID). Then, as happened with the previous two installments, I began to doze-off as the script becomes dominated by scene after scene of battle preparation and loads of overblow dialogue. Around the halfway mark of “Five Armies”, the fighting begins – as everyone wants their share of the “precious” gold that the dwarves now control after reclaiming the Mountain once Smaug is killed. And the title doesn’t lie: there are five armies, which means the battles won’t be quick ones.
During one of the endless action sequences straight out of “World of Warcraft”, involving the dwarves fighting the creepy white guys, who fight the gold elphin soldiers, who fight the other mythical creatures, etc. etc. etc., I thought “If I’m going to get through these I at least have to try and enjoy them”. As they continued I (unintentionally) laughed at some of the sound and visual effects, one-liners (including Gandalf’s brilliant remark amidst all the fighting – “This is madness”), and even a few of the actual killings. I’m sure “cheesy” was not Jackson’s intention, but it does reach that level.
There are a few references for diehard “LOTR”/”HOBBIT” fans, and the closing credits song, “The Last Goodbye”, works as a farewell to the franchise (and the online version with the accompanying six-movie montage is very impressive). Since I saw the first two, I did want to see how “The Hobbit” trilogy wrapped-up, and I’m glad I did, though it’s exactly what I expected.
On The Official LCJ Report Card, “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” gets a C.