Psycho's Movie Reviews #430: The Hobbit: Battle Of The Five Armies (2014)

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is a 2014 epic high fantasy film directed by Peter Jackson and written by Jackson, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Guillermo del Toro. It is the third and final instalment in Peter Jackson's three-part film adaptation based on the novel The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, following An Unexpected Journey (2012) and The Desolation of Smaug (2013), and altogether, they act as a prequel to Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

It was produced by New Line Cinema, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Warner Bros. Pictures and WingNut Films. Warner Bros. served also as the distributor. The Battle of the Five Armies premiered in London on 1 December 2014, and was then released on 11 December 2014 in New Zealand, 12 December 2014 in the United Kingdom, and on 17 December 2014 in the United States. It stars Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Evangeline Lilly, Luke Evans, Lee Pace, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ken Stott, Aidan Turner, Dean O'Gorman, Billy Connolly, Graham McTavish, James Nesbitt, Stephen Fry and Ryan Gage. The ensemble cast also features Cate Blanchett, Ian Holm, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, and Orlando Bloom. It was Holm's final film before his death in 2020, as well as Lee's final live-action role, although he would be featured as a voice actor in several films released after his death in 2015.

The film received mixed reviews from critics and grossed over $962 million worldwide, making it the second highest-grossing film of 2014 (behind Transformers: Age of Extinction). At the 87th Academy Awards, the film received a nomination for Best Sound Editing.

Plot

Bilbo and the Dwarves watch from the Lonely Mountain as the dragon Smaug sets Laketown ablaze. Bard breaks out of prison, and eventually kills Smaug with the black arrow. Smaug's falling body crushes the Master of Laketown and his cronies, who were escaping on a boat with the town's gold. Bard becomes the new leader of Laketown and guides its people to seek refuge in the ruins of Dale. Thorin, having become possessive of the vast treasure in the mountain, searches obsessively for the Arkenstone, which Bilbo had previously found but kept hidden. Upon hearing that Laketown survivors have fled to Dale, he orders the entrance of the Lonely Mountain sealed off.

Meanwhile, Galadriel, Elrond, and Saruman arrive at Dol Guldur and free Gandalf, sending him to safety with Radagast. They battle and defeat the Nazgûl and then face a formless Sauron himself. Galadriel defeats him in a duel of wills and banishes him and his forces to the East. Azog, marching on Erebor with his vast Orc army, sends his son Bolg to Mount Gundabad to summon their second army. Legolas and Tauriel witness the march of Bolg's army, bolstered by Orc berserkers and giant bats.

Thranduil and an Elf army arrive in Dale to reclaim a treasure once withheld from them by the Dwarf king Thrór. Bard asks Thorin for the share of gold previously promised to the people of Laketown, but Thorin refuses. Gandalf arrives at Dale to warn Bard and Thranduil of Azog, but Thranduil dismisses him. Bilbo sneaks the Arkenstone out of Erebor and hands it over to Thranduil and Bard, so that they can trade it for the promised treasures and prevent a battle. Thorin angrily refuses the proposal, while Bilbo chides him for letting greed cloud his judgement. Thorin nearly kills Bilbo but is stopped by Gandalf. Thorin's cousin Dáin arrives with his Dwarf army, and a battle of Dwarves against Elves and Men ensues, until Azog's army arrives. The forces of Dáin, Thranduil and Bard, along with Gandalf and Bilbo, immediately band together against the Orcs. A second front is opened when the Orcs attack Dale, forcing Bard to withdraw his forces to defend the city.

Inside Erebor, Thorin suffers traumatic hallucinations before regaining his sanity and leading his company to join the battle. He rides with Dwalin, Fíli, and Kíli to kill Azog. Meanwhile, Tauriel and Legolas arrive to warn the Dwarves of Bolg's arrival, and Bilbo volunteers to relay the news to Thorin, using his magic ring to move through the combat unseen. Azog kills Fíli as Bilbo and the other Dwarves are forced to watch. Bolg overpowers Tauriel and then kills Kíli, who had come to her aid. Legolas battles Bolg and eventually kills him. The Great Eagles arrive with Radagast and Beorn, and the Orcs are finally defeated. In the climax, Thorin engages Azog in a duel and kills him, but is fatally wounded in the process. Bilbo makes peace with the dying Thorin, while Tauriel mourns Kili, with Thranduil acknowledging their love. Thranduil advises Legolas to seek out a Dunedain ranger in the north who goes by the name Strider. Thorin is buried with the Arkenstone along with Kili and Fili, and Dáin is crowned king.

As Thorin's company settles back into Erebor, and Dale begins to recover with Bard as the leader, Bilbo bids farewell to the company's remaining members and journeys home to the Shire with Gandalf. As the two part ways on the outskirts of the Shire, Gandalf admits his knowledge of Bilbo's ring and warns him of it, although Bilbo assures him that he had lost the ring. Bilbo returns to Bag End to find his belongings being auctioned off because he was presumed dead. He stops the sale and starts tidying up his home, revealing he still possesses the ring. Sixty years later, Bilbo receives a visit from Gandalf on his 111th birthday.

Production

Development

The Hobbit was originally planned as a two-part film, but Jackson confirmed plans for a third film on 30 July 2012, turning his adaptation of The Hobbit into a trilogy. According to Jackson, the third film would contain the Battle of the Five Armies and make extensive use of the appendices that Tolkien wrote to expand the story of Middle-earth (published in the back of The Return of the King). Jackson also stated that while the third film would largely make use of footage originally shot for the first and second films, it would require additional filming as well. The third film was titled There and Back Again in August 2012. In April 2014, Jackson changed the title of the film to The Battle of the Five Armies as he thought the new title better suited the situation of the film. He stated that, had he adapted The Hobbit as a two-part film, the original title may have felt right for the second part which would have included both Bilbo's arrival in Erebor and departure, but after the decision to adapt the novel as a three-part film, it felt misplaced as Bilbo had already arrived at Erebor in the second part. Shaun Gunner, the chairman of The Tolkien Society, supported the decision: "The Battle of the Five Armies much better captures the focus of the film but also more accurately channels the essence of the story."

Score

As with all the previous films, Howard Shore composed the score. Conrad Pope (who conducted the orchestra) and James Sizemore orchestrated the music for the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and for two Gamelan orchestra, while the London Voices and Tiffin boys’ choir were recorded in AIR Lyndhurst, London. The score featured a few new themes for Dain, Gundabad (featuring a "chorus" of didgeridoos) and the Dwarves' war preparations, but focused more on blending and clashing the themes against one another, eventually bringing the themes to a resolution.

Billy Boyd, who played Peregrin Took in The Lord of the Rings, wrote and recorded the song "The Last Goodbye" to be played over the end credits of the film.

Release/Reception/Box Office

Initially the film was set for a July 2014 release; however, it was later pushed back to December. The world premiere of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies was held in London at Leicester Square on 1 December 2014. The film opened in cinemas on 11 December 2014 in New Zealand, on 12 December in the United Kingdom and on 17 December in the United States. Warner Bros released the film on 18 December in Greece and 26 December, in Australia. The film was released in China on 23 January 2015. An extended edition of the film had a one-night-only re-release on 13 October 2015, accompanied by a special greeting from Peter Jackson.

MTV reported that early reviews for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies were "generally positive" with critics praising "its energy, shorter running time and satisfying closure". According to IBT, reviews were mostly positive, with critics "praising director Peter Jackson's effort at transforming J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel into an epic adventure film trilogy". According to CBS News, critics said the film "will satisfy fans" but "otherwise, it may be worth waiting until it's available to rent". Oliver Gettel of the Los Angeles Times said the critical consensus was that the film is "a flawed but fitting finale to The Hobbit trilogy". The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 59% approval rating based on 261 reviews, with an average rating of 6.30/10. Its consensus reads "Though somewhat overwhelmed by its own spectacle, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies ends Peter Jackson's second Middle-earth trilogy on a reasonably satisfying note". On Metacritic the film holds a score of 59 out of 100 based on 46 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore, during the opening weekend, gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale, the same score as its predecessor.

Scott Foundas of Variety said "The result is at once the trilogy's most engrossing episode, its most expeditious (at a comparatively lean 144 minutes) and also its darkest—both visually and in terms of the forces that stir in the hearts of men, dwarves and orcs alike." Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter said "After six films, 13 years and 1031 minutes of accumulated running time, Peter Jackson has concluded his massively remunerative genuflection at the altar of J.R.R. Tolkien with a film that may be the most purely entertaining of any in the collection." Andrew Pulver of The Guardian said "This film is a fitting cap to an extended series that, if nothing else, has transformed Tolkien's place in the wider culture." Chris Tilly from IGN Movies said "There's a little too much padding in the final Hobbit flick, and the best sequence is without doubt the film's first. But the central battle is indeed spectacular, and as 'The Age of Orc' approaches, it rounds out this particular story in stirring and emotional fashion." Russell Baillie of The New Zealand Herald said The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is "something less than the supposed 'defining chapter' of Jackson's time in Middle-earth as it's been billed. But action-wise, it certainly goes out with a very pleasing bang."

Conversely, Inkoo Kang of TheWrap said "The 144-minute running time showcases Jackson's worst tendencies: eons-long battle scenes, sloppy and abrupt resolutions, portentous romances, off-rhythm comic timing, and, newly in this case, patience-testing fan service." Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph described the film as "a paragraph on steroids" that was "neither very terrible nor remotely unexpected. It's a series of stomping footnotes in search of a climax." The BBC's Nicholas Barber wrote that with The Hobbit series, Jackson had succeeded in bridging the gap between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and that The Battle of the Five Armies was a "colossal technical achievement", but he also criticised the film for not being compelling because of "its repetitive battle scenes and a lack of plot". Nicolas Rapold of The New York Times said "Bilbo may fully learn a sense of friendship and duty, and have quite a story to tell, but somewhere along the way, Mr. Jackson loses much of the magic."

Like its predecessors, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies became a financial success. It has grossed a total of $255.1 million in the US and Canada and $707.1 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $962.2 million. In its original theatrical release, it grossed over $956 million, becoming the second-highest-grossing film of 2014 (behind Transformers: Age of Extinction). Deadline Hollywood calculated its the net profit to be $103.4 million. The film failed to earn $1 billion at the box office, despite various pundits projecting it to reach that milestone. The Hollywood Reporter said that The Battle of the Five Armies was unlikely to gross $1 billion worldwide due to "plunging exchange rates around the globe" witnessed that year, and that Warner Bros. and MGM ultimately would take in nearly $90 million less than expected due to the rising dollar and plunging foreign currencies. Despite this, Forbes declared the trilogy "an unmitigated financial grand-slam for all parties".

Budget $250–300 million

Box office $962.2 million

My Review

Sure, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is not going to please die-hard fans of the book (as evident in the reviews here), mainly because of it being the case of three 2 1/2- 3 hour films based on a 300+ book, and it is not a patch on the brilliant Lord of the Rings trilogy. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies has several major problems, mostly similar problems to the previous two films An Unexpected Journey and Desolation of Smaug but more serious for some, but it also like the previous two have a lot of good even great elements too. Judging the trilogy on its own terms without comparison, I still see as a majorly flawed but entertaining trilogy of films.

As said, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is a long way from flawless for similar reasons as before and they have been mentioned a number of times already. There is too much Alfrid and Tauriel and not enough Bilbo, rather criminal as he is the main character or is supposed to be. Unfortunately, neither Alfrid or Tauriel are particularly interesting. Especially Alfrid, who was incredibly obnoxious, not funny in the slightest and wasn't necessary to the story at all, for me his character is the worst thing about the entire trilogy. Tauriel is a little more tolerable, she is at least alluring and brings some heart in places, but like Desolation of Smaug but even worse the romance between her and Kili felt forced and shoe-horned in with some awkward writing. The script is also very messy and the most tonally imbalanced of all three films, there was a real sense one too many times that it didn't know what to do with itself.

There are some thoughtful parts but some parts were in need of more explanation, the romantic parts were sappily written and the corny humour returns and often is so juvenile particularly with Alfrid that it made the humour in An Unexpected Journey more sophisticated in comparison. It also doesn't do very well developing the characters, the only interesting characters were Thorin, Thranduil and to a lesser extent Bilbo. The dwarfs' roles are so insignificant here that you even forget who they are once the film's over, Beorn is wasted (again!), Azog didn't add a whole lot and still looks dodgy, Legolas does a lot of nice fighting skills and has a great scene with Thranduil but little else and the less said about Alfrid the better. The ending did feel abrupt and left more questions than answers. Despite the overlong and bloated consensus, actually if there was one film from the trilogy that could have benefited from being longer to tie up these loose ends it's this one.

However, like the previous two films The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies looks great. It's well shot, maintaining the softer but darker story-book look of Desolation of Smaug, the scenery and sets as always look amazing, the special effects while overused in places have an awe-inspiring effect (Smaug still looks magnificent, best designed dragon on film since Dragonslayer in my opinion) and the make-up is good. Howard Shore's music for Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit has never been less than good, the Lord of the Rings's music actually is incredible and one of the best film scores in recent years, and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is no exception. It isn't perfect, it's too bombastic at times in places that needed the opposite approach and one does miss the Misty Mountains theme from An Unexpected Journey, but it's still very ethereal and haunting. Billy Boyd's The Last Goodbye finishes the film beautifully and provides a strong emotional core.

Peter Jackson's direction is decent but has been much better before, story direction wasn't a strong suit here and some scenes could have benefited from a less is more approach but he still shows mastery of visual style and detail and that he can create mood well. Story-wise The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is the least involving, largely because most of the story of the book was covered in the previous two films. But it does move fairly briskly and has several fine moments(if not as much as the scenes with Bilbo and Gollum and Bilbo and Smaug previously), such as Dol Guldur, the scene between Legolas and Thranduil, the thrilling last battle, Galadriel vs. Sauron the fight on top of the frozen waterfall but especially great were the whole brilliantly played dynamic between Bilbo and Thorin, the excitingly tense Laketown sequence and the emotionally beautiful and clever ending scene.

Other than the look of the film, the best thing about The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is the acting, which is the area where it is difficult to find fault. Martin Freeman's Bilbo is heartfelt, filled with curmudgeonly charm and grabs your attention every minute he's on screen while Richard Armitage plays Thorin's descending madness and angst with brooding intensity and raw emotion. Lee Pace elevates his material to a higher level and fleshes out Thranduil's moral ambiguity in a way that makes him one of the more memorable supporting actors, Ian McKellen is also perfectly cast as Gandalf and Benedict Cumberbatch is splendidly sinister as the Necromancer and especially Smaug. Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving and Cate Blanchett are great value, Ian Holm makes a lovely appearance, Luke Evans is great and charismatic as Bard and Orlando Bloom and Evangeline Lilly do play reliably though their characters could have been written better. Billy Connolly is a pleasant surprise and is entertaining and Sylvester McCoy isn't a liability either.

On the whole, possibly the weakest of the three(but the three Hobbit films are very close together in rating) but, while with a lot wrong, enjoyable. 9.4/10