The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is most definitely the final cinematic installment in the franchise by director Peter Jackson.

Although there is plenty of other material written by Tolkien set in the Middle Earth universe that can also endlessly mint gold, the guardians of Tolkien’s unlicensed writings, led by his son and editor Christopher (who has had a significant role to play in crafting the books), have fiercely held on to the material, adamant that it will not go the way of the The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings — the cinematic rights to which were sold off in 1969.

The Tolkein Estate’s objection to the films is that with every installment, Peter Jackson loses focus of the source material and that these cinematic adaptations fail to include the nuanced philosophical nature of Tolkien’s books. Well, I imagine that The Battle of the Five Armies will be more horrifying to the Tolkien Estate than a group of uninvited dwarf guests are to a hobbit.

At tea time no less.

The Battle of the Five Armies is essentially what the title says. It is the battle of the five armies over a piece of wealthy and strategically important property. Here, the hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) has finally reached and helped liberate the Lonely Mountain from the evil dragon Smaug for the small company of dwarves whose ancestors once called it their home. Now the dwarves, led by their king Thorin Oakenshield II (Richard Armitage), must ward off the armies of other races in an ethnic battle so fierce that it would have probably frightened even Martin Luther King.

In spite of my misgivings, I enjoyed the skirmishes in The Battle of the Five Armies immensely. For those who love grand fantasy role-playing games such as World of Warcraft or miniature tabletop war games like Warhammer, The Battle of the Five Armies is the magnum opus of your fantasy warfare imagination.  

The cinematography here is gorgeous while the special effects are stunning. I could almost smell the burning leather when the villains were dealt with by fire, and the whistle of the swords slicing through the air is still ringing in my ears. Clearly, Peter Jackson saved his best magic spell for the finale.

The Battle of the Five Armies will be more horrifying to the Tolkien Estate than a group of uninvited dwarf guests are to a hobbit

Obviously, Tolkein never wrote such excitingly choreographed swashbuckling action, but such deviations from an age-old source material are to be expected to suit cinema. But although Peter Jackson’s artistic vision can be appreciated when it comes to the action, it is pity that the narrative has moved to the back of the caravan.

It is difficult to talk about the final Hobbit film without examining the entire prequel trilogy. Certain changes, such as the inclusion of the brand new female elven character named Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) are appreciable considering that Tolkien’s book from 1937 was lacking in this area. Equally, her love triangle with Legolas Greenleaf (Orlando Bloom) and Kíli (Aidan Turner) makes for interesting if clichéd cinema. 

On the other hand, the narrative certainly suffers because The Hobbit was stretched to three films when it should have been two at most. For example, Thorin’s battle with madness in The Battle of the Five Armies takes up far too much screen time. Similarly, the death of Smaug is used to jumpstart the third film, when his defeat should have been the climax of the second film, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, which now feels the like weakest installment in the franchise, and was only concluded with a cliffhanger so as to fill coffers of the dragons at New Line Cinema.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, January 11th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play