Review #847: 'The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies' (2014)

In Tolkien's book, the line goes "and so began a battle than none had expected; and it was called the Battle of the Five Armies, and it was very terrible." The slim-line novel is very much anti-war, which makes Peter Jackson's decision to turn a short chapter into a 160-minute battle sequence all the more perplexing. The comparisons you can make to 2003's The Return of the King are almost endless, but The Battle of the Five Armies fails to achieve the same level of excitement as the multiple Oscar winner as it forgets about its characters. This is essentially Bilbo's story, but once again he is lost amongst the indistinguishable dwarves, CGI fighting and frequent detours linking this franchise to Lord of the Rings.

It starts off where The Desolation of Smaug left us, with the super-pissed dragon Smaug (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) about to lay waste to Lake Town. Inside the Lonely Mountain, dwarf Thorin (Richard Armitage) obsesses over his newly-found treasure, but becomes increasingly paranoid at the disappearance of the Arkenstone, which was taken by hobbit Bilbo (Martin Freeman) during his face-off with Smuag. Meanwhile, wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) is helping rid Dol Guldur of Sauron, an evil force who is increasing his power. Elves Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) ally themselves with human Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans), while Legolas's father Thranduil (Lee Pace) arrives with an army of his own, seeking to claim an elven necklace from the Lonely Mountain.

The main problem with The Hobbit trilogy as a whole is Jackson's failure to spend enough time with any of it's huge cast. Bilbo is all but left out of his own story yet again, and the extra attention paid to Thorin's struggle with his own blind greed comes across as a hypocritical parable to Jackson's own decision to stretch out a thin book into three blockbusting movies. So while the film is undeniably entertaining, it is little more than a collection of clashing swords, sweeping CGI and badly timed comedy, loosely strung together by scenes of awkward dialogue, unconvincing romantic swooning, and Christopher Lee beating up baddies with a staff like Chuck Norris on steroids.

It's a shame that The Hobbit trilogy has been so underwhelming, and quite surprising too. Given that Lord of the Rings was so successful in bringing Tolkien's mythology to life, with action scenes that seemed so innovative and such a strong grasp on its characters, you would expect more of the same. It feels like Jackson simply expected the audience to warm to Bilbo, Thorin et al because they are part of the same world, so didn't put his heart into it. The humour is off too, with a horrendously CGI'd Billy Connolly turning up as a head-butting dwarf, delivering cringe-worthy lines you would expect from a pantomime starring Christopher Biggins. A few exciting moments save it from disaster, but after almost 9 hours of this story, I'm just glad the whole thing is over.


Directed by: Peter Jackson
Starring: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Luke Evans, Orlando Bloom, Evangeline Lilly, Lee Pace, Ken Stott, Aidan Turner, Dean O'Gorman
Country: New Zealand/USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie