The Hobbit The Battle of the Five Armies | Film review

(Image credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Picture)

Martin Freeman and Ian McKellen provide welcome warmth and humour as Peter Jackson concludes his second Tolkein trilogy with The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.

Turning the 300-odd pages of JRR Tolkein’s beloved tale into a nearly eight-hour long trilogy was never going to lead to nimble storytelling, but at least director Peter Jackson brings his absurdly over-inflated project to a suitably epic conclusion with The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. The movie certainly looks spectacular, from the fiery opening in which terrifying dragon Smaug (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) lays waste to the settlement of Lake-town to the awesome final battle that pitches contingents of dwarves, elves and humans against the orcs and wolves dispatched by dark wizard Sauron (Cumberbatch, again). But it is up to Martin Freeman’s canny Bilbo Baggins and Ian McKellen’s wise wizard Gandalf to provide some welcome warmth and humour amid the enervating non-stop CGI action.

Certificate 12. Runtime 144 mins. Director Peter Jackson.

The Hobbit The Battle of the Five Armies is available on Digital HD NOW and Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray, DVD from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSzeFFsKEt4

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A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.