Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies closes a trilogy, and it closes it the way a siege ends: with the treasure already won and everyone still fighting over it. The film runs 144 minutes. It premiered in London on 1 December 2014, opened in New Zealand on 11 December and in the United States on 17 December, by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is the final instalment of The Hobbit trilogy and a prequel to Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings films.
Trailer, via Warner Bros..
Smaug Dies in the First Act
The dragon is the problem the whole trilogy was built around, and The Battle of the Five Armies dispatches him early. Bilbo and the dwarves watch from the Lonely Mountain as Smaug sets Laketown ablaze. Bard breaks out of prison and kills him with the black arrow.
The falling body crushes the Master of Laketown and his cronies, who were escaping on a boat with the town’s gold. That is the film’s cleanest piece of staging: the villain killed by the weight of his own greed, literally.
Thorin Seals the Lonely Mountain
What follows is a movie about a king who has already lost. Thorin possesses the vast treasure and searches obsessively for the Arkenstone, which Bilbo found and kept hidden. Told that Laketown’s survivors have fled to Dale, he orders the Lonely Mountain sealed.
Bard becomes the new leader of Laketown and leads its people to the ruins of Dale. Thranduil arrives with an Elf army to reclaim treasure held by the dwarf king Thrór. Bard tries to negotiate; Thorin refuses.
Bilbo Gives Away the Arkenstone
Bilbo sneaks the Arkenstone out of Erebor and gives it to Thranduil and Bard to trade for treasures and prevent war. The next morning the combined army approaches the mountain, and Thranduil and Bard reveal they hold the stone. Thorin believes it a ruse. Bilbo reveals the truth, reprimanding Thorin for his greed.
That scene is the film’s spine. A hobbit who was hired as a burglar steals the one thing his king wants most, and hands it to the enemy, to stop a war. It is the only choice in the picture that costs anything.
Azog, Bolg, and the Second Army
Azog marches on Erebor with his Orc army and sends his son Bolg to Mount Gundabad to summon a second. Legolas and Tauriel witness that march, bolstered by Orc berserkers and giant bats. Gandalf arrives to warn Bard and Thranduil, who dismisses him.
Elsewhere, Galadriel, Elrond and Saruman free Gandalf from Dol Guldur, battle and defeat the Nazgûl, and face a formless Sauron, whom Galadriel banishes to the East.
The cast does what the script asks:
- Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins
- Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield
- Ian McKellen as Gandalf the Grey
- Luke Evans as Bard
- Lee Pace as King Thranduil
- Evangeline Lilly as Tauriel
- Benedict Cumberbatch as Smaug and Sauron
- Billy Connolly as Dain Ironfoot
Will you follow me… one last time?
A Trilogy That Peaks Before Its Battle
The Battle of the Five Armies grossed $962.2 million worldwide, making it the second-highest-grossing film of 2014. It was nominated for Best Sound Editing. It also received mixed reviews from critics.
Both of those things are true at once, and the box office is the less interesting number. Jackson built three films out of a 1937 novel by J. R. R. Tolkien, and the third one spends its runtime paying off debts the first two created. Smaug, the Arkenstone, Thorin’s greed, Azog’s march: every thread gets tied.
That is competent. It is not the same as necessary. The film’s best material — Bilbo hiding the Arkenstone, Thorin’s obsession, the sealed gate — is about a small betrayal inside a mountain. The rest is armies arriving on schedule.
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is a farewell that earns its ending without ever surprising you. 5.9 of 10.
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