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

The epic conclusion to The Hobbit takes us to the battle of the five armies, who all stake a claim in the mountain or the treasures which are inside as Smaug is let loose.

Plenty going on straight away as Smaug is picking up where he left off from the last film. Roaming around and pretty much setting fire to the whole of Laketown and killing people as he goes at it. With a few brilliant lines from the voice of Benedict Cumberbatch, which is quite frankly an early highlight of the film.

Thorin takes it upon himself to very quickly take over the mountain when Smaug has been defeated. This sees him turn power hungry very quickly, not caring what he is saying to people as he gets them to search the whole mountain for the stone, which is key for the dwarves and king of the mountain. He is pretty much driving himself mad with that and not trusting anyone around him as the search continues.

The news of Smaug’s demise travels around Middle Earth very quickly (apparently) but you wouldn’t think it with how long it actually takes to get to the battle. Honestly that does seem like forever as not much is really happening in build up to it. But even though that seemed to take forever, the battle scenes are actually very good when they get going.

Some of the death scenes (won’t spoil who) were very well done and filled with a lot of emotion. Peter Jackson does them very well let’s give him that one. I did find myself filling up with tears at times, they were right on the edge and hit hard. Which I thought was pretty impressive as I do not feel the same love for The Hobbit series as I do for the incredible Lord of the Rings.

I do like that they continue to have little moments and things for us Lord of the Rings geeks and linking everything together. Those make me smile and rather excited, yes I did just admit before that I am a total LOTR geek always have been and always will be. That also leads to a slight problem and something I didn’t actually like about this film, certain parts seemed to lift straight out of Lord of the Rings “the eagles are coming” being one example and I wasn’t a fan of that. Probably my extreme geekiness does not help though.

Another big plus is obviously seeing Sir Ian McKellen as Gandalf one last time, he really is so incredible as the wizard. The voice the way he moves and that is emotional to watch knowing that is the last we are going to get of Gandalf, quite possibly one of my all time favourite characters on film and he does not disappoint in this one.

So after 14 years the whole journey to Middle Earth has come to an end and that was very sad, but the way they end this film as the start of Fellowship is something I totally loved. Coming full circle in that way was actually a lovely touch. In all honesty I didn’t actually want see this film, well that is a lie. But I mean I didn’t want to because I didn’t want the Middle Earth journey to end.

The film does have quite a lot going on but the battle scenes do look very good and Legolas has a couple of his “moments” which will make you smile. It has the romance as well, but not too much just as a side story and that will bring a tear to your eye. We do get plenty from the different characters and their people. Martin Freeman really is a brilliant Bilbo and has such a cheeky charm to the character which is good to see.

So the end of Middle Earth . . . Thoughts on The Hobbit’s final outing?