The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Director Peter Jackson brought his legendary Middle earth journey to a massive close back in 2014 with an epic finale that puts everything on the line. You watch Martin Freeman give a deeply grounded performance as Bilbo Baggins, trying to survive a brutal military conflict he never asked to join. We also get Richard Armitage portraying the tragic descent of Thorin Oakenshield as gold sickness completely consumes his mind inside the lonely mountain. I always tell my friends to watch this final chapter if they want to see the ultimate consequences of greed in a fantasy world. The story drops you right into the chaotic opening minutes of a fiery dragon attack before transitioning into a colossal war involving dwarves, elves, and orcs. A closer look beneath the flying arrows and heavy armor reveals a surprisingly sad story about friendship destroying itself over treasure. A structural analysis shows that every political standoff at the fortress gates mirrors the internal corruption eating away at the dwarf king.

Cinematographer Andrew Lesnie makes the snowy mountain peaks look both breathtaking and completely unforgiving. You immediately notice how the heavy gray and blue tones dominate the battlefield to make the military conflict feel as cold and brutal as possible. I do get a little annoyed when the camera relies far too heavily on computer generated armies charging across open fields during the wide shots. The heavy digital effects sometimes make the massive tactical formations look a bit too much like a video game cutscene instead of a real historical battle. A quick jump back to the tight hand to hand combat inside the ruined city squares thankfully restores a much better visual tension. The costume department gives the elven warriors glowing silver armor to completely separate their clean royal status from the dirty rags of the invading orc hordes.

Pay attention to the set design and you will see how the physical spaces completely reflect the moral decay of the characters. The golden interior of the Erebor treasury feels very authentic because the towering piles of coins and glittering jewels match a king losing his soul to wealth. A trip over to the ruined human city of Dale offers a totally different vibe entirely. The broken stone walls and burning wooden bridges look like a tragic war zone built on the mistakes of others. My main complaint involves the giant mechanical war beasts brought by the enemy forces. The massive metal worms tunneling through the earth look a bit too cartoonish and distracting for a movie grounded in traditional fantasy lore. The choice to trap these brave heroes on isolated stone towers forces a natural claustrophobia that jumps right off the screen.

You really have to listen to the crashing metal to understand the sheer weight of this war movie. My ears constantly catch the heavy thud of war hammers and the terrifying roars of giant bats right before a major charge begins. The editing moves at a very fast pace during the first half to resolve the lingering dragon crisis before immediately diving into a relentless two hour battle sequence. We hear a deeply emotional and sweeping musical score composed by Howard Shore, and that bold choice makes the tragic deaths feel incredibly massive. The sudden silence when a major character speaks quietly amid the loud chaos actually makes the battlefield feel terrifyingly lonely.

Let us clear up some common mysteries about this fantasy blockbuster finale.

- Was this movie originally supposed to have a different title? Yes, the studio actually planned to release the film under the title There and Back Again, but they changed it late in production to better reflect the focus on the massive final war.

- Did the actors spend months filming against a green screen? The production crew used massive soundstages filled with green screens for almost all the battle scenes, meaning the actors rarely worked on actual outdoor terrain.

- Is this the final cinematic trip to Middle earth? This film marked the absolute end of the Peter Jackson Middle earth movie era, concluding a cinematic journey that started way back with the first Fellowship film.

The incredible musical score and the emotional farewells keep me coming back, but I cannot deny that the endless action sequences start to feel exhausting. Certain digital fight scenes stretch on for so long that you almost lose your connection to the personal stakes of the characters.

Fans of epic fantasy will definitely love finding the hidden weapon details in these massive armories. If you think you have the eye to spot the arkenstone in our daily movie guessing game or just want a fun challenge for your break, test your skills at Flickle. You can also play our popular movie wordle to prove your ultimate pop culture knowledge.