By Austin Chiavaroli, Staff Writer
Peter Jackson’s previous Hobbit films have been successful, just as his other Tolkien film trilogy, “The Lord of the Rings.” Finally, the last installment of the Tolkien movies has been released to theaters, “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.”
The story picks up from the last movie where the terrible fire breathing dragon Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch) has been angrily driven out of the Lonely Mountain by the pestering of the Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), and the fellow dwarves he has been accompanying the past two films and. Driven to the Laketown down below the mountain, Smaug terrorizes the town, burning it and destroying more and more houses. After some incredible destructive scenes the dragon is slain by Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans) and soon a new issue emerges. From the halls of the abandoned dwarvish city where the dragon once made its home, the Arkenstone, a very prized stone said to bring the madness of the previous Dwarf King disappears. Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), the heir to the throne and leader of the group begins to have the dwarves and Bilbo search for the stone throughout the city. With Thorin’s mind becoming more and more insane from the loss of the stone, the lake-folk and Elves come seeking their returned riches and food and shelter inside the city. When Thorin disagrees and goes back on his word from greed, a war is declared between the three races. However, during all of this, Orcs have begun raising a skillfully trained army to take the Lonely Mountain as territory now that the dragon has been vanquished. When the day of the war comes, the orcs make their appearance and the three raced must band together to defeat this new dark foe that has entered the battlefield.
The actors are still as spectacular as their performances have been in the last two films with Martin Freeman making Bilbo seem fragile but brave hearted and courageous when need be, and Richard Armitage brilliantly acting a deranged Thorin quite well. Ian McKellen also still plays the role of the kind hearted, but very powerful, Gandalf the Grey Wizard.
Though this is a Tolkien film produced by Peter Jackson, it still has a few flaws. The movie drags a lot with multiple conversations that either have no purpose in the movie or lead to nowhere for the characters. At times the action in the film feels very slow and not as believable as it could be with better produced work. Finally, there is the many parts of the film that do not happen in the book, though this is common in book-based cinematic features, this movie strays a little too far off from the original Tolkien book.
Even with those flaws, this film is one or is the best film of the year 2014. Definitely a great send off to the year and to Peter Jackson Tolkien movie franchise. This movie gets a rating of 5 stars, definitely a movie that anyone can check out and enjoy this winter.
