Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies 3D Blu-ray Movie Review

"You have but one question to answer. How shall this day end?"

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown March 16, 2015

I try not to think about The Hobbit movies too hard these days. Especially The Battle of the Five Armies. I've spent the last three months doing everything I can to avoid thinking about director Peter Jackson's third Hobbit and sixth Rings installment. The more I dwell on it, the more I dislike it. I stopped mulling it over when that dislike started to take on a frightening intensity, and moved on with life. Armies is fine, I suppose... in a dutifully but dully entertaining sort of way. Granted, its flaws are far more apparent than previous Hobbit entries, Jackson's love of cartoonish hijinks is at an all time high, and everything from the plotting to the pacing to the hurried finale feel less and less like a Lord of the Rings prequel as the film trudges along. But it's hard to out and out hate a movie made with the level of sheer, increasingly silly joy Jackson invests here, even as he teeters into self-parody and ramps the action up so high that the whole of The Hobbit saga nearly comes tumbling down.

When last we left dear Master Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), Thorin (Richard Armitage) and his dwarven kin had entered Erebor, only to inadvertently unleash the deadly dragon Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch) on the nearby human settlement of Laketown. Meanwhile, half a world away, Gandalf (Ian McKellan) had been captured by the Necromancer (also Cumberbatch), who was revealed to be that ancient evil, Sauron. As The Battle of the Five Armies lurches off the starting line, Jackson makes all too quick work of both storylines; pitting Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans) and his last black arrow against Smaug the Magnificent in a fight atop a burning Laketown tower, and assembling Galadriel (Cate Blanchett), Elrond (Hugo Weaving) and Saruman (Christopher Lee) to Dol Guldur to rescue the Grey Wizard from the clutches of Sauron and the ghostly Nazgûl.

The problem is both subplots are resolved so hastily that the film begins its first-act run on a bad ankle, stumbling into an anticlimactic hitch from the get-go. It's clear Smaug should have been dealt with -- to completion -- by the end of the second film. Not tacked onto the opening of the third as a notably truncated ten-minute vignette. Also clear: the Sauron fight Jackson has been building towards since An Unexpected Journey was (mostly) for nothing. Wrapped up with a poorly realized light show and a shrug of the shoulders, it begs the question: why was the Necromancer presented as such a threat when his defeat would be handed to our heroes so easily? (Although perhaps more pressing a question is this: was the Sauron showdown left on the shelf until the last minute? The Weta Workshop visual effects are uncharacteristically weak, looking like the product of a throwback '80s fantasy rather than a film with a multi-million dollar budget.)

With Smaug and the Necromancer out of the way (among other developments, like Bard's semi-reluctant rise to leader of men), it's on to the protracted second act of The Battle of the Five Armies. Or rather, the remainder of what's essentially a sprawling action scene spread across an hour and a half of screentime. The spectacle feels thin. Sort of stretched. Like butter scraped over too much bread. And the final word in what was once a heated debate -- should The Hobbit have been split into three films? -- is now practically certain. No. Jackson should have stuck with a lean, mean two films, shaving the fat, ditching the filler, and sticking with the core of everything that makes J.R.R. Tolkien's original book the breezy, delightful adventure it is. Interestingly, Jackson visibly suffers the consequences of his decision, finding himself in a predicament he's never encountered on a Rings project. There's very little ground left to cover in The Battle of the Five Armies and plenty of time to cover it, making it the most bloated film in The Hobbit trilogy despite having the shortest runtime of any entry in the six-movie Rings saga.

The story doesn't unfold, it explodes. Thorin continues to spiral into madness, and the dwarves prepare for war while contemplating a mutiny of sorts. Bilbo is further relegated to the proverbial bench, with almost nothing of significance to do beyond delivering the Arkenstone to Lee Pace's Thranduil. Legolas (Orlando Bloom) finally makes his full transformation into a videogame protagonist, controlling a troll by driving a sword into its head and steering it by way of its brainy bits, running up falling rocks mid-swordfight, and performing other head-shaking feats of physics-defying godhood. Kili (Aidan Turner) and Tauriel's (Evangeline Lilly) near-romance is milked for all its worth. Ryan Gage's Alfrid is in the mix for... erm, some reason, Wormtonguing in Bard's ear. (And he pops up. A lot.) Thranduil and Bard are eventually sidelined, without the compelling closure to their arcs The Desolation of Smaug seemed to promise. Plenty of alpha-male chest-puffing consumes Thorin, Thranduil and guest dwarf Dáin (Billy Connolly, having a blast). Azog returns. The worms from Tremors make a cameo. Some rousing but repetitive violence ensues, with a few inspired details cooked up in the always attentive production lab. (The signal towers used by the orcs and goblin hordes to coordinate field movements are an especially subtle but nice touch.) And the titular battle of the five armies shifts and evolves as expected, with largely CG legions barreling headlong into opposing CG hordes.

There are several admittedly moving character beats, the majority of which prevent the film from leaping foolishly into heap after heap of Big Dumb Fun. Freeman's scenes with Armitage and McKellan are among the film's best, Pace exudes authority and fury with unnerving focus, the Company actors seize a number of sequences and declare them their own (Turner, Graham McTavish, Ken Stott and Dean O'Gorman chief among them), and Lilly flexes her dramatic muscle, even as Tauriel remains one of Jackson's more controversial additions to the story. The rest of the cast is terrific as well, no matter how questionable some script and story choices might be, but the war is what you paid for, and the war is what Jackson delivers. The same could be said of The Return of the King I suppose, but its stakes were higher, sacrifices greater, villains more captivating, heroes more magnetic, and its battles more grounded and invigorating.

Bottom line? The Battle of the Five Armies is a decently engaging three-star amusement park ride, but be warned: the more you scrutinize, the deeper you look, and the closer you examine all the moving parts, the more dissatisfied you're likely to become. And it isn't long before that dissatisfaction breeds disappointment. Movie magic gives way to cheap tricks, character drama is often minimalized, and too much heavy lifting is left to the always excellent cast, who aren't given much to work with in Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens' grunt-heavy screenplay. Just over the course of penning this review, my trigger finger has been itching, tempting me to drop my movie score another half-point. So why so much contempt? The trajectory of The Hobbit films has been clear since the dwarves faced the Goblin King in An Unexpected Journey, as has Jackson's relative lack of real passion for Tolkien's text. With The Lord of the Rings trilogy, every effort was made to honor the books, barring several widely discussed changes the filmmakers' acknowledged countless times as necessary evils. Jackson didn't have a burning desire to make The Hobbit trilogy, though; signing on only after Guillermo del Toro bowed out. That initial reluctance seeps into The Battle of the Five Armies. It's not that Jackson isn't passionate about the film he's made. He is, and his joy oozes out of each shot, scene and delirious clash of the Tolkien titans. It's just that his passion isn't in the original story. He loved Tolkien's "Rings." He merely had a fondness for "The Hobbit," and the difference becomes fairly obvious when comparing both trilogies.

The Battle of the Five Armies is more successful when viewed solely as a conclusion of Jackson's Hobbit trilogy. As the sixth and final piece in his Rings saga, as a bridge between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings films, or as an action drama, there are more serious problems that undermine the things Jackson is working to accomplish. Perhaps some revelatory material has been saved for the November 2015 Extended Edition that will right character-arc wrongs and add depth to the shallowness of all the spectacle. However, if that's the case, another issue presents itself. At 144 minutes, there's room for additional material in the theatrical version of The Battle of the Five Armies. If the Extended Edition runtime parallels the theatrical runtimes of An Unexpected Journey and The Desolation of Smaug, Jackson will be accused (perhaps rightfully so) of withholding scenes the film desperately needed, all to preserve extra minutes for the EE cut. Could this be the last lingering consequence of dividing The Hobbit into three filler- riddled chapters? My Spidey Sense is tingling. Until we find out for sure, though, we're left with little choice but to hope for the best and settle for the lesser of the three Hobbit theatrical releases.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies 3D Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The 3D Combo Pack release of The Battle of the Five Armies features a 1080p/AVC-encoded 2D video presentation and an MVC-encoded 3D experience, both of which are impressive, striking, and comparable to the Blu-ray releases of An Unexpected Journey and The Desolation of Smaug. There's some minor but noticeable crush here and there, as well as a few anomalies born from Jackson's at-times aggressive digital color grading, but none of it proves all that distracting. Even the darkest scenes look great, without much to nitpick or criticize. Colors are largely bleak and wintry, with searing skies and ominous shadows framing a rather stark image, gray, blue and purple tones dominating the palette throughout the film's titular battle, and high contrast whitewashing a number of overcast scenes. Several sequences offer richer, warmer hues -- Smaug's attack in particular -- but these are the exception rather than the rule. Still, it's perfectly in step with Jackson and cinematographer Andrew Lesnie's intentions and quite stunning on the whole, not to mention free from significant artifacting, banding, aliasing and other issues. Detail is terrific too, with crisp, razor-sharp edges, refined textures and revealing close-ups.

The 3D experience is perhaps even more jaw-dropping than its 2D counterpart, and without any additional aliasing or crosstalk sensitivity that might spoil the wow factor. A handful of scenes are a tad flat by comparison to those that come before and after, but it hardly matters. The bulk of the battle expands outward, along fields strewn with corpses, and far into the distance with convincing, occasionally breathtaking depth of field. A variety of shots perch high above the battlefield, reveling in the full breadth of the armies and hordes, as well as the burning cities, chaotic encampments and crumbling fortresses, while others dive into the thick of the fight, capturing the film's heroes and villains with outstanding dimensionality that brings the characters to three-dimensional life. The Battle of the Five Armies is short on 3D gimmickry too. Jackson has his fun now and again, but rarely in a way that yanks the viewer out of the immersive visual experience. All told, like the two films that precede it, the third entry in The Hobbit trilogy delivers the high definition goods.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies 3D Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

No complaints here. Warner's DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 surround track is another winner, bolstered by the deafening chorus of war Jackson and company wholeheartedly embrace at every turn. Dragons roar, fires rage, arrows fly, magic surges, swords clash, axes fall, iron meets steel, trolls crash through walls, towers topple, buildings collapse, Were-worms erupt from the ground, wargs snarl, dwarven shields form walls, elves leap into the fray, orcs and goblins charge to their deaths, and Thorin and his allies go toe to toe with all manner of beast, monster and villain. And every arrow shunks into place, every piece of armor shink shinks with weight, every strike carries strength. Low-end output is hearty and powerful, lending heft and presence to anything and everything that requires oomph. Rear speaker activity is engaging and absorbing, complete with precise directional effects, slick cross-channel pans, and an enveloping soundfield that's as inviting as it is immersive. Add to that dialogue that never fails or falters -- thanks to intelligible, convincingly grounded voices and flawless prioritization -- and you have a 7.1 lossless track that's armed to the teeth and ready for battle.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies 3D Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• New Zealand: Home of Middle-earth Part 3 (HD, 6 minutes): The third and final overview of the various New Zealand locations used to bring Jackson's Middle-earth to life on screen.
• Recruiting the Five Armies (HD, 12 minutes): Meet the jovial extras of The Battle of the Five Armies as they get in costume, prep for battle, chow down at lunch time, and make the lead actors look especially heroic during the climactic showdown. It's a fun behind the scenes piece, with a few hearty laughs for good measure.
• Completing Middle-earth: A Six-Part Saga (HD, 10 minutes): Director Peter Jackson introduces "the last piece of the puzzle" and discusses the connective tissue that joins it within the six-film Rings epic.
• Completing Middle-earth: A Seventeen-Year Journey (HD, 9 minutes): Over the course of nearly two decades, Jackson and company immersed themselves in Tolkien's Middle-earth, delivering one of the most ambitious film series ever committed to film.
• The Last Goodbye: Behind the Scenes (HD, 11 minutes): Jackson, writer/co-producer Philippa Boyens and others take a look at the writing and recording of the song that graces the film's end credits: actor Billy Boyd's "The Last Goodbye."
• Music Video (HD, 4 minutes): "The Last Goodbye" with Boyd.
• Trailers (HD, 4 minutes): A Five Armies trailer and a Desolation of Smaug EE promo.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies 3D Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Battle of the Five Armies is the weakest entry in The Hobbit trilogy, which also happens to make it the weakest film in Jackson's six-chapter Rings saga. It's not a terrible film, just rather uninspired, with a burdensome series of showdowns that provide closure but little else. Ah well. The cast is as terrific as ever, Jackson's battle scenes are reasonably exciting, and several strong character beats help pull it through to the end. Warner's 3D Blu-ray release is much better, though you'll have to wait for the Extended Edition later this year to find the special features everyone wants to see. Fortunately, its excellent video presentation, first class 3D experience and powerful DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 surround track will make the wait a bit easier to bear. Will the Extended Edition save The Battle of the Five Armies from Phantom Menace levels of divisiveness and dismissal? Time will tell. Until then, the outlook isn't entirely positive.