Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		0.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.5

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

The journey ends (as it begins).

The conclusion of the epic Hobbit trilogy, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is the grand finale to the Middle Earth saga Peter Jackson began with The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Out of all three films in the prequel trilogy, the action is the most-intense during this final outing. As war wages on, the epic brings closure to the story and to the audience as well. We have arrived, truly: there and back again.

It's hard to say goodbye to something we love.

For more information on the theatrical edition, please refer to the original review by Blu-ray.com writer Kenneth Brown. Please Note: the star-rating on this edition reflects my own opinion of the feature-film.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Arriving on 4K UHD Blu-ray from Warner Bros., The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is presented in a 2160p HEVC / H.265 encode in an aspect ratio of 2.40:1 widescreen. This is a marvelous presentation that delivers on every level. Another exceptional 4K encode that is an enormous upgrade. As The Hobbit was filmed using native 5K cameras, the visuals are truly a spectacular sight-to-behold.

Let's begin by recognizing that the presentation is encoded at 24 fps. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies has a natural, cinematic, and dynamic visual presentation. Though Peter Jackson released these films in select cinemas in a native high-frame-rate version, the HFR presentation is not duplicated for these discs. There is no dreaded soap-opera-effect or anything of the like. These are gorgeous, filmic presentations.

Unlike the other two entries produced in The Hobbit Trilogy, The Battle of the Five Armies often feels like one massive, extended war film. Though there is still more to the production than the epic battle alone, at the heart of the film is the epic conclusion to the three-film saga: a roaring war epic that brings together five armies to battle-it-out.

The opening of the film is the one exception, as the beginning concludes the battle against the fire breathing Smaug. This is one of the visual highlights of the entire saga. As flames spread across the town, the brilliant use of HDR enhances the sequences and makes it soar to greater heights than ever before. The level of detail is enormous and the colorful HDR is vibrant, punchy, and enthralling. Black levels are outstanding.

As the film pulls in to the epic battle between five armies, the 4K UHD presentation remains a truly remarkable, reference-quality one. The encoding never misses the mark: there are no compression artifacts and other similar woes to take one outside of the story. Every scene seems flawless and breathtaking.

The 4K UHD presentation is particularly notable in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies for showcasing the production design and the vividly realized CGI wizardry. These are grand scale adventures. There certainly are many shots which benefit from the uptick in resolution and the showstopping HDR grade. The orcs, elves, and other fighters in the epic battle shine with more precision, detail, and clarity than ever before.

Note: The screenshots in the review are from the 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded Blu-ray edition of the feature-film.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Featuring a top-notch Dolby Atmos sound design, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is a stunning audio experience on 4K UHD. The use of the overhead sound effects from the Dolby Atmos sound mixing is impressive and manages to make the battle scenes feel even more immersive and compelling throughout the entire experience. There is nary a moment during these fight sequences where one doesn't feel fully immersed in to the film and the epic scale of the production.

Every arrow shot, every blade plunged, and every breath by dragon sounds lively and intense with this sound mix. The entire last act of The Battle of the Five Armies is a non-stop frenzy of sound-effects and the expanded Atmos mixing ramps up the intensity even more-so than previous releases. The beautiful and intense score composed by Howard Shore sounds crisp, clear, and better than ever. While earlier releases on Blu- ray weren't lacking in impressive dynamics for the audio-presentation, the Atmos mixing adds some extra excitement to the film.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

As with the other two releases in The Hobbit: The Motion-Picture Trilogy 4K, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies includes no supplemental features. They have been scorched by Smaug. Warner Bros decided to opt out of including extras (or Blu-ray discs at all, for that matter) under the assumption most fans already own them.

Please Note: Warner Bros will release an ultimate Middle Earth collectors edition box-set in Summer 2021 with all six-films across both trilogies and newly produced bonus features (which are currently being prepared).

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The epic and emotional finale of The Hobbit Trilogy arrives with The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. The special effects and technical wizardry of the concluding film is outstanding to behold on every level. If there is one downside to the theatrical cut, it is that some sequences show obvious cuts – more so than previous theatrical versions in the Middle Earth saga. One can sense that the deleted sequences held real weight.

On that note, the extended edition is even more impressive than the theatrical cut (and is also included in the 4K box-set). Sometimes it is hard to say goodbye... and saying one last farewell to The Hobbit series isn't easy. Yet the finale is one no fan will want to go without seeing and the 4K UHD presentation is immaculate: reference-grade on every level. Essential.