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The Film

[Rating:4.5/5]

With The Battle of the Five Armies, Peter Jackson brings his long journey through the works of J.R.R. Tolkien’s works to a close, using his experiences with The Lord of the Rings films and the appendices from Tolkien’s Rings to create a sprawling epic.

One wouldn’t have thought it possible that The Hobbit, a slight book, could have made a compelling trilogy in comparison to its more natural triadic sibling, especially after the rather uneventful beginning, but the saga of hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) and the dwarves, led by the journeyman-king Thorin Okenshield (Richard Armitage) finds its best story and dram yet in the action-packed finale, similar to what Jackson did with his work on The Lord of the Rings, bringing it to its peak in the final film.

Here, surprisingly, Bilbo is nearly relegated to minor status as the film begins where The Desolation of Smaug ended, with the avaricious dragon laying fiery waste to Lake-town, and the dwarves, the bowman Bard (Luke Evans) desperately trying to fell the giant monster. When the bowman manages to take Smaug (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch; TV’s Sherlock; Star Trek Into Darkness) down with an ancient arrow, it finally clears the way for Thorin and his band of loyal followers to return to their home beneath the mountain. It’s a home filled with an uncountable amount of riches in gold and jewels, but Thorin soon finds himself succumbing to “dragon sickness,” the pleonexia that affects almost all of the dwarf rulers under the mountain, doomed to coveting their treasure above all. It is only made worse by his failure to find the king’s jewel, the Arkenstone that belongs to the ruler of the dwarves. When Bilbo notices the change in Thorin, he hides the Arkenstone away, but this is the least of the troubles. Thorin has gone back on his promise to the men of Lake-town to pay them for their assistance, and the Elvin leader Thranduil (Lee Pace; TV’s Halt and Catch Fire) also holds claim to Elvish jewels being held under the mountain. This sets up an enormous battle between the dwarves, and the men and Elves allied against them. However, a massive Orc army, sent to keep the dwarves from reclaiming the mountain so that Sauron can regain a strategic foothold, is also bearing down on everyone.

This final installment has everything one wished the first two Hobbit films had, those are an involving story, great characters, stunning action, and even some humor – Ryan Gage is the perfect comic relief in the classic Shakespearean manner as Alfrid, the cretinous Lake-town bootlicker. Jackson also gives us a star-crossed love story between the elf Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) and dwarf Kili (Aidan Turner), but far from being syrupy, this only serves to help heighten the tension in the film’s climactic closing battle sequences that also involves giant orcs, Legolas (Orlando Bloom; The Three Musketeers) on a crumbling bridge in a sword fight like a modern day Errol Flynn, a cracking frozen lake, giant bats, and giant eagles.

Yes, rather than giving us another ponderous, transitional film, Peter Jackson has delivered the goods, even if it has taken three films to get us here. But far from being just a splendid actioner, The Battle of the Five Armies does do what was promised with An Unexpected Journey, in that it shows us the growth of a young hobbit, Bilbo, from an uptight, naïve, homebody into a valorous and even more friendly man.

Even with all of that there’s just a little something missing from The Battle of the Five Armies. It feels like a film that lacks some closure. It’s perhaps an unavoidable trap being that The Hobbit precedes the events of The Lord of the Rings, even if Peter Jackson takes some liberties with the original source material. Anyone familiar with what is to some next will be left feeling just a little hollow, and Jackson doesn’t help, choosing to end this film on the beginnings of The Fellowship of the Ring.

The extended edition contains lots of additional footage that adds to the epic nature of this film. Here is a rundown of the new and extended scenes and their time marks on the Blu-ray Disc:

New* and Extended** Scenes:

• Bard the Dragon-Slayer** (00:12:47)
• Attack on Dol Goldur** (00:27:33)
• “Summon Our Friends** (00:35:45)
• The Elvenking’s Aid** (00:43:11)
• The Night Watch* (01:00:26)
• An Honest Burglar** (01:06:10)
• Dáin Ironfoot** (01:12:23)
• The Clouds Burst** (01:17:22)
• The Darkest Hour** (01:24:57)
• “To the King!”** (01:35:12)
• A Call to Arms** (01:38:32)
• Thorin’s Plan** (01:39:42)
• The War Chariot* (01:41:00)
• Courage and Cowardice** (01:45:03)
• An Unforeseen Remedy* (01:52:59)
• The Battle at Ravenhill** (01:57:15)
• To the Death** (01:57:15)
• The King Under the Mountain* (02:20:07)

New Scene Caps: (See review of Theatrical Edition Blu-ray for further screen caps)

Video Quality

[Rating:4.5/5]

The Battle of the Five Armies was shot in HD on the Red Epic, Red One, and Sony DVW-790 cameras. The overall image quality remains consistent with the other two Hobbit films on Blu-ray and generally with the entire Hobbit/LOTR saga, having that ethereal, soft patina that often softens details. It’s not an aftereffect of poor encoding, but rather an artistic choice. There are no issues with compression noise or posterization in the digital source. I couldn’t spot any real differences in quality between this extended edition Blu-ray and the theatrical release Blu-ray.

Audio Quality

[Rating:5/5]

I had the pleasure of viewing The Battle of the Five Armies at the Dolby Theatre in New York with an Atmos mix. I have not taken the plunge into Atmos for the home yet, but it doesn’t matter anyway for this title, since the Five Armies duke it out on Blu-ray with a DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 (48kHz/24-bit) mix. It may not have sounds overhead, but it is still a very good and aggressive mix with lots of solid sounds in the surround channels, deep low end extension, easy highs, and clear dialogue that stays up over the fray.
Supplemental Materials

[Rating:5/5]

This is where the extended editions for the LotR franchise has always stood out. The appendices cover every aspect of the production and include extensive behind the scenes footage, interviews with the cast, crew, director, productions diaries and more.

• Digital HD UltraViolet

Main Feature Disc Extras:

• The Filmmakers’ Commentary – director/writer/producer Peter Jackson and writer/co-producer Philippa Boyens offer their perspectives and stories on creating the third and final film of The Hobbit Trilogy.
• New Zealand: Home of Middle-Earth – Part 3 (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 00:06:07) – From Lake Pukaki M. Crawford, the cast and crew introduce the epic Film 3 locaitons of New Zealand, transformed by the filmmakers into Middle-earth.
• Trailers (1080p/24; 00:07:17):
• Trailer #1
• Trailer #2
• Legacy Trailer

Disc 2 (The Appendices Part 11):

• The Gathering Storm – The Chronicles of The Hobbit – Part 3 (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 04:52:49):
  • Opening

1. In the Dungeons of the Necromancer
2. Fire and Water
3. Under the Shadow of the Mountain
4. In the Wake of the Dragon
5. The Gathering of the Clouds
6. Many Partings
7. The Clouds Burst
8. A Last Desperate Stand
9. Out from the Gate
10. The Last Stage
11. Credits

Disc 3 (The Appendices Part 12):

• Here at Journey’s End (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 05:00:14):
  • Beneath the Thunder: Forging a Battle of Five Armies
  • The Peoples and Denizens of Middle-Earth
  • Realms of the Third Age: From the City of Dale to the Halls of Erebor
  • Farewell, Friends!
  • Bonus Features:
  • Butt-Numb-A-Thon 2011 Greeting (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 00:11:43)
  • “Rivers of Gold” Music Video (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 00:04:32)
  • The Real Adam Brown (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 00:05:25)
  • Andrew Lesnie Remembered (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 00:05:47)
• Credits

The Definitive Word

Overall:

The Battle of the Five Armies still feels like a film that lacks some closure. It’s perhaps an unavoidable trap being that The Hobbit precedes the events of The Lord of the Rings, even if Peter Jackson takes some liberties with the original source material. Anyone familiar with what is to come next will be left feeling just a little hollow, and Jackson doesn’t help, choosing to end this film on the beginnings of The Fellowship of the Ring. Still, the film offers a rollicking time and a fantastic, energetic ending to the Hobbit trilogy. This new extended edition makes the film just a tad bit more involving and also well worth the price, despite lacking the 3D that the previous versions had.