THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES
Director: Peter Jackson
Cert: 12A 144 mins
The final instalment in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy is, as with the first two films, tonally and stylistically very similar to his epic Lord of the Rings trilogy. If you, like me, are of the opinion that no film can be too much like Lord of the Rings, then The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is excellent.
The armies of dwarves, elves, men, and goblins (with eagles swooping in later as the fifth army) converge on the Lonely Mountain for different reasons, including treasure and strategic importance. The dwarf king Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), having reclaimed his homeland of Erebor and the cursed treasure within, succumbs to dragon-sickness, resulting in increasing levels of greed, obsession, and paranoia.