The Battle of the Five Armies Pt. 1

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And now for a recap that's hopefully not as long as my recap on the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy, taking up almost the entire review. The wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) recruited a Hobbit named Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) to be the burglar of a mission involving a band of dwarves, seeking to reclaim their homeland; Erebor.

Erebor, being rich in gold and jewels, was taken by a vicious dragon named Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch), and if the dwarves can best him, they can reclaim their kingdom. Above all else, the dwarves' leader, Thorin (Richard Armitage), wishes to find the Arkenstone, which will give him the power to take back his throne, and rule as king under the mountain. Along their journey, the party encounters several perils, and we get to see Bilbo's relationship with the One Ring begin, complete with a solid Gollum (Andy Serkis) cameo.

Eventually, the party is separated, as Gandalf tends to what seems to be an uprising of evil. Fans of 'Lord of the Rings' pretty much get that once Bilbo has the ring, all of the pretext to 'Lord of the Rings' is set into motion, and the extra content makes for a worthy on-screen connection to Peter Jackson's masterpiece. However, bear in mind that in the original book, almost none of this stuff is referred to, save for Bilbo actually finding the ring. Anyway, eventually the dwarves and Bilbo get to Erebor, and face-off against Smaug, ultimately angering and unleashing him onto the nearby lake town of Esgaroth, giving us the end of the last film.

Well-worth mentioning for the films is the introduction of an elvish character named Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly), and the comeback of Legolas (Orlando Bloom) who also have nothing to do with the book, and seem to be a purists worst nightmare when it comes to these movies. Tauriel can be seen as a bit too much, and Legolas is straight up fan service. Tauriel also has a completely unnecessary love-interest thing going on with Kili (Aidan Turner), which isn't overboard, but does feel crowbarred into the film, and meant to point out that the film understands what interracial couples are. I personally don't mind her, but I do understand where the overall criticism lies with her character.

Back to plot, as the film opens, we see the destruction of Esgaroth (also referred to as "Lake Town") as Smaug attacks. An imprisoned Bard (Luke Evans) breaks free, and uses a black arrow to kill Smaug almost before the movie even gets going. And there we have my first real complaint. For as exciting as the scene is, I was surprised it wasn't a little more drawn out, since the ending of the previous film seemed to spell certain doom. So trust me when I say the movie to see for Smaug is 'Desolation'. Smaug's body crushes the master of Lake Town (Stephen Fry), and Bard becomes the new leader, using his position to move his people into the nearby ruins of Dale (which was destroyed by Smaug a long time ago).

Meanwhile, Gandalf has been captured by dark forces, and held captive in Dol Guldur, where he was searching for answers about the upcoming darkness. The Nazgûl (the eventual Ring Wraiths) and a faceless Sauron, being his captors, soon face off against the most powerful characters in Middle Earth, Galadriel (Cate Blanchett), Elrond (Hugo Weaving) and Saruman (Christopher Lee). Although they are successful in their fight, and Gandalf is freed, a struggle is had, nevertheless, foreshadowing once again the upcoming events of 'Lord of the Rings'. But focusing on this, let's go back to Erebor. Thorin has become incredibly possessive of the mountain's treasure, and still searches for the Arkenstone, which Bilbo actually has found and has in his possession.

A greedy sickness comes over Thorin, very reminiscent of Gollum's behaviour in 'Lord of the Rings'. In hearing that Lake Town residents are moving into Dale, he even order the entrance to the mountain sealed off. Now, just to be clear, this basically gives us our first two armies, consisting of men and dwarves - the dwarves soon joined by Thorin's cousin, Dáin (Billy Connolly), and the men soon joined by a whole elf army (and the third army), lead by Thranduil (​Lee Pace). Thranduil is there to reclaim treasure "owed" to him by former Dwarf King, Thrór, and Bard wants Thorin to share his treasure with the now homeless people of Lake Town, with Thorin refusing to cooperate.

Eventually we get our fourth and fifth armies in the forms of the Orcs and Goblins, lead by Azog (Manu Bennett) and his son, Bolg (John Tui) as well as their dark creatures (including giant bats and wolves), and a huge chunk of the movie involves marching and fighting. As for the characters of Tauriel and Legolas, they are still here, but don't do much else than watch things from a distance, seemingly making their roles even more unnecessary than before. There's another not to Kili's desire for Tauriel, but that's about it. The biggest focus here is the fight. And, knowing how the book ends, one kind of wonders why this needed a full movie.

I still say this could have been done in a solid two films, but I've also said that I like the "extra", as opposed to some 'Hobbit' purists. I've said it before and I'll say it again; I get to see my favourite book with extra scenes, featuring this magical world. But even with that said, it does feel weird to have a full movie dedicated to this. Although this does, fairly, represent a good third of the book, I don't feel that enough really happens to grant a full film. Heck, one whole chapter is his journey home, which is basically a long walk and reminisce.

While 'Desolation' had its fair share of "extra", I have to say that I found it's "extra" more appealing overall than what's added to this. The idea that they made a whole movie (and even an extended cut of it) out of Smaug's attack, the Battle of the Five Armies, and a return trip (which we'll see in the next chapter) makes this feel altogether unnecessary, but does give me the impression that Jackson wanted to leave this all with a real "bang". However, there's only so much he can do here, and the film is largely eye candy, lacking a bit of the overall heart and quality that previous films have given. This chapter's fun and all, but as this ends and you know what's left of the book, the time makes you ponder what they will do to fill in those gaps.

3/5

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