THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES

Reviewed by Paul Gibbs

GRADE: A
Starring Ian McKellan, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Cate Blanchett, Ken Stott, Orlando Bloom
Screenplay by Peter Jackson & Fran Walsh  &Phillipa Boyens & Guillermo Del Toro
Directed by Peter Jackson
Rated PG-13 for war violence

Relax, it's good.

Peter Jackson's The Hobbit trilogy has garnered decidedly mixed reactions, especially compared to his more universally beloved and acclaimed Lord of the Rings trilogy, most of it having to do with the often obvious padding required to turn one fairly short novel into three epic films. Thankfully, he has arguably saved the best for last in The Battle of the Five Armies, a thrilling, emotional and above all just plain satisfying epic. While (for all its admitted shortcomings) I am an unabashed fan of the Hobbit film series, I suspect even some Jackson/Tolkien fans who've been underwhelmed so far will greet Five Armies a little more warmly. Yes, it's still a bit overstuffed and takes liberties with the source material, but it doesn't take as many lengthy detours, and it wraps things up in such a satisfying manner that I felt closer to having seen the Hobbit movie (singular, not plural) I'd always imagined. No, those who truly hated the first two films won't be won over. But those who were ambivalent might find themselves with more positive feelings about the series as a whole. While I rank the leisurely-paced An Unexpected Journey as the most charming chapter,  and the thrilling adventure of The Desolation of Smaug the most fun, The Battle of the Five Armies is the most complete of the trilogy, and not just because it's the only one that gets to build to a full resolution. Jackson and his cohorts have effectively mixed the dramatic elements this time around to give us a rousing climax.

The story picks up where The Desolation of Smaug left off, with the fearsome dragon (who I have no doubt half the audience still lusts after because he's voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) swooping in to destroy Lake Town, and the heroic Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans) doing his best to defend home and family from the winged menace. Meanwhile, Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) has assumed his rightful place as King Under the Mountain in the dwarf kingdom of Erebor. But Thorin has changed: he's becoming increasingly greedy and paranoid, so much so that Bilbo (Martin Freeman) is afraid to give him the coveted Arkenstone. After Smaug is defeated,  the men of what remains of Lake Town come to Erebor looking for shelter, help and the gold Thorin promised them. But Thorin's greed gets the better of him, and he refuses to keep his promise. Meanwhile, the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellan)  is still off dealing with the Necromancer, who were learned in The Desolation of Smaug is actually the evil lord Sauron, and the orc Azog (Manu Bennett) converges his armies to march on Erebor, as does the wood-elf king Thranduil (Lee Pace). Soon, all of the groups converge for the titular altercation, an extended set piece which rivals the battles of Helm's Deep and the Pelinor Fields for the most spectacular of Jackson's career.

Despite a small change from the source material which bothered me, the battle with Smaug is every bit as thrilling and spectacular as I hoped. And the film just keeps getting better from there, ramping up the drama and battle action in ways which recall the Oscar-winning The Return of the King. Character interactions are deepened (especially between Bilbo and Thorin, with Freeman and Armitage both doing excellent work), all plot threads come together, and Jackson again proves he can shoot a battle scene as well as any filmmaker in history. Some of the action here is wildly inventive, and as usual Jackson shows an ability to make what would likely normally seem horrific (like decapitations) thrilling and even funny. However, it's worth pointing out that, while short of blood and gore, the film is filled with wall-to-wall violence. Among the emotional character moments, the relationship between dreamy dwarf Killi and elf babe Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly)  feels more than a little rushed. These characters have had very few actual interactions, after all. But Turner and Lilly, along with Jackson, sell it so well that I found my sense of logic losing out to the emotion. Besides, even if he's too good-looking to be a dwarf, there's a short guy part of me that can't help but love the idea of an elf girl falling for a dwarf.

My only real complaints come from the fact that the CGI is sometimes less convincing than it should be (a few sequences with Orlando Bloom's Legolas drift into Playstation territory), and far too much screen time is given to annoying and unfunny comic relief from the weaselly Alfrid (Ryan Gage). Otherwise, I feel Jackson has given us a thrilling, stirring, eye-popping epic that ranks with the best blockbusters of recent years and cements this trilogy's overall success. This is a film which recognizes that big emotions are as important as sweeping vistas and massive armies to creating an epic. Watching it, the problems inherent in stretching the book out to three films faded from my mind, and I found myself reveling in the glory of Jackson's Middle Earth, one of the most memorable world in the history of literature, and now cinema. Freeman is now as definitive to me as Bilbo as Elijah Wood is as Frodo, and the dwarves have been done justice (which is a huge statements from . I'd be depressed to have the series end if we weren't getting that other fantasy trilogy starting up next year. While The Hobbit t hasn't been the unqualified success that The Lord of the Rings was, I feel it has been an overall satisfying voyage there and back again.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies easily ranks among the best blockbusters of 2014 for me. It's rated PG-13 for intense battle violence that (as always) would easily earn it an R if theses were people getting hacked and smashed instead of orcs.