The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies Spoilers - 12 Major Revelations Reviewed

5. The Battle Of The Five Armies

The majority of the final 90 minutes of the film are concerned with the final battle, which takes place on the land in front of the Lonely Mountain. With Azog up high manoeuvring his forces against the Free Men, it feels like they have the upper hand, and the slaughter is played off against the smaller scale story inside Erebor as Thorin ignores his duty to help, believing they can simply fortify themselves and survive. Ultimately Thorin wrestles with his madness at just the right time - after Kili and Bilbo scold him for allowing his comrades to die without help - and leads his small band of apparently specially gifted warriors against the goblins, stealing back some of their progress. At this point in the books Thorin is mortally wounded, but Jackson once more departed from the source to reinterpret that particular moment. The battle is an impressive spectacle but tonally it's all over the place: the pace changes a good few times, odds are ripped up and dramatically changed every couple of minutes and there are a lot of fan service moments that will delight some. Unfortunately the build up is a little lacking, and there's nothing like the same sort of scale of threat as in Lord Of The Rings (perhaps because most of the characters' fates are already known). The best moment comes when the Eagles appear last minute (again) with Beorn in tow, but it's a little underplayed (especially in terms of the bear's involvement).