The Hobbit The Battle of the Five Armies 4K 2014 EXTENDED Ultra HD 2160p

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is an epic concluding chapter about the adventures of Bilbo Baggins, Thorin Oakenshield and a band of dwarfs. Having tried to recapture the homeland of the dwarfs from the dragon Smaug, they unwittingly awakened a deadly force. And now Smaug is about to unleash his fiery anger on the defenseless inhabitants of the Lake City.

To recover the treasure, the possessed Thorin sacrifices friendship and honor, and Bilbo's desperate attempts to restore his mind force the hobbit to make a risky choice. But the main danger lies ahead. Unknown to anyone but the wizard Gandalf, the most dangerous enemy of all Middle-earth, Sauron, sent hordes of orcs to battle at the Lonely Mountain.

Darkness is advancing on warring nations, and the races of dwarves, elves and humans must make a choice - to unite or be destroyed. So Bilbo finds himself in the heart of the epic Battle of the Five Armies, fighting for his life and the lives of his friends, when the future of Middle-earth hangs in the balance.

The Hobbit The Battle of the Five Armies 4K Review
When the dragon Smaug attacks the Lake City, he burns it to the ground, but he himself is killed by the arrow of the archer Bard (Luke Evans). The surviving townspeople head to the Lonely Mountain to receive their promised share of the dwarf and dragon treasures. The army of elves under the command of King Thranduil (Lee Pace), who also claims the wealth of the Mountain, is not long in coming. To protect their wealth, Thorin's squad (Richard Armitage) heaps stones at the central entrance and sends a request for help to the nearest Dwarf kingdom. Meanwhile, the hobbit Bilbo (Martin Freeman) is trying to reconcile the dwarves, elves and people before the attack of the army of orcs and goblins, and the members of the White Council come to the fortress of Dol Guldur to save the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) from Sauron who returned from oblivion.

After two grand episodes, where there was a lot of spectacular, but there was also a lot of pulling the cat by the tail, "The Hobbit" finally got to what it was about - for the sake of the only part of Tolkien's story, which can compete in its epicity with the most powerful chapters of The Lord of the Rings ". After all, until the moment when Smaug burns down the Lake City, "The Hobbit" is, in essence, an adventure tale, not too far removed from the Brothers Grimm. But the climactic battle at the gates of the kingdom of the dwarfs is no longer Grimm and not even Beowulf. This is Homer's Iliad, and in some ways even Tolstoy's War and Peace.

The main battle of the film involves 5,000 dwarves and elves and 36,000 orcs. As well as flocks of giant bats and a few trolls. They were all mostly drawn on computers.
So, was it worth watching the first and second "The Hobbit" in order to prepare for the brutal finale being released? It was worth it. Peter Jackson did not disappoint our expectations. The battle of the five armies is exactly what it should be - with large armies clashing in battle, with combat maneuvers and cunning, with displays of personal heroism and with one-on-one battles between key heroes and villains. Of course, all this is no longer as striking as in the days of the Lord of the Rings premieres, but that's why it's a blockbuster sequel / prequel to offer not something radically new, but a variation on an already familiar theme, but with more realistic computer graphics and with a longer battle. So if you liked the battles of "The Lord", then you will appreciate the Battle of the Five Armies with all its numerous phases, changes of scene, almost non-stop action ... And also with fighting moose, wolves, wild boars and mountain goats. And with Legolas, who, as we already know from The Lord, jumps higher than a mountain goat and, if desired, ignores the laws of physics. It's good to be an elven prince!

The only complaint we can make on Battle is that the werewolf Beorn only has two seconds of screen time in it. We understand that Jackson abandoned Tolkien's use of Beorn as a "god from the machine" in order to leave heroism to the main characters in the film. But two seconds is a betrayal of the character. Beorn earned at least ten, and preferably twenty or thirty seconds for leaving the plot shadow (and a couple more minutes in the extended version).

Although the film was filmed in New Zealand, Ian Holm (old Bilbo) and Christopher Lee (Saruman) played their roles in England at Pinewood Studios. Both elderly actors did not dare to fly to the "antipodes" due to health problems
Unfortunately, the film does not consist of one battle, and all other scenes of the picture are not equal. They can easily be divided into three groups: successful, unsuccessful, and simply weird. The first include, in particular, the moments associated with the temporary insanity of Thorin, who contracted the "dragon disease", a pathological attachment to treasures. Richard Armitage reiterated that it was not in vain that he got the role of the leader of the dwarfs. He is effective in combat and convincing in dramatic sequences - at least to the extent that a possessed paranoid gnome can be convincing. Flawless and Martin Freeman, a real treasure of the British nation.

Also successful can be called Smaug's attack on Lake City and his subsequent assassination by Bard. Jackson and Co. made the impressive episode of The Hobbit even more dramatic than Tolkien's.

To clearly unsuccessful, we rank first of all the completion of the Legolas-Tauriel-Keely love triangle invented for show. The romantic spark between the actors (and, accordingly, the characters) is completely absent, and all their attempts to portray "feelings" cause only grins and shame for Jackson, who lived to gray hair, but did not learn to shoot believable love. At least between men and women. Because if "The Lord of the Rings" thickly hinted at the platonic connection between Frodo and Sam, then "The Hobbit" is even thicker, almost in plain text, that the title hobbit really, really likes Thorin (their final scene is much more touching than that of Keely and Tauriel). This aspect of the film can be ignored if desired, but it won't be easy for an attentive viewer.

Another oddity of the picture is the ridiculous battle in Dol Guldur. Elrond chops with flickering Nazguls (someone has an alpha version of the Matrix ...), Saruman portrays the Shaolin battle wizard, and Galadriel walks barefoot through the stone ruins (hippie, stick?), Wears Gandalf weakened by imprisonment in his arms and screams heart-rendingly with the help of special effects on Sauron, who immediately retreats to Mordor. It looks at the same time bewitching and moronic. Really, it would be better if Jackson did not go into the details of the "graters" with the Necromancer-Sauron, since these scenes are only indirectly related to the main plot of "The Hobbit".

Finally, we do not know what to think about the scenes of Alfrid, the former henchman of the Mayor of Lake City, who is trying to suck up to Bard, the new leader of the townspeople. On the one hand, the tricks and punctures of this coward and egoist dilute the otherwise gloomy tape with humor. On the other hand, it is impossible to believe that Bard gives Alfrid instructions over and over again, and that he skips them over and over again. Only an idiot can rely on Alfried after so many punctures, and Bard is not an idiot. And nevertheless, closer to the finale, he trusts the bastard of his children (!). Didn't Jackson notice that he was making fun of the hero?

Finally, let's pick the finale. The Return of the King was once scolded for the fact that it had a dozen endings and the film could not end. The "Battle" has the opposite problem - it ends immediately after the battle. The painting definitely needed another, solemn scene, from which it would become clear how the treasures of the Mountain were divided and who led the dwarfs. Not that it was particularly important, but after three series of "mountain" passions, we, the audience, deserve an ending that dot the i's.

Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Audio
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby Digital 5.1

Subtitles
English SDH, German, Italian, Chinese, Korean, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish, Thai.