Disc Reviews

The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies Blu-ray Review

• 20th Apr 2015

The Hobbit finally comes full circle in this final part of the trilogy. The Hobbit has received criticism overall for the fact that it has been stretched out into three films – and all over some length as well.  And whilst the first part was certainly the slower and most bloated of the three movies, it’s pleasant to see that the Battle of the Five Armies keens it fairly focussed and is the shortest of all the movies. But at almost 2 ½ hours it is still long!

The Dwarves have finally come home – and with the Dragon Smaug meeting his demise at the start of the film the find that their king intends to lock them in away from the rest of the world (suffering from a bit of dragon sickness) and not sharing any of the wealth that he had promised to those that would help them.

Primary amongst these groups as the people of lack town who were forced to do battle with Smaug and are now left homeless after their entire town was set ablaze by the beast. But also knocking at their door are the Elves who are also interested in part of the riches inside the kingdom.

Whilst the three groups bicker at the gates there is also the incoming armies of enemies – more interested in just slaughtering them all – and so the place is set for an epic battle to take place.

And oh boy when it gets going does it get going. There are so many established parties that it does indeed take the majority of the movie to follow them all through to the climax of the film.

This third part, whilst still overly CGI reliable does make plenty of room for actual physical work and make up effects which is a reminder of what worked so well for the Lord of the Rings trilogy. But whilst at times it does look a little like a computer game (See Legolas final showdown with Bolg for that), there is always a sense of urgency and character interaction to keep viewers invested. All backed up with some of the best cinematography, sound and music money can buy.

The ending is also mercifully short as we follow Bilbo (Martin freeman) back home and tie up neatly with the beginning of the Fellowship.

This 3D 4 disc edition splits the 3D version on the first two discs, a 2D version on the third disc (along with a New Zealand mini featurette) and the extras on hand are on the 4rth disc. These will tide people over until the extended edition appears at the end of the year.

Also available is the entire theatrical Hobbit trilogy as a boxset.  This includes the above editon for the battle of five armies, as well as 4 disc editions for An Unexpected Journey and The Desolation of Smaug.  The first two discs on each set comprise the 3D theatrical version of the films. A third disc contains the films in 2D as well as a couple of small extras looking at New Zealand (home of middle-earth) and a fourth disc with a handful of basic extras going behind the scenes of each film.

Of course it isn’t over just yet. Later this year, as mentioned above, we should also get the extended version of The Battle of Five Armies to look forward to. By that time we will all be praying for a third trilogy of films to follow the Lord of the Rings!

Steven Hurst