It was December 2014. Peter Jackson was standing on the edge of a decade-long legacy, trying to land a plane that had grown significantly larger than anyone originally planned. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies wasn't just a movie; it was the final exhale of a massive, billion-dollar gamble to turn a 300-page children's book into a nine-hour cinematic epic. Honestly, it was a lot. Some people loved the sheer scale of it, while others felt like they were watching a video game that just wouldn't end.
You've probably heard the stories about the production. It was chaotic. Jackson famously stepped in after Guillermo del Toro left, inherited a pre-production schedule that was basically non-existent, and ended up "winging it" on set for some of the biggest battle sequences ever put to film. That pressure shows. It's in the grit of Thorin’s dragon sickness and the slightly-too-smooth CGI of the Orc armies.
The Dragon in the Room: Smaug’s Quick Exit
One of the weirdest things about The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is that the titular character of the previous film—the terrifying, Benedict Cumberbatch-voiced Smaug—is dead before the title card even hits the screen. It’s a bold choice. He burns Lake-town, gets a black arrow to the chest from Bard, and falls. Boom. Done.
Critics like Peter Bradshaw from The Guardian pointed out at the time that this left the rest of the movie feeling a bit like an extended epilogue. Without the dragon, the stakes shifted from a survival horror/heist vibe to a geopolitical dispute over gold. It’s a hard pivot.
Think about it: the movie spends its first fifteen minutes killing off the main antagonist. What’s left is a messy, complicated look at "dragon sickness." Richard Armitage carries this whole section. His portrayal of Thorin Oakenshield is legitimately tragic. You see the greed literally changing his voice, his posture, and his eyes. It’s the most "human" part of a movie filled with giant bats and CGI goats.
What actually happens in the "Five Armies" part?
The title promises a fight, and it delivers about 45 minutes of it. But who are the five armies? People still argue about this because Tolkien’s book and Jackson’s movie frame them slightly differently.
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Basically, you have:
- The Elves (Thranduil’s crew, mostly there for the jewelry).
- The Dwarves (Dain Ironfoot’s army, riding battle-hogs).
- The Men (The survivors of Lake-town).
- The Orcs/Goblins (Azog and Bolg’s forces).
- The Eagles (or the Wargs, depending on which lore expert you ask, though the movie treats the Eagles and Beorn as the "deus ex machina" save).
Dain Ironfoot, played by Billy Connolly, is a CGI creation that still looks a bit jarring today. Connolly’s performance is great, but the technology was pushed so fast that he sometimes feels like he’s from a different movie than the practical-makeup Dwarves we’ve followed for three films.
The Problem with the Love Triangle
We have to talk about Tauriel. Evangeline Lilly is great, and she actually requested that her character not be part of a love triangle. Then, during reshoots, the studio pushed for the Kili-Tauriel-Legolas tension. It’s often cited by fans as the biggest "why is this here?" moment of the trilogy.
It takes away from the core friendship between Bilbo and Thorin. That’s the heart of the story. When Bilbo gives up the Arkenstone to Thranduil and Bard to prevent a war, he’s betraying his friend to save his soul. That’s heavy stuff! But the movie frequently cuts away to Legolas doing gravity-defying stunts on falling bricks. It’s a tonal whiplash that defines the 144-minute runtime.
Behind the Scenes Chaos
It isn't a secret anymore that Peter Jackson was exhausted. In the "Behind the Scenes" features on the Extended Edition—which, frankly, are more fascinating than the movie itself—Jackson admits he was often making up the shots on the day.
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- No Scripts: Sometimes the actors were getting pages the morning of the shoot.
- The Bridge Fight: The final confrontation between Thorin and Azog on the ice was redesigned multiple times.
- Physical Toll: Jackson lost a massive amount of weight and looked visibly drained in production diaries.
This explains why the movie feels so different from The Fellowship of the Ring. Fellowship had years of prep. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies was a freight train that couldn't stop.
Does the Extended Edition fix it?
Actually, kinda. The R-rated Extended Edition adds about 20 minutes. It includes a lot more of the actual "battle." You get war chariots, more Beorn (who was sadly sidelined in the theatrical cut), and a much more coherent flow to the fighting. If you’ve only seen the version that played in theaters, you’ve missed the most "Metal" version of Middle-earth ever put to screen. There are literal decapitations and troll-on-dwarf violence that the PG-13 rating just wouldn't allow.
The Ending That Connects to Rings
The final moments of the film are designed to lead you right into the start of the original trilogy. Bilbo returns to Bag End, finds his stuff being auctioned off, and settles in. He looks at the Ring. The music swells into the familiar Shire theme.
It works. It’s nostalgic.
But it also reminds you that the small, quiet moments of The Hobbit book were often buried under the weight of trying to make a prequel to Lord of the Rings. Martin Freeman is the MVP here. His Bilbo is understated, funny, and deeply moved by the loss of his friends. When he says goodbye to Balin, it hurts.
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Why it still matters today
Despite the flaws, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies represents the end of an era. It was the last time we saw the "Middle-earth" aesthetic created by Weta Workshop and Jackson before the Rings of Power series moved the production to different hands and styles.
There’s a craftsmanship in the physical props and the costumes that is still unmatched. Even if you hate the CGI gold or the 48fps "High Frame Rate" look, you can't deny the work that went into the armor, the sets, and the weapons.
If you’re looking to revisit the film or understand its place in cinema history, here are the reality-based takeaways:
- Watch the Extended Edition: It’s the only way the battle sequences actually make tactical sense. The theatrical cut is a bit of a jigsaw puzzle with missing pieces.
- Focus on the Thorin/Bilbo Arc: Ignore the side plots for a second. The story of a small person trying to save a king from his own greed is a classic Tolkien theme that Armitage and Freeman nail perfectly.
- Compare the "Making Of" docs: If you’re a film student or a buff, the Appendices for this movie are a masterclass in how to handle—and sometimes succumb to—immense production pressure.
- Check out the soundtrack: Howard Shore’s score for this final installment, particularly the track "The Last Farewell" sung by Billy Boyd (Pippin), is a beautiful bridge between the two trilogies.
The film isn't perfect. It’s bloated, it’s loud, and it’s occasionally exhausting. But it’s also a grand, ambitious goodbye to a world that defined a generation of fantasy filmmaking. It reminds us that even in a story about gold and monsters, the most important thing is "books, and juice, and such-like." Or, in Bilbo’s case, just making it back to his armchair in time for tea.
For the best experience, pair a rewatch with a deep dive into the 1977 animated version’s take on the same battle. You'll see just how much Jackson expanded—for better or worse—on a few pages of text.