By Shonushka Sawant | Web Editor
Battle of the Five Armies, the last movie of the Hobbit film series, premiered on December 17th. Although the film has several stunning visual effects, such as the fight between Legolas and Bolg, the directors brought in a great deal of matter not originally in the books; this compromises the quality of the movie, although it is still an enthralling film.
The orcs, also present in the previous Hobbit films and the Lord of the Rings movies, are given a greater character in the Battle for the Five Armies and give a greater depth to the story. This film is made uniquely exciting solely by the personality of its main villain and realistic limits to the heroes’ strength. Before the Hobbit movies, orcs had neither personalities nor personal purpose. Azog the Defiler, on the other hand, has sworn to avenge his severed hand by severing Thorin Oakenshield’s head, and employs hosts of goblins in order to accomplish this goal. Rather than a mindless murderer, he’s a real character. with realistic feelings The fight between Azog and Thorin is also intense and exciting, ending on an unexpected twist. As Tolkien never clearly stated the circumstances of the deaths of Fili, Kili, and Thorin, director Peter Jackson makes the most of the uncertainty, and turns a few sentences into a good half-hour of thrilling swordplay. These additions made the film extremely exciting.
However, the romance between Kili and Tauriel is ill-placed in the movie; both the love story and Tauriel herself were not featured in the novel, and intrudes on the rhythm of the plot rather than enhance it. Legolas and Tauriel’s excursion to Gundabad, while interesting, detracts from the story as well. Although the movie doesn’t cover much text, it leaves out several details, such as the dwarves’ exploration of the Lonely Mountain; the combination of discarded footage and romance makes the last hour of the film extremely awkward and detracts from the impression of the battle scenes. Though the movie may not make sense to someone well-versed with the text, it is definitely worth watching–if only because it’s Peter Jackson’s last film journey into Middle-Earth.
