Starring: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Luke Evans, Orlando Bloom, Evangeline Lilly Director: Peter Jackson

    The final visit to Middle-earth is the most purely entertaining

    AFTER six films, 13 years and 1,031 minutes of accumulated running time (far more if you count the extended versions), Peter Jackson has concluded his massively remunerative genuflection at the altar of J.R.R. Tolkien with a film that may be the most purely entertaining of any in the collection.

    Much as “The Return of the King” wrapped up the “Lord of the Rings” saga on an action-dominated high note, “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” lives up to its mayhem potential by making maximum use of modern technology to create an abundant smorgasbord of wildly varied and sometimes mordantly amusing combat; this is an out-and-out war film, with gobs of trimmings. The film’s multitude of teenage boy satisfactions, not to mention its position as Jackson’s presumed swan song to this defining stage of his career, leaves no doubt that the Warner Bros. release will rake in the US$1 billion worldwide that each of its predecessors’ did.

    Hobbit installments, which individually took nearly three hours to cover a roughly 100-page chunk of the book, were that, while everyone knew where the story was headed, it was clear going to take a very, very long time to get there. If “An Unexpected Journey” was basically a leisurely paced walking-and-talking film and “The Desolation of Smaug” was a waist-deep immersion in a world of peril, “Battle” serves up a Middle-earth version of the bombing of Dresden as an appetizer and just goes from there as grievances are aired, allegiances are weighed, potential foes are sized up and preparations are made for the ultimate battle to be fought at the Lonely Mountain.

    Liberated from his cramped lair deep in the nooks and crannies of Erebor, the stupendously malevolent Smaug spreads his wings and makes at once for Lake-town, a teeming bastion of desperate humanity he incinerates with a few well-aimed blasts of fire. But the dragon has an Achilles heel, which is found by emerging hero Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans), who then leads the attack’s survivors to the vicinity of the mountain, where others converge as well. The elk-riding Thranduil (Lee Pace) turns up, as does his banished captain, Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly), and his unerring marksman son, Legolas (Orlando Bloom). The dwarves are already there, of course, each hoping to collect a one-fourteenth share of the booty no longer guarded by Smaug, while Bilbo’s main order of business is keeping secret his possession of the Arkenstone.

    The latter is the particular obsession of Thorin (Richard Armitage), who, with power and riches now within reach, turns against nearly everyone who has supported him through the worst of times and welcomes the looming war that, if won, will install him on his hereditary throne. And naturally, no one knows the full picture as well as Gandalf (Ian McKellen), who leaves the side of his benefactress, the Elf Queen Galadriel (Cate Blanchett), to help stave off the evil of the Dark Lord Sauron and his specially created warrior freaks the Orcs, giants resembling cretinous, muscle-bound mutant versions of Shrek who have been waiting for this moment all their miserable lives.

    No matter Thorin’s sudden turning on his loyal friends and the bickering among allies, what’s clear is that, in the end, it’s going to be all the good guys versus the Orcs who, with their oversized pro wrestler physiques, look invincible but, as we’ve seen before, fall over like bowling pins and, once they’re down, stay down. It’s never explained why. They’re something like suicide bombers — they get just one shot at immortality. The first example of this is hilarious: One big oaf has been bred to be a human battering ram, his torso crowned with rock which he plows, to great effect, into the defenders’ fortress, opening the way for his marauding colleagues. He does his job, and he’s done.

    There are other custom-designed Orc creatures, including beasts with catapults attached to their backs and a giant who swings an enormous rock and chain. The Orc leader makes a striking entrance, his blue eyes opening under a sheet of ice from which he then emerges. The lineup of villainous beasts here resembles a collection of best-of fantastical doodles by demented and talented high school students, all come to vivid and amusing life.

    The movie is now being screened in Shenzhen. (SD-Agencies)