Review Roundup: THE HOBBIT Trilogy Comes to a Close

THE HOBBIT trilogy finally comes to a close with THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES. The film was directed by Peter Jackson, who also directed the previous LORD OF THE RINGS and HOBBIT movies.

In the final installment, Thorin Oakenshield seeks the Arkenstone, despite the Hobbit Bilbo's efforts to set him straight. At the same time, Sauron prepares to attack the Lonely Mountain using the legions of Orcs. Soon enough, all Men, Elves, and Dwarves are faced with the choice of working together to save Middle Earth or to destroy one another.

THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES stars Martin Freeman, Ian McKellan, Richard Armitage, Evengeline Lily, Lee Pace, Luke Evans, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Orlando Bloom.

Let's see what the critics had to say!

Nicolas Rapold, The New York Times: What this adaptation of "The Hobbit" can't avoid by its final installment is its predictability and hollow foundations. It's been said before, but Mr. Jackson himself is still haunted by the past: For all the craft, there's nothing here like the unity and force of "The Lord of the Rings," which is positively steeped in mythology and features (wonder of wonders) rounder characterization than the scheduled revelations on display here.

Scott Foundas, Variety: ...this is the least episodic and digressive of the "Hobbit" films, and the one that shows the least EVIDENCE of the elaborate patchwork Jackson and his co-screenwriters have done...in order to transform the slender "Hobbit" narrative into something that might rival "Lord of the Rings" for sheer breadth and depth.

Richard Corliss, Time: If The Hobbit doesn't equal the achievement of Jackson's earlier Middle-earth movies - and, honestly, what could? - it is still, in sum, a thrilling effort, perhaps standing behind only Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy as the most impressive and intelligent multi-film action epic since The Lord of the Rings.

Michael O'Sullivan, The Washington Post: Jackson's storytelling at this point is so driven by green-screen trickery and digital legerdemain that he seems to have forgotten about human emotion.

Erik Kain, Forbes: If you're still watching these films and expecting a faithful rendition of Tolkien's tiny book, well, that's a complaint that's past its expiration date. If you came looking for epic fantasy, tragedy, and high adventure? Well I wasn't disappointed.

Christopher Orr, The Atlantic: I've found Jackson's Hobbit movies to be not only wildly unfaithful to the slender children's fable that inspired them, but unsatisfying even on their own terms: shapeless, tedious, and crammed with interminable scenes involving tertiary characters.

Bilge Ebiri, Vulture: ...The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies feels thoroughly inconsequential - a bloated, portentous mess that, in a just world, should not exist.

Andrew Pulver, The Guardian: ...this film is a fitting cap to an extended series that, if nothing else, has transformed Tolkien's place in the wider culture.

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: ...with this final installment in Peter Jackson's adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's prequel to "The Lord of the Rings," you may be sick of the entire fantasy-action genre and its computerized cannibalization of popular culture.

Randy Myers, Mercury News: ...while it's true that none of the "Hobbit" films was as good as any in the "Rings" trilogy, "The Five Armies" at least comes closest to capturing Tolkein's essence. And in this instance, that is good enough.

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