The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

(Image credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Enterta)

Martin Freeman's Bilbo Baggins and director Peter Jackson bring this JRR Tolkien trilogy to a suitably epic conclusion

Martin Freeman’s Bilbo Baggins and director Peter Jackson bring this JRR Tolkien trilogy to a suitably epic conclusion.

The movie certainly looks spectacular, from the fiery opening in which terrifying dragon Smaug (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) lays waste to the settlement of Lake-town to the awesome final battle that pitches contingents of dwarves, elves and humans against the orcs and wolves dispatched by dark wizard Sauron (Cumberbatch, again).

But it is up to the canny Bilbo and Ian McKellen's wise wizard Gandalf to provide some welcome warmth and humour amid the enervating non-stop CGI action.