Movies

'The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies' Trailer: Is The Mountain Not Enough?

Final Hobbit trailer
By Russ Fischer

Here's the final trailer for Peter Jackson's final Middle-Earth film, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. We find Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) in control of his goal, the Lonely Mountain, and facing problems that might be even greater than the dragon Smaug. Specifically, forces from the re-awakened Sauron are tramping towards the Mountain, and Thorin and Bilbo (Martin Freeman) find themselves at the focal point of a titanic battle. Check out the final Hobbit trailer below.

Warner Bros. tweeted the trailer:

OK, for one, where's Smaug? This trailer makes me wonder if I forgot something big from the end of the last film. But no. He's just... not here, except via POV.

I want to be excited about this, but I have no connection to anything that is going on in this footage. By the time we got to The Return of the King Jackson & Co. had managed to get us so invested in the attempt to destroy the One Ring and fend of the forces of Mordor that I had no thought other than seeing the film as soon as humanly possible.

This mostly makes me think I should finally get around to buying and playing Shadows of Mordor.

I don't have any connection to this story at this point, and this trailer seems disconnected from the story we've been seeing in the past two films. The spectacle of massing CG armies doesn't draw me in. Enlarge the header photo above — that's the most clone-stamped army we've seen since Jango Fett was turned into a legion of Clone Troopers. CG isn't easy, high frame rate production makes it more difficult, and deadlines are horrible. But that's a hero shot, and it looks half-finished. (And maybe it is, as trailers must often use unfinished effects.) But the techniques used to create battle scenes in The Two Towers and Return of the King were engaging. This, so far, does not appear to have the same power.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies opens on December 17 in the US.

"The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies" brings to an epic conclusion the Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) and the Company of Dwarves. The Dwarves of Erebor have reclaimed the vast wealth of their homeland, but now must face the consequences of having unleashed the terrifying Dragon, Smaug, upon the defenseless men, women and children of Lake-town.

As he succumbs to dragon-sickness, the King Under the Mountain, Thorin Oakenshield, sacrifices friendship and honor in his search for the legendary Arkenstone. Unable to help Thorin see reason, Bilbo is driven to make a desperate and dangerous choice, not knowing that even greater perils lie ahead. An ancient enemy has returned to Middle-earth. Sauron, the Dark Lord, has sent forth legions of Orcs in a stealth attack upon the Lonely Mountain. As darkness converges on their escalating conflict, the races of Dwarves, Elves and Men must decide—unite or be destroyed. Bilbo finds himself fighting for his life and the lives of his friends as five great armies go to war.

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