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By Sandra Olmsted

Director Peter Jackson’s final installment in his extended adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit is definite the best of his three prequels to The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which Jackson also directed. For The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, Jackson pulls out every computer generated image and special effect trick he knows and uses them well to create his leanest, most thrilling film in his Hobbit trilogy. The film also resolves a number of subplots that have been swirling through Jackson’s artificially lengthened trilogy based on one thin novel.

Picking up exactly where The Desolation of Smaug ended, Battle opens with the dragon Smaug (voice of Benedict Cumberbatch) attacking Laketown because the residents helped the Dwarves to regain their ancestral kingdom and treasure under the mountain. As the townspeople flee for their lives, some show their sleazy side, and other prove how brave and clever they are, like Bard (Luke Evans) and his brave son, who slay the dragon together.

With the town completely destroyed, the people seek shelter in the city ruins around the mountain and ask for assistance from the dwarves. Unfortunately, Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), heir to Erebor’s throne under the mountain, has succumbed to gold fever and refuses to help the people. Thorin also wants the Arkenstone and searches through the ocean of gold frantically to find it; however, Bilbo (Martin Freeman) has it and now is afraid to give it to Thorin who has become a tyrant.

Once word of Smaug’s death spreads, every army whose leader imagines a claim to or just covets the gold beneath the mountain converges for the huge battle promised in the title. While Thorin refuses to recognize any claim on the gold as legitimate, the Elves, including the banished Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly), lecherous elk-rider Thranduil (Lee Pace) and his son, Legolas (Orlando Bloom), whose arrows never miss their target, arrive to reclaim the elfin gold stolen by Smaug.

The townspeople claim the gold because of the disaster caused by the Dwarves’ ouster of Smaug. The Dwarves barricaded in the mountain, the Laketown refugees, and Elves line up for battle against each other. Fearing the worst outcome, Bilbo slips out of the mountain to negotiate. Fortunately, Gandalf (Ian McKellen) knows that real trouble is headed to the mountain, but can he escape his prison in time to warn his friends, the Dwarves, Elves, humans, and one Hobbit? Even with the help of Galadriel (Cate Blanchett), and the white wizard Saruman (Christopher Lee), will the Dwarves, Elves and Men unite or parish against the legions of Trolls and Orcs controlled by the evil Sauron aka Necromancer (also the voice of Cumberbatch)? On whose side will General Ironfoot (Billy Connolly) and his Army of Iron Hills dwarves fight?

While most of the film is computer generated images and special effects, Jackson doesn’t ignore the relationships between the characters. Thorin discovering that Bilbo has “betrayed” him jeopardizes their friendship, and all the Dwarves reluctantly follow Thorin, even though they know he’s crazy with gold fever. The star-crossed lovers, Tauriel and the dwarf Kili (Aidan Turner), see each other once again in the midst of the battle, which adds another level to the emotions of fight scenes.

Mostly, however, the film is only the final battle which runs for half of the film’s 144 minute running time, and Jackson’s big battle is a riveting ride. The Battle of the Five Armies, is a Warner Bros. release of a New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer pictures presentation of a Wingnut Films production. Elvish and Orcish dialogue subtitled in the few places they are spoken, and the film is rated PG-13 for extended sequences of intense fantasy action violence, and frightening images. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is in theaters now.

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