The Epic Mythology v The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (A Review)

Rating: 9/10 (19 December 2014)

The Hobbit The Battle of the Five Armies was Peter Jackson's adaptation of the popular fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien. Yesterday I was lucky to count on the final act of the Hobbit trilogy on 3D at INOX theater, Jayanagar, Bangalore. The experience was awesome and not comparable to any such high end production. It was an experience, the inner feeling, at a point of time I was thinking, if such story continues for the lifetime may be I would love to keep watching and watching. Yeah! 144 minutes of the video was passed like an eye blink.
Some important facts from the movie I wanted to highlight in this review. The epic mythological standard of the Hobbit story is undoubted. In the Indian epic mythology, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, or The Greek epic mythology, the Iliad, or all the literatures of the mythical standards have one thing in common, either a tragic end or the downfall of the heroes.
In the epic, The Ramayana, Ravana who was a good king, built the first democratic republic in the human history for his people. He had wealth, gold, and luxury in his kingdom. He was the conqueror of the heaven by defeating the demigods. But at the end he had lost the battle with Rama, an ordinary human prince from Ayodhya, India. Because the one mistake of Ravana by stealing Sita, the wife of Rama. Ravana did not listen to his ministers, brothers and wife to send back Sita, and protect the kingdom. In-stead of the sick king declared his own followers as the traitors and banished them from his kingdom. Here in the Hobbit, the exiled dwarf king of Erebor, Thorin Oakenshield, became blind of all his promises to the people and his followers once he got back the gold treasury. The life of people seemed no value to him in compare to the gold. He lost his conscience and became sick by not trusting his own people for the gems stone, called the heart of the mountain.
In the epic, The Mahabharata, Duryodhana, the elder prince of Hastinapura, India. He had claimed to be the king of Hastinapura. He had conspiracies and several false promises made to his cousin brothers for the share of the wealth of his kingdom. In spite of fulfilling his promises he chosen the war which took place at Kurukshetra and ended up after 18 days of devastating destruction and the complete ruin of his life and the kingdom. Duryodhana told, "Without the war, I will not give even a needle worth of land". Here in the Hobbit, Thorin, forgot of his promises made to Bard, the dragon slayer and the descendant of Girion, the Lord of Dale and to his people. Bard saved the life of Thorin and his followers. He and his people helped them, by giving food, comfort, and nourishment. Without their contribution it was impossible to Thorin to get back to the mountain. But when the time came to reclaim the promises made by Thorin to Brad and his people; Thorin chosen the war. He was not ready to pay a single gold penny to them.
In the epic, The Iliad, Priam, the king of Troy and his elder son, Hector, both of them were aware of the mistake done by Paris. Helen, queen of Sparta, who eloped with Paris, the younger son of Priam, was the cause of the Trojan War. Perhaps Priam act at the right moment to send back Helen and protect Troy. But he did not, which caused the downfall of Troy. In Hobbit, Thorin, it was look like, though he had a small strength of army which was not sufficient to go for a war, declared his own downfall.
May be, he could allied with Bard, and Thranduil, the Elven king, have had been helped by the alliance a smooth win against Azog, the Orc chieftain and his Goblin army. At the end, Thorin could have a happy life by ruling, Erebor, until the end of his career. Which he did not act at the right moment, and bring his own downfall at the hand of Azog.
Albeit, Peter Jackson had no hand on that part of the story, as, I hope, it was all written by J. R. R. Tolkien in his novel. Albeit the commonness of the Hobbit version of the mythology, here I found beautiful and unforgettable supporting characters like, Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf, Legolas, Saruman, Radagast, and Galadriel. These characters were acted and protected the role of wise, honest, courageous, who were changed the permutations and combinations of the Hobbit, the epic mythology.
Thanks!
Always love, Vikram