A fitting end to a great series

Rating: 8/10 (26 December 2014)

Well, this is the final of Peter Jackson's epic series based upon Tolkien's famous fantasy epics. Okay, the Hobbit was a much smaller book than the sequel Lord of the Rings, but The Hobbit was one of the very first fantasy novels that I read and I loved it. It wasn't until I was much older that I managed to struggle through the Lord of the Rings (it took me 10 years to finish the first time, though the second time through was much faster because I read each of the books after the corresponding film was released). So, once the credits started rolling the first thought that entered my mind was 'is he now going to do the Silmarillion?' I suspect the answer to that question will be no because while it has some brilliant stories within its covers, it simply does not sit up there in the popular mind the way Tolkien's other books do.
My first thought was that I really did like how Jackson fleshed out the story to create something that was akin to his previous trilogy. Okay, I am really not a big fan when film makers butcher books, but Jackson managed to flesh the story out without undermining the original book. By adding the two orc generals to the film it created an antagonist that was forever pursing the luckless heroes, and the way the battle evolved worked really well (especially with the generals standing on top of the mountain directing their army through the use of flags, which demonstrated that Jackson did his research in the way battles were fought before telecommunications).
Thorin's character was also brilliantly created, especially with his greed consuming him to the point that he was accusing his faithful friends of treachery. If there was one thing that ran through this film it was the destructive nature of greed. There is the leader of Laketown who, while the town is being attacked by the dragon, takes all of the town's gold out on a boat, and when the boat gets heavy, he pushes Alfrid off rather than allow any of the gold to go into the water. We also have Alfrid, who does survive, prefer to take what gold he finds and flees from the battle rather than fight, despite the fact that the men, women, children, and even the elderly, pick up swords in a last desperate fight. Yet it is Thorin that steals the show in this regards, sealing himself into the mountain so as to protect the gold, and denying any of his companions to go out and join the battle.
Yet there is also mercy shown in the film, such as when Bard steps in and prevents Alfrid from being lynched, despite the fact that he probably deserves it. We can see in Bard the true elements of leadership in that he turns down the role even though it is offered to him, and even then takes that role anyway because there is nobody else whom anybody will follow (and we note that Alfrid tries to take the role of leader but is soundly rejected).
If there is one thing that I didn't really like it would have been how the movie opened. I am not sure if having the opening of the movie with Smaug flying towards Laketown worked well. The previous movie simply ended when Smaug left the Lonely Mountain and to me it seemed to be rather sudden, almost as if it were a cliff hanger (and it would have been despite the fact that I knew how it ended). Also, from what I remembered from the last movie, there was a large bow that was sitting upon one of the buildings in Laketown, but that suddenly vanished in this film. Okay, maybe I don't expect 'Chekov's Gun' to be used all that often (that is the idea that if you are going to show something in a movie/book/play then you need to have a purpose for showing it) but I was expecting that it would be used to kill the dragon. However, I suspect that Jackson did remain faithful to that 'rule' because even though the bow wasn't used, the arrow was.