The highly-anticipated final instalment in Peter Jackson's "Hobbit" trilogy has arrived and it is an exciting, visually-appealing conclusion to the series. It features all the usual Jacksonian signatures that we have become familiar with in the first two Hobbit films as well as "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy: stunning CGI, pulse-pounding, epic battle scenes and a cast of characters that are well-drawn, amusing, fierce, surprising and droll.
The big battle of the title takes up a large chunk of the film and Jackson manages to conceive of J. R. R. Tolkien's novel in appropriate, tactful and imaginative ways. Mind you, there are many liberties taken by the Hobbit series and this instalment is no exception. There are some characters and different plot points that deviate from Tolkien's story but Jackson is able to present these differences in interesting and believable ways. Still, the die-hard fans of Tolkien's books may be dismayed at the liberties taken but you obviously can't please everyone and, in my mind, most viewers will be satisfied by the finished product.
That all being said, I didn't find myself as thoroughly immersed in this chapter as I was in the previous two. Perhaps, I was expecting more from the epic finale. But it still packs a visual and emotional wallop and cast a spell on this viewer. The overall epic grandeur of the film gains resonance from the cumulative power of the previous films as well as the LOTR trilogy.
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