Ultimate awe at its most spectacular

With the third in a trilogy of films adapting the enduringly popular masterpiece The Hobbit, by JRR Tolkien, consummate storyteller and visionary story maker Peter Jackson does not waste time and plunges us mercilessly in at the deep end, with no prologue or introduction of what happened before. The dragon Smaug has been released from its slumber guarding over the gold at Erebor and is furiously descends on Lake Town on its massive wings. Smaug, wreaks fiery hell on the defenceless men, women and children as it assaults the crumbling wooden city at the foot of the mountain with devastating force. In an awe-inspiring show of his power, the dragon unleashes a torrent of rage upon it, setting homes alight with his fiery breath and levelling entire streets with the sweep of its tail.

This means that it's open season at the halls of Erebor and the precious golden treasure is unguarded, evoking the passion and greed of 'five armies' to claim it for themselves and take over the Kingdom of Middle Earth.

Who's who and where's where

It's actually as simple as that, but you definitely have to brush up on your ABC of who's who and where's where in a world in which a heroic hobbit endangers his life to save the world and possibly restore peace.

This epic conclusion is the soulful journey of 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 defenceless men, women and children of Lake Town.

As he succumbs to dragon sickness, the King Under the Mountain, Thorin Oakenshield, sacrifices friendship and honour 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.

Sauron, the Dark Lord

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.

The Hobbit Trilogy tells a continuous story set in Middle Earth 60 years before The Lord of the Rings, which Academy Award-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson and his team brought to the big screen in the blockbuster trilogy that culminated with the Oscar-winning The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

As with its predecessors, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies epitomises the art of filmmaking, and the craft of storytelling, and gloriously celebrates the culmination of Jackson's 16-year journey to bring to life the richly layered universe of Middle Earth conjured nearly a century ago by JRR Tolkien in his literary masterworks The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

It's payoff time for Tolkien fans who have invested their imagination in a story that gripped the world since The Lord of The Rings was released, and its reward is priceless.

The inspired genius of Tolkien has been translated from page to screen with all its dramatic intensity, visual splendour, adventurous humour and vibrant characters by screenwriters Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro.

Yes, it did take five to conquer the magic of South Africa's literary genius, whose story is now bigger than live and immortalised digitally for future generations to discover its supremacy.

Incredible cast

Boyens, who is also a co-producer of the trilogy, observes that, for the collaborators, it felt as if The Lord of the Rings films were meant to be made first before turning back the clock to complete the tale. "In many ways, 'The Hobbit' films are better for us having gone through that experience and established this incredible cast," she says. "It also gave us the broader canvas against which 'The Hobbit' films truly unfold, and a deeper understanding of how this little adventure leads directly into that vast, world-changing mythology that informs 'The Lord of the Rings' films."

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again was first published in 1937, having emerged from the revered author, poet, university professor and philologist's imagination as bedtime stories for his children.

In the 17 years that followed, Tolkien continued to develop, expand and enrich the complex mythology of Middle Earth to produce its sprawling, apocalyptic conclusion, The Lord of the Rings. Collectively, the author's towering modern myth has had a seismic impact on world culture, becoming among the best-selling novels ever written, and sparking the imaginations of generations of readers all over the world.

Among them was a teenaged Peter Jackson, who took his first dive into Middle Earth while traveling by train across his native New Zealand-but it wouldn't be his last.

As early as 1995, the filmmaker explored the idea of adapting The Hobbit for the screen, hoping to then move on to adapt The Lord of the Rings. Instead, Jackson ultimately reversed the journey that Tolkien himself had taken-telling the end of the story first with his landmark, Oscar-winning The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, then plunging back into the fully realised world he'd created to bring the mythology's seminal origins to life with the same vast scale, technical mastery and emotional resonance in The Hobbit Trilogy.

A new adventure

Together, Jackson, his close band of filmmaking collaborators and international ensemble cast embarked on a new adventure-plunging into a nine-month-long filmmaking journey across New Zealand to create all three films simultaneously, releasing the first film, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, in 2012, and following a year later with The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - both these films are available on DVD and Blu-Ray with hours of breathtaking features that journey into the magic behind the genius.

As Jackson sweeps audiences back to Middle Earth one last time, he reflects that throughout his epic filmmaking odyssey through Middle Earth, his true north has always remained his passion for the artistic legacy of Tolkien and his own desire to see it brought to vibrant, visceral life on the big screen.

"When we made 'The Lord of the Rings' films, there was a lot of pressure because it was a big project done in a way that was unprecedented, and we didn't have the track record then that we have now," says the Oscar-winning filmmaker. "Those films went out into the world, and have now become part of the culture, so that created a different kind of pressure on 'The Hobbit' movies. But the only way you can respond to that is to be truthful to yourself as a filmmaker. With everything I've done in my career, I've tried to make films that I would enjoy as a movie-goer. To see the first two 'Hobbit' films be embraced by fans has been a joy, because we're fans as well. But it's also exciting to introduce a new generation to this world and this incredible mythology for the first time with the story where it all begins."

The tale of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, who embarks on a wondrous and dangerous adventure in the wild with the wizard Gandalf and the Company of Dwarves, grew in the telling to birth the resonant themes that are woven throughout the Tolkien canon-the bonds of friendship, the nature of honour and sacrifice, the corruption of wealth and power, and the quiet courage of the unlikeliest of heroes, which may hold even the greatest forces of evil at bay.

Not the whole story

But, for Tolkien himself, the novel as published did not tell the whole story.

Within 125 pages of notes included in the final book of The Lord of the Rings, the author mapped out in detail the forces of darkness and light at work in Middle Earth at the time of The Hobbit, which provides vital connecting tissue between Bilbo's adventure and the legacy his nephew, Frodo Baggins, will ultimately inherit.

"Professor Tolkien left us a gift in this addendum to The Lord of the Rings," says Walsh, who is also among the Trilogy's producers. "It came from his need to grow this world and tell more of the story, which gave us an organic way to expand the tale through all three films, while honouring what Professor Tolkien intended."

The untold stories in the appendices also provided Jackson with a rich palette that would enable him to begin The Hobbit Trilogy with the brighter, more innocent tone of the novel and gradually move into a darker emotional climate as the adventure gives way to all-out war.

Climax of three movies' worth of storylines

"The epic battle at the centre of this film is the climax of three movies' worth of storylines, which all continue to play out even as armies are clashing on the battlefield," Jackson says.

"There is a lot of suspense and tension, triumph as well as tragedy, as the various agendas and personal conflicts between the characters come to a head. Everything we've seen-who these characters are, what each of them is fighting for-leads to this moment. I think it's the most powerful and emotional of the three 'Hobbit' films, and honours each character with whom we've gone on this journey."

The film also sets the stage for the Middle Earth that audiences will encounter 60 years in its future, when the next trilogy begins with "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring." Jackson observes: "We come to understand how Bilbo's adventure fits within the entire story and the true stakes of the Battle of the Five Armies, not just for the characters but for all of Middle Earth. Tolkien worked his way up, and we worked our way down to blend the two trilogies, which has been both a challenge and a lot of fun in terms of weaving in threads will continue into 'The Lord of the Rings' films."

As the final chapter of one epic journey and provocative prelude to the next, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies serves as the powerful fulcrum of the entire Middle Earth legend.

A single continuous saga

"We've been aware that people may not watch these films in the order that they were made 20 years into the future, but will start at the beginning and watch straight through to the end," Jackson reflects.

"So, so as we've made 'The Hobbit' films, we've consciously progressed the tone to the place where, hopefully, the audience will feel that they've gone on that journey into 'The Fellowship of the Ring,' and, ultimately, to the cataclysmic conclusion of Middle Earth in 'The Return of the King.' Our hope is that for future generations, all six films will be experienced as part of a single continuous saga."

Looking back on his 16 years exploring Middle Earth and the remarkable legacy he now leaves behind, Jackson concludes: "For the first time since we began working on 'The Hobbit' films nearly seven years ago, a sense of something coming to a close washes over me. Perhaps it is because, as Bilbo tells Gandalf, it is the last road. The opportunity to come back and tell the rest of the story has been a tremendous honour for all of us, but we now hand it off to the people for whom these films were made."

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies was shot in 3D 48 frames-per-second and is released in High Frame Rate 3D (HFR 3D) in select theatres, other 2D and 3D formats, and Imax.

Offering out-of this world entertainment that can be experienced more than once, this is cinema we can unashamedly escape into and allow our imaginations to soar.

Make sure to unleash your imagination and embrace the passion of one hobbit that captured the hearts of millions.

Read more about this film and other new films opening on 12 December at www.writingstudio.co.za