Take a look at where to watch The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.
Hitting the silver screen in 2014, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies was the last installation in The Hobbit Trilogy and perhaps the grandest. It was also the last film for two reoccurring characters in the wider Lord of the Rings franchise, Ian Holm and Christopher Lee, both passing away in 2015 and 2020 respectively. The film was adapted by Peter Jackson from J.R.R. Tolkien’s story of the same name and provided a cinematic bridge between The Hobbit Trilogy and The Lord of the Rings Sequel. Although the film was met with mixed critical reception, it was considered a financial success at the box office, earning over $900 million and becoming the highest-grossing film of 2014.
Now, you can catch the entire Hobbit trilogy on HBO Max via Amazon Prime.
Watch The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies on Amazon Prime Video
Who Took Part In the Battle of the Five Armies?
The film continues immediately from where the previous one left off. The powerful dragon, Smaug, unleashes fiery wrath on Laketown after being disturbed by Bilbo Baggins and company, Gandalf is nowhere to be seen as he remains a prisoner in Sauron’s stronghold, Dol Guldur and the evil sorcerer is amassing an army to destroy the free people left in Middle-Earth.
Sauron’s armies are discovered by Tauriel and Legolas as they travel to investigate what is happening at Mount Gundabad. After spying on Bolg, the pair see a huge army of war bats and orcs and immediately decide that they need to return to their friends in Lake-town and warn the free people of Middle-Earth that a battle is coming to their doorstep.
The battle in the cinematic release was eventually fought between the Elves of Mirkwood, The Dwarves of the Iron Hills, The Men of Lake-town, Orcs from Gundabad, and Dol Guldur. An interesting point to note is that neither Tolkien’s original description in the novel nor Jackson’s in the cinematic release list the eagles as an army that took part in the battle. This is an interesting emission considering the eagles turned the tide in the battle and snatched victory from the hands of the orcs into the hands of the free people of Middle-Earth.
There are some conspiracies as to why the eagles were emitted, but the most agreed-upon theory is that the eagles were not actually an organized army entering the battle to defeat the forces of evil, instead, they entered after seeing the orcs and their overwhelming hatred and desire to eradicate their species got them involved. Either way, thank goodness for the eagles.
Where to Watch The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
If you want to catch the last installment in The Hobbit trilogy, you can do so on Amazon Prime. The feature-length movie is available to stream for those who have an Amazon Prime subscription with the HBO Max package. The film is 141 minutes in total, which surprisingly, is the shortest movie Jackson ever made in the whole Lord of the Rings franchise. The film is only available to stream in English and there are also English subtitles for those who may need to use them. The rating on this movie is PG-13, due to its obvious depictions of violence and battle.
Watch The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies on Amazon Prime Video