Final resolution to an epic adventure

THE Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies - brings an end to an epic journey and a remarkable feat of endurance, fraught with danger at every turn and among the most ambitious any individual has ever attempted. I am referring of course to Peter Jackson, the director who adapted the writings of JRR Tolkien in 2001 and transported movie audiences to Middle-Earth for the next 15 years.

The third and final instalment in the early adventures of Bilbo Baggins brings closure to these tales. Although Jackson filmed the two trilogies in reverse chronological order - The Hobbit films take place 60 years before The Lord of the Rings begins - audiences have had no trouble picking up the narrative thread where each film left off.

Multiple movie awards, box-office glory measured in billions of dollars - and a tourist industry based entirely on the films - have helped to validate the enterprise. At the end of last year's second movie in The Hobbit series - where Bilbo (Martin Freeman) and a group of dwarves embark on a quest to reclaim a gold-laden mountain - the dragon Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch) was poised to lay waste to the human habitat of Lake-town.