2.5 stars | Action-fantasy | PG-13 | 144 min. 
 
 Bilbo Baggins has always been something of an Everyman, both in the writings of creator J.R.R. Tolkien and in the films of director Peter Jackson, so it's natural for audiences to want to relate to him. 
 
 But Baggins is an all-too-apt metaphor for Jackson's adaptations of "The Hobbit," a film series that has gotten so far removed from its modest source material that it's a bit like Bilbo's own journey of self-discovery, disillusionment and eventual addiction to a certain creative self-indulgence... er, The One Ring. 
 
 Like Bilbo's, Jackson's quest has mutated into something larger and stranger than he ever intended. 
 
 Entertaining? Absolutely. But not exactly what he (or we) signed up for. 
 
 In this image released by Warner Bros. Pictures, Martin Freeman appears in a scene from "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies." (AP Photo/Warner Bros. Pictures, Mark Pokorny) (Mark Pokorny/AP) 
 
 "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies" completes Jackson's trilogy of "Hobbit" adaptations, which were eked out of Tolkien's relatively slim 1937 work of fiction. It's also the (supposed) end of Jackson's Oscar-winning Middle-earth film saga, which started with 2001's "Fellowship of the Ring." 
 
 "The Battle of the Five Armies" picks up exactly where last year's sturdy "The Desolation of Smaug" left off, with the fearsome dragon Smaug (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) bearing down on Lake-town in one of the most tense and spectacular openings in action-film history. Weta Digital's special effects are pure eye candy, from Smaug's rivers of belched flame to Lake-town's swift ruin. 
 
 Advertisement 
 
 Unfortunately, after Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans) fells the beast — no spoilers here, as it happens right up top — the film loses its steely focus. The proud band of 13 dwarves, led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) have reclaimed their kingdom of Erebor, which is stuffed with mountains of gold. Elves, men and orcs are all after it as a greater menace boils beneath the surface of Middle-earth. 
 
 In the meantime, the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellan) sees the bubbles forming as he's freed from the spooky fortress of Dol Guldur by his wizard buddies. Will the "dragon-sickness" of hoarded gold destroy Thorin's formerly noble intentions? Will Bilbo (Martin Freeman) ever see The Shire again? And what about that tacked-on subplot with the elf-warrior (Evangeline Lilly as Tauriel) and her little dwarf boyfriend (Aidan Turner as Kili)? 
 
 The broad strokes of Tolkien's work are here, especially since Jackson drew on the appendices of "Lord of the Rings" in padding out "The Hobbit" from a single movie to two, and then three. But fans of Tolkien — or really, Jackson's overall Middle-earth canon — may feel a bit lost in "The Battle of the Five Armies." 
 
 Jackson makes some cool moves, especially in a scene in which Sauron reveals his true self to the wizards. It's a brilliant and psychedelic use of 3-D technology. 
 
 But those are too often trampled by staccato bursts of soft-focus speechifying. If the film was somehow slapped together in a series of last-minute editing decisions, it would be easy to see where Jackson got the character motivations and pacing. 
 
 PHOTOS: More images from "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies" 
 
 However, movies of this scale rarely find their soul in last-minute decisions, so we're forced to confront the idea that this litany of repetitively foreboding proclamations, epic battles and unearned crying jags was intentional. 
 
 Jackson's gleefully sadistic sense of humor finds new levels of absurdity here, too. Juxtaposing brutal images (and sounds) of refugee-style suffering with bawdy slapstick is jarring enough — even taking into account that Jackson directed the splatter classics "Bad Taste" and "Braindead." 
 
 But the brutality is not limited to the numerous beheadings, sword impalements and otherwise improbably muscled orcs being taken down by slight creatures. Jackson also bashes us over the head with simplistic morality and sentiment, using corny dialogue to hammer home themes and events that are already glaringly obvious (see the transgressions of the Lake-town baddie Alfrid). Slow-motion close-ups of heavily made-up actors in various states of sobbing seem to make up a good quarter of the film. 
 
 It's in this melodrama that Jackson ultimately finds his aesthetic. Despite the CGI wizardry, this is old-school spectacle, writ impossibly large and broad for the masses. It lacks the weight and subtlety of the "Lord of the Rings" films, but it's still visually arresting at every turn. 
 
 From a tonal perspective, Jackson has crafted an unmatched body of work with his Middle-earth saga. With few exceptions, the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy has aged beautifully in the decade since the last film was released, and "The Hobbit" may do the same. These films are, at worst, only about one-tenth as embarrassing to their forbears as George Lucas' "Star Wars" prequels were to the original trilogy. 
 
 "The Battle of the Five Armies" seems to know this. It's a big, bold, schizophrenic pageant that still manages to work on a surprising number of levels — creative liberties and indulgences be damned. Still, it's no wonder that by journey's end our good Mr. Baggins looks as exhausted and glad for it to be over as we are. 
 
 John Wenzel: 303-954-1642, jwenzel@denverpost.com or twitter.com/johnwenzel ||||| The Hobbit Trailer In Detail: 5 Things We Learned 
 
 New Material Won't Be Confined To The Second Movie 
 
 Middle Earth still looks like Middle Earth 
 
 The Dwarves Look More Dwarfy In Context 
 
 There Will Be Light In Gollum's Cave 
 
 Tolkien's Songs May Play A More Prominent Role 
 
 Far over the misty mountains cold 
 
 To dungeons deep and caverns old 
 
 We must away ere break of day 
 
 To seek the pale enchanted gold. 
 
 The dwarves of yore made mightly spells, 
 
 While hammers fell like ringing bells 
 
 In places deep, where dark things sleep, 
 
 In hollow halls beneath the fells. 
 
 
 
 For ancient king and elvish lord 
 
 There many a gleaming golden hoard 
 
 They shaped and wrought, and light they caught 
 
 To hide in gems on hilt of sward. 
 
 On silver necklaces they strung 
 
 The flowering stars, on crowns they hung 
 
 The dragon-fire, in twisted wire 
 
 They meshed the light of moon and sun. 
 
 Far over the misty mountains cold 
 
 To dungeouns deep and caverns old 
 
 We must away, ere break of day, 
 
 To claim our long-forgotten gold. 
 
 
 
 Goblets they carved there for themselves 
 
 And harps of gold; where no man delves 
 
 There lay they long, and many a song 
 
 Was sung unheard by men or elves. 
 
 The pines were roaring on the height, 
 
 The winds were moaning in the night, 
 
 The fire was red, it flaming spread; 
 
 The trees like torches blazed with light. 
 
 The bells were ringing in the dale 
 
 And men looked up with faces pale; 
 
 The dragon's ire more fierce than fire 
 
 Laid low their towers and houses frail. 
 
 
 
 The mountain smoked beneath the moon; 
 
 The dwarves, they heard the tramp of doom. 
 
 They fled their hall to dying fall 
 
 Beneath his feet, beneath the moon. 
 
 
 
 Far over the misty mountains grim 
 
 To dungeons deep and caverns dim 
 
 We must away, ere break of day, 
 
 To win our harps and gold from him! 
 
 
 
 The pines were roaring on the height, 
 
 The winds were moaning in the night, 
 
 The fire was red, it flaming spread; 
 
 The trees like torches blazed with light. 
 
 The bells were ringing in the dale 
 
 And men looked up with faces pale; 
 
 The dragon's ire more fierce than fire 
 
 Laid low their towers and houses frail. 
 
 By now you know that the first ever trailer forhas debuted online. If you haven't seen it yet, go here . The trailer will also be in theaters tomorrow in front of, in 3D no less, and it's just cinematic enough that buying a ticket forjust to see it might not be a bad decision.It's such a good trailer that we immediately dove into it and brought you a series of 94 amazing still photos from the trailer, and now we're digging in even deeper to figure out just what this trailer told us about director Peter Jackson's plans for this return to Middle Earth. Here a few key things we learned from the trailer, that we didn't know before we watched it. Hobbit fans… add on to the list using the comments section below.We know that Peter Jackson's adaptation ofwill actually contain more than just. He's written a bunch of new material, not in the book, but based on ancillary Tolkien works to pair with it. That extra material will involve a side quest in which Gandalf, Galadriel, and other great powers go to confront a dark and rising power in Mirkwood. What we didn't know until this trailer is whether that extra material would be confined to the second movie of the two being released, allowing them to focus on simply telling the story ofhere, or if they'd somehow weave it in with the other things which are supposed to be happening. The trailer though makes it clear that we're getting it all at once. Galadriel appears numerous times in thetrailer, though she's not in the book version ofat all. She'll no doubt be one of the main characters in that new, side story, and here she is in the very first film.For anyone concerned that all the time that's passed or shooting in 3D might have changed the way Peter Jackson approaches Tolkien's material,should come as a relief. Middle Earth still looks like Middle Earth. Watching Bilbo walk through Hobbiton is like sitting back down with an old, familiar friend. It just feels right, everything is as it should be, right down to Bag End and Gandalf's beard. The inclusion of actors like Elijah Wood (in the trailer very briefly here ) and Ian Holm as the older Bilbo only helps that feeling along, this should feel very much like a place we know, and it does.One of the big concerns people had early on indevelopment process was the look of the dwarves. We started getting images like this one which made it seem as though Peter Jackson was trying to make dwarves sexy. Anyone who knows anything about dwarf men, knows they aren't sexy. The truth is that only about half of the dwarf characters that showed up in the photos they released actually looked liked a dwarf at all. Luckily, it all seems to work perfectly in context. In the trailer they look like dwarves . Thorin Oakenshield looks like a particularly heroic dwarf , and he's maybe even kind of good looking as dwarf dudes go, but still a dwarf. A lot of that is perhaps because of their behavior. A dwarf just doesn't act like other people, they're gruff, they hid behind their beards, they stand up in the middle of a meal and sing a haunting song about their longed for home. All of that happens intrailer and you get the sense that while these are very different dwarf characters from the one John Rhys Davies played in thefilms, they are definitely dwarves nonetheless.A few months ago here on Cinema Blend we talked about some of the big story problems Peter Jackson and his team would have to solve in order to turn Tolkien's book into a movie. One of the biggest on our list at the time was the problem of Gollum's cave. It's one of the most pivotal scenes in, and it takes place in total darkness. It's so dark in fact that Bilbo can't see anything, and his overall blindness is part of the scene. We get a glimpse of that scene at the end of thetrailer and it seems clear that they've solved it simply by making it not that dark (screenshot here ). It's not entirely clear how much Bilbo can or can't see in that brief footage, but the audience can see everything. I suppose that's particularly important since the movie's in 3D and 3D can't cope at all with dark images, but I still find myself wishing for the inky, impenetrable depths described in Tolkien's book.All of J.R.R. Tolkien's books actually devote a great many pages to song lyrics, which the characters sing as they travel. It's pretty hard to work those into a feature film, thoughdid it once or twice, albeit a little awkwardly. The first trailer forthough works in the Tolkien-style music right off the bat, suggesting that it'll play a more prominent role in. The song the Dwarves sing in the trailer is called “Misty Mountains” and it's about the place they're going. These are the song's full lyrics: ||||| From an artistic point of view, star Mary Pickford famously said, "It would have been more logical if silent pictures had grown out of the talking instead of the other way around." Likewise, it would have been better all around if Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" films had not come before his new, three-part version of "The Hobbit." 
 
 It's not just that the 1937 J.R.R. Tolkien novel, which he began as a simple bedtime story for his children, was written first and covers events that precede the considerably more complex "Rings" story. 
 
 Or that, equally true, the huge success of Jackson's "Rings" trilogy, both creatively and otherwise (11 Oscars for "The Return of the King" and nearly $3 billion in revenue for all three films), made it inevitable that the new effort would be overshadowed by its more rewarding predecessor. 
 
 PHOTOS: 60 images from 'The Hobbit' 
 
 Films as majestic and enthralling as the trilogy are not going to come from a book with "The Hobbit's" straightforward plot and streak of goofy humor. 
 
 But the heart of the problem — at least when it comes to "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," the first film in the new trilogy — is that all of "Lord of the Rings' " success led to a series of choices made for "The Hobbit," including the decision to push the new 48-frames-per-second technology, known as high frame rate, as the preferred format, that have not worked out for the best. 
 
 The result is a film that is solid and acceptable instead of soaring and exceptional, one unnecessarily hampered in its quest to reach the magical heights of the trilogy. 
 
 Still, when you are detailing how hobbit Bilbo Baggins changed his life by aiding a band of dispossessed dwarfs in reclaiming their homeland, a fantasy tale so popular it's sold more than 100 million copies and has been translated into close to 50 languages (a Yiddish version was just added), there is only so far wrong you can go. 
 
 Especially with the trio that created "Lord of the Rings" — director Peter Jackson and co-writers Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens (here joined by Guillermo del Toro) — in charge. 
 
 In fact, for most viewers, the best parts of "The Hobbit" will be those that echo the spirit of its "Rings" predecessors. Newcomers Martin Freeman, as Bilbo, and Richard Armitage, as Dwarf Lord Thorin Oakenshield, are excellent, but they don't involve us the way even glimpses of old friends like Cate Blanchett's ethereal Galadriel or Hugo Weaving's Elrond do. 
 
 VIDEO: Peter Jackson talks making of 'The Hobbit' 
 
 Best of all, and with the biggest parts, are the indispensable Ian McKellen as the great wizard Gandalf and Andy Serkis as the ever-insidious Gollum. 
 
 Similarly, one of the most satisfying parts of "The Hobbit" is its opening prologue, detailing how the rulers of the dwarf kingdom of Erebor got too attached to their gold, attracting the attention of the fierce dragon Smaug ("dragons covet gold with a dark and fierce desire" Bilbo's convincing voice-over says), who destroys their kingdom and sends them into exile. 
 
 Then we break into "The Hobbit" story proper, with a mature Bilbo (Ian Holm again) remembering back to the day his youthful self (Freeman) got an unexpected visit from the magisterial Gandalf, who announces without much preamble that he is "looking for someone to share an adventure." 
 
 Being a hobbit to the bone and in love with creature comforts above all, Bilbo has no use for adventures. "Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things," he calls them, plus, the ultimate hobbit sin, "they make you late for dinner." 
 
 The adventure in question is helping those dwarfs reclaim their kingdom, a quest that gets a personal touch when all 13 of the rowdy but diminutive folk, led by Thorin Oakenshield, show up at Bilbo's residence and proceed to eat him out of house and home. 
 
 That dwarf bacchanal goes on and on and on. It's the first evidence of the unwise decision to turn this slender novel into three films that will — if this part's 2-hour 50-minute running time is any indication — run close to nine hours, something that would never have gotten studio approved absent "Lord of the Rings' " success. 
 
 VIDEO: 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey' trailer 
 
 Even though Jackson clearly considers this world a second home he is loathe to leave, there is just not enough story here to prevent things from getting pokey. 
 
 Once Bilbo, despite misgivings on both sides, signs on to join the dwarf expedition, much of what happens is a series of wearying battles with unapologetically grotesque creatures like dense trolls and bloodthirsty goblins led by the hideous Great Goblin (Barry Humphries, a long way from Dame Edna.) 
 
 This kind of relentless carnage was a big feature of the concluding episode of the trilogy and is a predilection of Jackson and his fellow writers, who have amplified the role of a particularly monstrous orc named Azog the Destroyer to get even more battles into the mix. 
 
 Without the balancing emotional material furnished in "Lord of the Rings" by characters like Viggo Mortensen's Strider, all this violence gets increasingly wearying as all those minutes unfold. 
 
 Despite its drawbacks, "The Hobbit," as noted, does have real virtues, and the best way to appreciate them is to see the movie, whether in 2-D or 3-D, in the traditional 24 frames per second format. Though Jackson and other zealots for high frame rate would have you believe that the new system is more immersive, the truth is just the opposite. 
 
 Whatever its virtues may be from a technical point of view, audiences looking for a rich, textured, cinematic experience will be put off and disconcerted by an image that looks more like an advanced version of high definition television than a traditional movie. 
 
 If this is, as partisans insist, the future of theatrical projection, one can only think of Marlene Dietrich's timeless response when Orson Welles asked her to predict his future in "Touch of Evil." 
 
 "Your future," she said, "is all used up." 
 
 --- 
 
 MPAA rating: PG-13 for extended sequences of intense fantasy action violence, and frightening images 
 
 Running time: 2 hours, 50 minutes 
 
 Playing: In general release 
 
 kenneth.turan@latimes.com
– An early Christmas gift for Lord of the Rings fans: The first official trailer for the first part of Peter Jackson's two-part adaptation of The Hobbit has been released, reports Wired. An Unexpected Journey, one of 2012's most hotly anticipated releases, stars Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins and will be out next December. The trailer reveals plenty about Jackson's plans for his second outing in Middle Earth, and makes it clear that new material he has written based on JRR Tolkein's other writings won't be saved for the second movie, notes Cinema Blend.