Box office magic

Following three exclusive premieres in London, New York and Los Angeles, "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies" is hitting German and many other European movie theaters this week. Fans in North America and many parts of Asia can take in the third and final edition of Peter Jackson's take on "The Hobbit" next week.

There have already been disappointing attempts at filming J.R.R. Tolkien's landmark fantasy series. It took Peter Jackson - a New Zealand director who had made a name for himself with horror and gore films - getting the rights to the Tolkien books to show that they could work as films, given the right dramatic eye and a budget to match. 2001 marked the start of an unparalleled cinematic success story.

The "Lord of the Rings" series (2001 to 2003) raked in more than $3 billion worldwide and was nominated 30 times for Oscars, winning 17 times. New Zealand experienced a boom in tourism with fans wanting to get a glimpse of the landscapes in which most of the scenes of "Middle Earth" were created.

A small book becomes a series

Tolkien fans - include Peter Jackson, of course - know that the "Ring" trilogy is preceded by a story that begins much earlier in the Shire, the land of the hobbits. It's there that Bilbo Baggins is visited by the wizard Gandalf, who sweeps him and 12 dwarves off on an adventure, in which a rather daunting dragon must be killed after robbing the hobbits' homeland of its immense treasure.

In the course of his journey, Bilbo encounters creatures that reappear in the "Ring" trilogy. He gets to know the elven people and has to overcome the terrible orcs. He also meets the cave-dwelling Gollum, who possesses the Ring of Sauron, which later plays a key role in the story.

The adventures of Bilbo Baggins are narrated in a story of roughly 300 pages titled "The Hobbit." The later "Lord of the Rings" novels are, by comparison, about four times as long. Nonetheless, Jackson manages to turn the comparatively thin book into another trilogy, leading to three evening-filling blockbusters. For the sake of having enough material, he doesn't always stay true to the original stories, which may be a point of contention for die-hard Tolkien fans.

Feeling at home in Middle Earth

Right from the start of the "Hobbit" film trilogy - in 2012's "An Unexpected Journey" - there's plenty of running, fleeing, fighting and slaughtering. Many of the settings are already known to "Ring" fans. Director Jackson brings back Bilbo's hometown and the elvish homeland Rivendell. Many well-known characters also return, such as the king of the elves, Elrond, the appealing Legolas and the wise Galadriel. Of course, Gollum is back as well, having found the powerful ring centuries ago and being driven by it to insanity.

In the second part of the "Hobbit" movie series, "The Desolation of Smaug," the group's adventures continue as they try to reach Lonely Mountain, a home of the dwarves. Along the way, they're trapped by enormous spiders and attacked by orcs. But thanks to help from the ring's powers, Bilbo repeatedly manages to rescue his allies from seemingly insurmountable dangers. By the end, they've made it to the kingdom of the dwarves. Bilbo creeps into its halls and wakes the dragon Smaug by doing so. In the closing scene, Smaug is getting ready to annihilate an entire city.

The cries of battle

Finally, part three, "The Battle of the Five Armies," begins with a true apocalypse. Smaug burns down Laketown, which lies at the feet of the Lonely Mountain. Meanwhile, the dwarves wrest back control of their powerful kingdom. Its gates serve as a backdrop for an epic battle between good and evil in which five armies are involved.

In the third part of the "Hobbit" series, viewers again see monumental battle scenes, which are a common theme in the "Ring" trilogy. This time, they're presented here in an even more realistic, brutal and technically sophisticated way.

"The Battle of the Five Armies" could once again be a contender for an Oscar for its special effects. It's also the shortest film of the three. There's not much dialogue. Instead, there's plenty of combat to take in, punctuated mostly by battle cries about killing, destroying or annihilating the enemy.

Opinions diverged right after the world premiere in London at the beginning of December. Fans of captivating war scenes will surely approve, but other viewers could have used a bit less swordsmanship. A critic for "The Guardian" summed up: "I reeled out of the cinema in a bit of a daze myself after this extended dose of Jackson's patented ye olde Middle Earth cranium-smashing."

No sequel in sight?

Things quiet down by the end of the film. Bilbo returns to his home, where he grows older while smoking his pipe and writing stories. It offers a segue to the "Lord of the Rings" series, which begins 60 years later in Tolkien's timeline: The now very aged Bilbo Baggins gives his nephew, Frodo, the ring. Frodo sets off with Gandalf and other companions to fight back against the dark forces of Sauron.

But "The Battle of the Five Armies" also wraps up the story, rounding out Jackson's take on Tolkien's tales about hobbits, elves and orcs. The films now rank among the most successful series of all time. The "Star Wars" films already proved just how much production companies can squeeze out of a tale, even decades later. Its first trilogy came about from 1977 to 1983, and the second followed from 1999 to 2005.

A further edition will hit the galaxy in about a year. Star Wars VII will put fans face to face with Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Han Solo once again - with each role played by the original actors, now nearly 40 years older than when they began. And who knows what else Star Wars mastermind George Lucas still has up his sleeve.

It's perhaps best if Peter Jackson leaves his two Tolkien trilogies as they are. He's said himself that they represent a unified whole. His characters, music and vivid scenes have already rendered Tolkien's words visible to countless fans.