This weekend sees the release of Peter Jackson’s finale in the exhausting Hobbit trilogy, titled The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. In the final installment, the Dwarves of Erebor and Bilbo have reclaimed the wealth of their homeland while also unleashing Smaug upon the helpless folk of Lake-town. When things settle down, the film turns its focus on a few characters, Thorin Oakenshield, the leader of the dwarves who begins to develop an insane greedy personality called dragon-sickness while hunting for the Arkenstone. We also turn to Bard, who helps lead the humans of Lake-town and attempts to prevent war between the newly arrived Elves and the dwarves, who are held up in the Lonely Mountain. Lastly, we get glimpses of Gandalf who must find a way to get to the Lonely Mountain before the Orc army arrives to conquer the mountain on Sauron’s behalf. Throw in some more dwarves, orcs and elves for good measure and that’s the gist of the film.
The film itself opens up with Smaug descending on Lake-town, unleashing his fiery rage upon its citizens, and then it ends 10 minutes later. To say how disappointed I was in this is an understatement. Smaug is one of the most terrifying characters I’ve seen on a screen in a long time and since I know his presence is the climax of The Hobbit, I kind of felt shafted. It made me wonder why this scene was ever separated from the second film. Sure, what follows in the rest of the film is enjoyable, but nothing can match the presence of a booming Benedict Cumberbatch voice as a massive evil dragon.
While Battle of the Five Armies is impressive from a technological perspective, I’ve been having trouble deciding what was so impressive about it. The main reason is that there are so many glorious moments that would have had me rattled that they begin to blur together, making it difficult for these big moments to stand out. There’s a wizard and elf Battle with Nazgul wraiths, a pretty slick fight between Legolas and the orc named Bolg, and then a battle between a united elf and dwarf army and the incoming orcs. There’s so many cool things going on that they get lost in each other.
Anyway, here are my general feelings on Battle of the Five Armies. The film is exactly what I what I wanted. It’s massive in scope, it features huge bad-ass battles that should make everyone’s jaw drop while also giving each of the leading characters time to shine in the spotlight, both from a dramatic and action perspective. It’s one of the few notable good things about this movie. On the other hand, outside of Oakenshield’s dragon sickness and a love story that no one really cares about, the film lacks any real plot and character development. I expected this to happen so it didn’t bother me while watching the film, but upon reflection it does become frustrating to think that while the action was great, it would have been nice if there was a way to make this movie feel complete. If it utilizing story and action rather than just action, the same way Return of the King managed to cap off the LOTR trilogy, it could have been a much better film. Unfortunately this is what happens when you split a small book into three films.
Overall, I did enjoy The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, it’s partially the movie everyone was waiting for and also a film that will let many down. It’s a wannabe Lord of the Rings movie, one that has all the great action but none of the good substance to complement it. I’d cautiously recommend checking it out as it’s drastically better than the first film, better than the second except for when Smaug appears (he elevates that movie to being my personal favorite-hence why I rated that higher), and is the only film getting a wide release that fantasy fans would want to watch. I can only hope that one day Peter Jackson makes a four hour cut of all three movies so that we can see how much better this trilogy would have been if it was served to us as one dish.
Rating: A fun and impressive action film that lacks the story, substance and heart of the original LotR films. (6.7/10)
Recent Comments