The Hobbit:
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The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies - film review
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Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is a competent action film let down by a threadbare script cobbled together from J.R.R Tolkien’s prequel novel and other secondary material from the Middle-Earth mythology. The decision to split The Hobbit film adaptation into three parts was always going to stretch anyone’s screenplay writing skills and, judging by the finale of this latest trilogy of films, it may have been best to have kept it to two parts as originally planned. Despite the pronouncements of Jackson, the whiff of “a-dollar-to-be-made” appears to be the main motivation to break The Hobbit into three films. The lack of compelling narrative or character development robs The Battle of the Five Armies of the epic sweep and sentimentalism that made The Lord of the Rings trilogy so beloved and is a less-than-satisfactory conclusion to this second trilogy of Tolkien movies.
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The film picks up where The Desolation of Smaug left off, with the Benedict Cumberbatch-voiced dragon wreaking havoc upon Lake Town. This set-piece is very effective as the townsfolk flee in the face of the dragon’s destruction. Only Luke Evan’s Bard mounts any kind of counter-attack and, as fortune favours the brave, he pierces the mighty dragon’s defences with a gold-plated arrow. Once Smaug has been vanquished, the film is almost entirely set in and around Lonely Mountain and the entry to Erebor. The dwarves, led by Thorin (Richard Armitage), search the mountain city for the power-enabling Arkenstone, unaware that Bilbo (Martin Freeman) has it in his possession. Thorin succumbs to Dragon sickness and becomes possessive of the riches before him, telling Bilbo at one point that he will not part with one single coin. Matters outside the city’s fortified gate become complicated when Thranduil (Lee Pace) arrives with an army of Elves to claim Elvish heirlooms. Bard convinces Thranduil to try and negotiate with Thorin, but it is futile. The Dwarf King will not budge.
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Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen) arrives at Lonely Mountain to warn the Elves, Humans and Dwarves that an army of Orcs, led by Azog (Manu Bennett) are on their way and that they must band together to fight the approaching evil. To complicate matters Thorin’s cousin Dain (Billy Connolly) arrives at the mountain with his army to challenge Thranduil. Before hostilities can break out, Azog and his Orc army arrives, forcing Thranduil, Dain and Bard to combine their forces to protect both the mountain-city of Erebor and the women & children who have sheltered in the nearby city of Dale. The inclusion of Billy Connollly as Dain is a little bit on-the-nose and seems more of an excuse for the inclusion of the great Scottish comedian for the sake of a cameo than any narrative benefit.
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The final hour of the film is an extended battle sequence between the Elves, Dwarves, Humans and Orcs. At this point all-out action overwhelms any semblance of character development as a number of sub-plots are hastily pulled together and Thorin, ultimately, fulfils his role as a true Dwarf King. For people familiar with The Hobbit story there will be no surprises, but the casual movie-goer could find the fate of some of the characters does not repay their investment in this trilogy of films. Much of what takes place in the final part of the story is designed to provide a link to The Fellowship of the Ring and, as a result, the emotional pay-off for the actions of characters in The Battle of the Five Armies does not really come to fruition until Frodo successfully completes his journey to return the Ring of Power to the fires of Mount Doom.
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Fans of Middle-Earth will argue long and hard about the merits of the narrative stretch Jackson chose to undertake in making three Hobbit films. The Battle of the Five Armies could have been twenty to thirty minutes shorter and still achieved what this version of the film does in 144 minutes. In addition to the story challenges, the film suffers from the schizophrenic look of the high frame rate camera technology used by Jackson and Cinematographer Andrew Lesnie. In close-up scenes, the 48 frames per second provide a level of detail second-to-none, but when the camera captures the action from further away, the movie appears more like the standard 24 frames per second. This may not apply to all viewers, but many have described this back-and-forth look as a distraction from the story, resulting in people’s attention being “pulled out of the film”.
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Despite the film’s technical inconsistencies, the main cast all give very solid performances. Richard Armitage as Thorin has the most material to work with and he provides the right amount of gravitas as a King weighed by the burden of power. Martin Freeman as Bilbo comes in and out of the story and doesn’t really have an emotional arc with which to finish the film. As we know, his story culminates nearly a century later … Luke Evans, Lee Pace and Ian McKellen all get enough to do without overwhelming the movie, although McKellen’s performance as Gandalf is his least engaging of the six films. Evangeline Lilly and Orlando Bloom as Elves Tauriel & Legolas could have been almost entirely removed from the story and it would have made no difference to the outcome. Bloom also has to suffer through the de-aging process to make Legolas look slightly younger in this film which creates a weird artificial look that makes him look like he’s got way too much foundation on. There are some surprise appearances that will delight the casual fan of both Tolkien movie trilogies as well as references to characters and future events that link all six films together.
Peter Jackson hasn’t quite been able to pull out all the stops for this concluding film in The Hobbit trilogy, but The Battle of the Five Armies is good enough as a stand-alone movie to be entertaining without being great. Unlike the final Lord of the Rings movie Return of the King, this film is not an Awards-magnet. It’s well made but suffers from an underdone story; a legacy of its cobbled together source material. It’s a definite cinema-viewing experience and viewers would benefit from the premium price of an IMAX ticket, but The Battle of the Five Armies only needs to be seen once on the big screen.
The Battle of the Five Armies new posters |
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The Battle of the Five Armies Production Information'The Battle of the Five Armies' has been an interesting production to watch unfold, as Jackson originally intended 'The Hobbit' to be two films. In 2012, Jackson announced that the two films would become three, with the third comprising material from 'The Hobbit' and the appendices contained in 'The Return of the King' that Tolkein wrote for his final 'Lord of the Rings' book. 'Battle of the Five Armies' will be made up of material that was filmed for the first and second films and will also contain footage that Jackson was required to shoot after the original principal photography had been completed. While this would be a concern for most other productions, the New Zealand director has shown such respect for the cinematic adaptation of Tolkein's books that the translation of more material to the big screen will provide additional entertainment for the movie-going public and more talking points for die-hard Tolkein fans.
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The final film in the 'The Hobbit' trilogy is scheduled to hit cinema screens around the world in December 2015. The film has recently undergone a name-change from 'There And Back Again' to 'The Battle of the Five Armies'. There's no doubting Peter Jackson's commitment to the Tolkein works and he'll want this next film based on 'The Hobbit' novel to be a fitting finale.
This is what Jackson had to say about the title change on his Facebook page:
This is what Jackson had to say about the title change on his Facebook page:
Our journey to make The Hobbit Trilogy has been in some ways like Bilbo's own, with hidden paths revealing their secrets to us as we've gone along. “There and Back Again” felt like the right name for the second of a two film telling of the quest to reclaim Erebor, when Bilbo’s arrival there, and departure, were both contained within the second film. But with three movies, it suddenly felt misplaced—after all, Bilbo has already arrived “there” in the "Desolation of Smaug".
When we did the premiere trip late last year, I had a quiet conversation with the studio about the idea of revisiting the title. We decided to keep an open mind until a cut of the film was ready to look at. We reached that point last week, and after viewing the movie, we all agreed there is now one title that feels completely appropriate.
And so: "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies" it is.
Production Posters
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The Battle of the Five Armies Production Images |
