The Hobbit series has never really grabbed the same attention
the preceding Lord of The Rings series did for any number of reasons you want
to pick out – cashcow, script stretching, less screen friendly content matter.
Naturally, the trilogy’s conclusion fits in with that
dynamic being occasionally epic, occasionally banal but consistently…long.
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (THTBOTFA for
short, kind of) picks up where The Desolation of Smaug ends with Smaug angrily descending
on Laketown to unleash fiery wanton destruction and the Dwarf fellowship set to
claim the treasure under the Lonely Mountain.
What follows is two-and-a-half-hours of your usual Peter
Jackson blend of battle scenes, undercooked romance and intense hairiness.
It’s a shame when something that was genuinely innovative
and groundbreaking gets overtaken by rivals and left in the dust.
On the plus side, at least it doesn’t make the mistake of
trying to keep up with other genre stablemates with graphic violence, countless
sex scenes and exposed breast after exposed breast and sticks to what it does
best.
In that regard, the climax battle scene is just as epic as
any of the Lord of the Rings films and so, therefore, up there with the best in
modern cinema.
And, as you would expect with any LOTR or The Hobbit films,
the cinematography is stunning, augmented by that trademark New Zealand scenery
and lovingly-crafted sets, perfect down to the smallest detail.
However, the feeling can’t be shaken that we are basically
watching a film that is 13-years-old such is the shooting-style and script.
Everything script-wise is stretched to the limit to wring
out as much screening time as possible (sound familiar with the rest of the
series?) which is fair enough if it all stands up on screen, but in THTBOTFA it
doesn’t. And that is saying something as close to half of the film is largely
taken up with the battle alluded to in the title of the film.
The majority of these problems probably date back to that
one fateful decision to make The Hobbit into three films – two would be enough
and even probably one if we take out the ludicrous Gandalf ‘second storyline’
which sets up the Lord of The Rings trilogy a good century before it actually
happens. I get keeping the dwarf/elf romance storyline as all modern films need
a love angle to spread the demographic, but it is merely another adornment to
pad out the script.
Towards the end, knowing nods allude to what is coming in the
Lord of The Rings which quickly turn from being “ahh, clever” to “another one,
really?” Something of a metaphor for how the two trilogies have kind of worked
really. The thrilling finale of The Return of the King is more of a natural
finish, but THTBOTFA does the best with what it can.
Oh, and ma-hoos-ive spoiler alert, again with the fucking
eagles.
