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Wednesday, December 31, 2014

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies


THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES (2014)
directed by Peter Jackson
[director filmography: The Hobbit Trilogy, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, King Kong (2005)]

written by Fran Walsh [The Hobbit & Lord of the Rings Trilogies, King Kong (2005)], Philippa Boyens [The Hobbit & Lord of the Rings Trilogies, King Kong (2005)], Peter Jackson [The Hobbit & Lord of the Rings Trilogies, King Kong (2005)]Guillermo del Toro [The Hobbit Trilogy, Pacific Rim (2013), Pan's Labyrinth (2006)]

starring Ian McKellen [The Hobbit & Lord of the Rings Trilogies, X-Men movies], Martin Freeman [The Hobbit Trilogy, TV Series "Sherlock" & "Fargo"], Cate Blanchett [Oscar Winner for Best Supporting Actress in The Aviator], Benedict Cumberbatch [The Imitation Game, The Hobbit Trilogy, TV Series "Sherlock"], Orlando Bloom [The Hobbit & Lord of the Rings Trilogies], Hugo Weaving [The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings & The Matrix Trilogies] lots of dwarves

ENJOYMENT: **** (out of 5)
"Enjoyable and worth seeing" 

I'm a big fan of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (LOTR) trilogies, but there is quite clearly a difference between these two franchises and I like them both for different reasons. This shouldn't be a surprise, of course, since the LOTR trilogy is an adaptation from nearly 1200 pages worth of dense material while The Hobbit is based on only 300 pages of thin material. Moreover, the LOTR book trilogy would arguably not have ever been made into three films in the first place had it not already stood the test of time for millions of fans. In fact, the LOTR was so rich with important storylines and subplots that material had to be cut in order to make three 3-hour long movies for theaters. On the contrary, The Hobbit was made much differently; the book did not have enough material on its own to expand into a trilogy and therefore the writers needed to create material themselves. I believe this was the right move, since so many fans were sure to happily join Bilbo and crew back to Middle Earth for three more films, but the material was not tested in the same way. The writers took what was a timeless classic, The Hobbit, and essentially changed it. As a result, these films were not of the caliber of the LOTR, but that's okay--they weren't meant to be. It was not the same rich story as the LOTR with complex character development, compelling relationships, moral and philosophical issues, mature and human-looking characters and it was not as original this time around. Consequently, the filmmakers had to know that The Hobbit would likely not get the critical acclaim of its predecessors, or win an Academy Award for Best Picture as The Return of the King did, but that was the price to pay for the nearly $3 billion they have earned so far from this new Middle Earth trilogy. Despite still being directed by Peter Jackson and having all of the writers from the LOTR plus the one-of-a-kind Guillermo del Toro, The Battle of the Five Armies was enjoyable but by no means a masterpiece. Still, it was definitely worth seeing for some finality for Hobbit fans and it still offered incredible special effects, original battle scenes and the pleasure of any of the other five films.

The Battle of the Five Armies specifically had one of the weaker storylines in The Hobbit trilogy. In fact, this installment contains the actual desolation of Smaug that should have taken place in The Desolation of Smaug. I wonder if the filmmakers thought that there wouldn't be enough of a compelling story in the third film and it would be too much like the LOTR movies if it didn't contain dragon fight scenes. Nonetheless, what Jackson and crew decided worked and the second film was fine the way it was so whatever. Seeing this film in IMAX 3D undoubtably added to the entertainment of this film as well. Still, I have to think about what this movie would have looked like if Smaug was already taken care of in the second film, and I wonder if most people would have left the second film thinking, "Welp, it's over--that was cool." So to keep audiences on the edge a bit--especially those who forgot about Azog and all his orcs and hadn't read the book--and to make another film and therefore another $1 billion, there was a bit of a cliffhanger. It's really hard for me to complain about the plot points or any of the weaknesses in the story telling or editing in this film. Jackson gave audiences everything they wanted in these films: Legolas returned and was cooler than ever, Galadriel was back, Gandalf was as bad ass as ever, Smaug was a pretty fantastic dragon (watch Smaug as special guest on Colbert) and the battle scenes felt pretty new. All in all, The Battle of the Five Armies is a worthy addition and appropriate conclusion to The Hobbit trilogy and is sure to please most fans as long as they aren't too uptight and expect everything they got from the LOTR trilogy. 

OSCAR PREDICTIONS: Maybe some technical awards but nothing else. The Hobbit trilogy was enjoyable, but not to the caliber of the Lord of the Rings

Other ratings: IMDB (7.8/10), Rotten Tomatoes (61%)

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