The Hobbit; Battle of the five armies So, where to begin? This, is probably the hardest movie i have had to review in a long tim, primarily because its not just a movie. If it was a standalone it would be easy, but it is also the final chapter of the hobbit triology, and the final piece of the lord of the rings saga puzzle. But also because it is a movie I am not entirely sure how to feel about. I guess there is no way around it; the movie is flawed, seriously flawed. The pacing of the first 20 minutes rush by waaaay too fast and it feels like it throws tons of stuff at you at breakneck pace, then returns to a more leisurely pace, but with a tone that cant quite decide if it wants to be serious, or spend more time on the pointless comic relief character that serves no true purpose to the plot. The main part of the movie is spent on battle-scenes that feel like they lack the weight of the ones in the original, and a new character is introduced that seemed really jarring to the tone that had been built up until that point, and the special effects make me unsure of whether they were subpar og if the 3D made them too clear, or if graphics in games have just become that good, but many times it felt like watching a cutscene, rather than actual people, and overall i felt like they did not quite measure up to what one would expect. A lot of the fight scenes also go on for way too long and too often i found myself thinking i this will be a great level in the videogame version!, and some fights could easily have been cut in half and still feel long. And they still need to get a single line in there about the one scene near the end which EVERYONE that has not read the books will be complaining about! Finally, those 20 minutes i mentioned earlier should NOT have been in this movie, well, part of them should have been, but the other part should simply have been at the end of desolation of smaug and then use the other scene to open up this movie. Dont get me wrong, the scene is great and i loved it, even if it could have...shouldered....cutting a single thing in there, but in the context of this movie it comes off as a little short and jarring. This in turn would have given the white council scenes the time they needed to be expanded and improved, which they sorely needed. So, why conflicted? Slap a 2 star rating on it and be done, right? Well, no, there are good things too. Any scene featuring Thorim is brilliant and the acting really top notch, even if his plot is resolved a little easily, but maybe i just wanted a big argument between him and Kili. Regardless, any scene featuring him had me completely drawn in. Thranduil also comes into his own and i wish the movie had been less fighting and more of these two guys. I also liked how Legolas finally began having a point and ended up with a character arc that works great in the context of the 5 movies, leading up to his friendship with Gimli. Tauriel could still have been cut however, and her scenes got annoying at times. And our dear Bilbo is ever the lovable hero and the sole voice of reason in the midst of the madness surrounding him. Thats just the thing; when the movie focuses on the characters and lets them drive the plot, it is exactly what it should be and worth every penny. It is just a shame that there is a battle going on around them that seems to get in the way at times. Overall, as a standalone movie, i want to reccomend it, but i feel like i just cant. It feels clumsy a lot of the time and the pacing it really problematic, just as not a whole lot actually happens in the movie. It is a spectacle to behold, but one which often feels artificial, and i never felt drawn in to the battle scenes like i did in the origial triology. This is a movie that should be watched on the big screen, but purely for the special effects and if not for them, i would have to say that it was probably better to wait for it to come out on blueray. Why? Because in the context of the triology, the movie is absolutely amazing! Yes, I am being serious. Almost every complaint i have about the movie is invalidated when watched together with the 2nd movie. You dont start off with an sequence that feels out of play, but instead simply the continuation of what was already going on and the periods of calm lead up to a battle that is the climax of a 9-hour movie, rather than the centerpiece of a 2½ hour one. And in that context, the pacing feels right, the storytelling makes sense, the character acts culminate and the journey ends. This is why the movie is truly hard to evaluate, because the rating i would give it varies so greatly based on whether you see it as a movie on its own, or as the capstone of a greater movie. You might say of course, but return of the king worked on its own, didnt have any of the pacing problems this one has, and still capped off a triology in a more satisfying manner. And that brings us finally to evaluating the hobbit triology as a whole, the journey is completed, Bilbo baggins went there and back again, and wow what a ride it has been. The triology, when watched as a whole, is closer to a fun adventure movie and it ties itself up in a satisfying manner and features wondrous forests, wild chases through mines, riddles in the dark, and one heck of a battle at the end (that could have been a little shorter). I love this triology and i believe it fits perfectly with the first 3 movies and I cannot wait to watch the 6 movies together. THIS is how you do a prequel guys. You tell its own story, whilst still leaving threads to the original that actually enhances it and flows perfectly from one movie into the next. You start with Bilbos funny adventure, and then gradually move onto Frodos adventure and finally towards a war that threatens the entire world, up until the ending of the 6th movies ties up almost all the end and gives closure to Bilbo, the one it all started with. It is not as serious or heavy as lord of the rings and it should not be. It is a fun romp, it is entertaining, enchanting, and way more intelligent than most of the crap hollywood spits out, retaining interesting themes worth discussing, even though the good guys are mostly the good guy and the bad guys are the bad guys period. Therefore, in the end, I find myself forced to give the Hobbit: the battle of the five armies, 3 different ratings. As a standalone: 5/10 As part of a marathon: 7/10 The hobbit triology as a whole: 8/10 We have reached the end of the road, and it has been a fantastic journey. We travelled the lands of middle earth, and as we did, we grew, we changed, yet we came home, not the same as when we left and the time has come to say goodbye to middle earth, to the friends that kept us company along the way ever since we bought tickets to fellowship of the ring, unsure of whether to embark on the adventure in the first place. I dare say it was worth every step along the way. Sharing in the marathons with friends, spending time in line in the frost waiting for tickets for return of the king. Arriving in class late due to that line, excuse prepared, only to have our teacher exclaim did you get them?. The diorama of middle earth i made years ago, the times spent laughing along to the commentaries on the extended dvd and so many more memories than i could remember are all part of that journey, and i look forward to one day allowing my kids to share the same adventure, even though their journey will be a lot shorter and not span 13 years. But it was worth it. And it all began with: In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 12:22:28 +0000
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