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The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
| Released |
12 December 2014 |
| Director |
Peter Jackson |
Starring
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Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ian McKellan, Lee Pace, Evangeline Lilly, Luke Evans, Cate Blanchett, Orlando Bloom, Manu Bennett, Aidan Turner, Hugo Weaving, James Nesbitt |
Writer(s)
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Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson, Guillermo del Toro |
Producer(s)
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Carolynne Cunningham, Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Zane Weiner |
| Origin |
New Zealand, United States |
| Running Time |
144 minutes |
| Genre |
Adventure, fantasy |
| Rating |
12A |
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Exit the Dragon.
There is a scene in Kevin Smith’s slacker comedy Clerks II in which staff at a fast food joint debate the relative merits of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy versus the Star Wars Trilogy. The salient point of contention? That the plot of The Lord of the Rings could be boiled down to people endlessly walking towards a volcano. As one character puts it, "even the trees walked in those movies". While this opinion is a little harsh, there is some truth to it. The Lord of the Rings films and the new Hobbit Trilogy have always been about journeys - treacherous voyages that forge friendships and create enemies. Having spent so long on the road with Peter Jackson, this final visit to Middle Earth feels decidedly unusual; the journey to the Lonely Mountain that began two films ago is over, now the struggle begins to stay there.
When we last left Middle Earth, the company of dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) had entered the Lonely Mountain and roused the great dragon Smaug from his slumber. While Smaug heads to annihilate the nearby Lake Town, Thorin barricades himself within the mountain, greedily guarding the mountains of gold housed within. Soon though, a dragon will be the least of his worries as five great armies move towards the mountain to claim it as their own.
The Battle of the Five Armies is everything we have come to expect from Peter Jackson and his crew - beautiful to look at and immaculate in its detail, there are warm and committed performances from all involved and the whole package is delivered with the verve and energy of a great piece of populist entertainment. And yet, for me there was something missing. The problem is, I’m not entirely sure what that something is. With almost the entire running time dominated by the battle at the Lonely Mountain, there is perhaps not the depth of storytelling to match the visual bombast. That said, I was never bored and the scene in which Galadriel (Cate Blanchett), Elrond (Hugo Weaving) and Saruman (Christopher Lee) attempt to rescue Gandalf from Sauron’s clutches is a stand-out of the series as a whole. It’s a beautifully choreographed, atmospheric scene that raises the pulse more than any of the more widescreen battle sequences in the film.
All of this rather confused deliberation may be masking the fact that I found The Battle of the Five Armies to be a fantastically entertaining watch. Peter Jackson is one of the best visual storytellers working today and he pulls off this final Middle Earth chapter with great style. I’m just sorry I have to write this review before revisiting the film a second time but for now, I can’t help but think that it is not quite the grand send-off that I expected.
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Linda O’Brien |
