Well, he did it.
Peter Jackson successfully spread The
Hobbit story for almost nine hours of cinematic
artistry. Comparing this film to Return of the King, any of the Lord of the Rings movies, the books, or
even the cartoon, it would be unbalanced and useless. The only pieces that you should concern
yourself with while watching The Hobbit:
The Battle of the Five Armies, is The
Unexpected Journey and The Desolation
of Smaug. Sometimes the term “In a
league of its own” is referring to a good thing, but in this instance, it is
particularly a bad thing. If you try for
one second to try and relate these movies to the book(s), or the cartoon(s), it
doesn’t even come close.
The books are such a huge influence on our youth. It is a benchmark piece of literature (like
The Giver) that every aspiring child
should get a chance to enjoy. Taking a
winter weekend in my Hobbit-hole, by the fire, going on those adventures
alongside Bilbo and Frodo, those were moments as I heralded as precious moments I wouldn’t trade for
anything else. The cartoon represents
pretty much the same. I remember conning
my mother into thinking I was sick, right before school. Watching TV all day in bed was obviously why
I put on this one man audition of “sickest boy in the world.” That is when I recollect adoring The Hobbit
cartoon, finding it worth all the pathetic antics it took to get there. As you can see, with the favorable memories
attached, the bar could be set so high (for me and as well as for others).
Looking at The Lord of the Rings movies and trying to judge
by comparison is impossible. In the
mind-blowing success of the LOTR movies, it turned these classic, semi-obscure,
literature specimens into giant, mainstream box office killers. The whole reason why one could make The Hobbit such a celebrated story was
because of LOTR films. The whole reason
why you didn’t scoff so hard when you heard that story was going to be
stretched over three extended films; it was because of LOTR. The whole reason why you would bring a
character into a storyline that previously never existed (Legolas, which I
understand. Duh, it’s Orlando freakin’ Bloom a.k.a. sexiest thing alive on
Middle Earth) was because of LOTR. So
trying to say that The Hobbit movies
were as good as Lord of the Rings
will just never happen.
What it all boils down to; to all the general movie goers, The Battle of the Five Armies was the
best of The Hobbit trilogy. One could
say, after watching all three that they felt stretched out (especially the
first two). Unlike the LOTR, they
dragged on at points, and you knew before it transpired that the endings were
going to be lackluster. Being aware that
you were going to have to wait all that time for the grand finale war… then… at
the end of the second find out that you’ll have to wait to the third for the
death of Smaug… the audience had to be so extremely patient (and can’t help
think you could’ve done a better job of keeping the attention with only two
Hobbit movies) waiting for the payoff.
In this flick there were slo-mo scenes (maybe a little too
much, especially for this fantastical showing.
Maybe not, judge for yourself) but I couldn’t help but think “Jackson,
trying to stretch this over three movies has resorted to crazy slow-motion
dialogue scenes.” Albeit, for the most
part, it… was… worth all that wait! The
action/fighting scenes were fresh, creative… and there was a slow motion
sequence where Legoas runs up falling stones… overall, the portrayal of every
passage was beautiful to say the least.
Each character played out their development perfectly, the acting/actors
were spot on.
The beginning of this final chapter was visually
awesome. The entire opening segment,
while Bard the Bowman slayed Smaug with the “black arrow”, I was enveloped in
utter bliss watching that unfold on the big screen. It made me fear a mythological creature, like
it had actually existed. I literally
took a second to thank the higher powers that humans never had to face
something as terrifyingly tremendous as dragons like Smaug. Then, as we snapped out of it and we were
brought down to Middle Earth, I couldn’t help but ponder about the small change
made for the film. In the book, Bilbo
after Smaug reveals his weakness, he passes the info over to a bird. A nod is even given to the bird in The Desolation of Smaug. While in the novel version the bird is the
one who shows the man how to bring the beast down, it is nowhere to be seen in
the cinematic version. I do not know if
that is where the term “a little birdie told me” originated but every time it’s
said it reminds me of this reference.
During the melee, the bowman coincidentally noticing the weak spot in
the exoskeleton made me, in a small manner, wish that it hadn’t been left
out.
The interesting depiction of when Oakenshield battling with
his inherited insanity was unsettling and the golden nightmare has never made
the burden of wealth seem so unappealing.
As the first of the three armies (the man, dwarf and elf army) standoff
at the Misty Mountain, the suspense built and the line of events progressed to
a trademark Peter Jackson-CGI-war-orgy.
The oddest stroke happened again and again; when did it become
decapitating become such a trend? The
choice of beheading the foe occurred time after time. If you took out every shot that used slo-mo
or had a decapitation, it might have been a full hour shorter. The one part where Thranduil’s moose picked
up about a half dozen Orcs, and he decapitated the lot of them in one swipe of
his sword; that was a pretty cool thing to watch (the only silver lining of
this chopping the heads off fetish).
Minor trifles set aside, it was so fun to watch. I wish the past two packed as good as a punch
as this did. If the first two were in
any manner able to satisfy as good as the finale, I feel as if it would’ve
helped silence some of the critics, claiming this trilogy was “overkill”. The final battle between Azog, the White Orc
and Thorin was everything you could hope for, utilizing the frozen waterfall
for a clever and chilling conclusion.
None of these Peter Jackson films has fallen short of my
expectation, and since I have a different standard looking at his pieces of work, I was pleased to see The
Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies exceeded them. I give it seven and a half dilithium crystals
out of a possible ten.
C.J. Foxx
Author of Super-Hero Bowl VI
@CJFoxxAuthor on Twitter
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