#Onelasttime.
For those of you that haven’t seen it, that’s the hash tag promotion campaign
that’s being used for the final installment of the Hobbit series: The Battle of
the Five Armies. The reason I mention this is because this specific tag line,
the line they hope you’ll (subconsciously) read and become excited for the
film, is obviously important. What does that say exactly? Well, to me it says
the filmmakers are inviting us back for one last journey through Middle-Earth,
and it promises to be an epic tying-together of all the films before it, and
that includes the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The reason I wish to clarify this
to begin with is because (at least from my perspective) the makers of this film
(Peter Jackson chief among them) have seemingly promised us another film in the
line of the original Lord of the Rings, as if to say that the film they have
most recently created, should be held to the same standard of the original
trilogy. Not only that, but the whole series has been sold as being same
quality as the original Lord of the Rings, and this finale is being hailed as
every bit as epic and satisfying as The Return of the King. Given this, as I
watched the film I found myself comparing it to the original Lord of the Rings,
and as has been the case throughout this trilogy, I wasn’t impressed with the
comparison to say the least.
First of
all, the decision to make one book (which is shorter than any of the individual
Lord of the Rings books, I might add) into three movies was a poor one, and
almost certainly not a decision made on merit of art or creativity; as such,
this has created pacing problems throughout the series, none made more obvious
than in the beginning of the final chapter. Seemingly beginning in the middle
of a conflict (because it does) the beginning of the Battle of the Five Armies
seems more like the conclusion of the Desolation of Smaug, and maybe it
should’ve been. As a result, Smaug’s storyline climax feels rushed and fairly
tacked on. I can’t say exactly where the film should have started, but I’m
confident they chose the wrong spot. If you’re fuzzy on what happened in the
last film, I suggest you at least rewatch the end because this sequel doesn’t
bother with catching us up on the action, which is immediate.
Another
problem I have with this film (and to a degree the whole trilogy) is the odd,
misplaced attempts at humor throughout. One minute, we have severe devastation
and destruction, images Peter Jackson portrayed extremely well in the original
movies, however, in this last film (and in the previous two as well), he has
inexplicably inserted “comical” gags that not only disrupt the flow of the
film, but serve to make the following dramatic scenes all the more absurd. Not
that the drama needs to be made to look any sillier; the acting seems forced
and not entirely organic, almost as if the actors are trying too hard to make
their lines all sound incredibly epic.
The Battle
of the Five Armies is a complete exaggeration of any of the Middle-Earth to
come before it, and as such, the staples we’ve come to expect from Peter
Jackson, which once seemed more grounded, now seem overdone and comes off as
fan service, and not in a good way. For example, in one scene where Legolas is
of course supposed to do awesome elf-power things, he hops from one piece of
debri to the next, in mid-air while he and the debri are in a free fall all the
way to the top before he actually falls for real. Excuse the run-on sentence
(if anything it’s a run-on action scene, or something), but I’m pretty sure
this isn’t how science works. Walking on top of snow, I can take; Taking out an
Olyphant single-handedly is epic, but this just simply had my eyes rolling. There
are various more scenes like this in the film, which are obviously meant to be
mesmerizing like in the originals, but instead come off as absurd, such as with
Thorin and his “dragon sickness” (they use this term in the film about twenty
times) which seemed forced and underdeveloped.
A few other
random things, Fili and Kate from Lost’s romance was silly from the beginning
and it gets even more so in this sequel, not because it’s a dwarf and an elf,
but because of the way it’s done. They put in an unnecessary reference to
Aragorn here, which sets up events that will happen from the “appendices” (which,
basically, are Tolkien’s official notes on Lord of the Rings’ characters) but
regardless it feels completely unnecessary in the context of this series. Also,
Thorin’s cousin Dain (who’s introduced midway through) seems to almost be
animated or something to that effect, which was incredibly distracting. Ever
since the first Hobbit film Peter Jackson has attempted to weave teasers of
what’s to come in the Lord of the Rings into this trilogy, even though the
Hobbit doesn’t have much to do with this storyline. In my opinion, this
cheapens the action in the Hobbit (after all it’s not nearly as serious) and
also makes it really seem like Gandalf was just sitting on his hands for years
until The Fellowship of the Ring. Finally, I miss the look of the old films;
what’s with all the over-exposure and digital effects where there were would
have been practical ones in the Lord of the Rings?
Some
positive notes, the art design is top-notch as always and the dwarvish army
especially is impressive (minus the odd-looking Dain). The film is also very
faithful to the Tolkien universe and as such will definitely appeal to diehard
fans in that regard. Also, delivers well on many of the “death scenes” and you
know there’s a few of those. Martin Freeman has always made a strong Bilbo, and
despite being practically non-existent in the plot once the battle begins, he
still carries the scenes he’s in quite well. The battle itself is impressive
overall (even if it still can’t measure up to Helm’s Deep) and takes up a good
portion of the movie.
In the end,
the last Hobbit movie ends as awkwardly as it started and I must confess I
could never really get into it any point. Perhaps I shouldn’t compare it to the
original Lord of the Rings so much, but it seems as if that’s what the
filmmakers themselves are asking the audience to do, and it simply doesn’t hold
the comparison. All I can say is I now fully understand what older generations
of Star Wars fans felt when those prequels were released (I was too young to
really remember Star Wars before the prequels were a thing). Just as with those
prequels the story seems less compelling, and the action too exaggerated, and
the performances not as personable; overall it’s just not what I had come to
expect, and it’s why I can’t say I’m really a fan of the Hobbit series.
However, am I going to marathon these films when the extended versions are released?
Yeah, I probably will, and that’s why they call it a cash cow.
-Ryan Maples
Rating: 6.
