The Hobbit: The
Battle of the Five Armies kicks
off right in the middle of the action which we left in film two, The
Desolation of Smaug. The angry
dragon (voiced by the man of the moment, Benedict Cumberbatch) is
still angry and raining fire down on the poor people of Laketown. The
dwarves and Bilbo are still hanging around on the slopes of the
Lonely Mountain, watching the unfolding drama and Gandalf is still
hanging around (quite literally) at Dol Guldur, where Ringwraiths and
Sauron make a threatening appearance.
If
you haven't seen the previous two films, this all may seem a bit
confusing. However, The Battle of the Five Armies does
a good job of getting everyone back up-to-speed fairly rapidly. And
this is one thing that the film does well: it romps along, quite
unlike the first film, and (as the title would suggest) there's a lot
of fighting. A lot. Indeed, the end battle sequence runs to some 40
minutes and beats the audience into submission. But the fighting is
well-choreographed, exhilarating and the ranks and ranks
beautifully-armoured elven soldiers will make even the most faint of
Tolkien fans smile with joy. Jackson has again used the technical
wizardry which was pioneered in The Lord of the Rings and
the resulting battle sequences are very impressive.
The
downside to these extended battle scenes is that the emotion of the
narrative is sometimes lost, and the multitude of characters,
together with their stories, are swamped under the weight of swords,
breast plates and war cries. This has, for some critics, been a
fundamental problem with the film: that the spectacle suffocates any
true meaning in the film and that the film's plot rather is anaemic.
I disagree as this film is the culmination of the previous two films'
narratives and deserves to be all-singing and all-dancing. To go out
without a bang would have been very dissatisfying.
Martin
Freeman shines again as Bilbo, having perfected his quizzical look
and character integrity and it is with genuine affection and warmth
that characters from The Lord of the Rings
make a return. Ian McKellen is Gandalf.
No doubt about it. And it was nice to see the return of Cate
Blanchett, Hugo Weaving and Christopher Lee. The “new” cast –
mostly men and dwarves – also gave good performances and Richard
Armitage's Thorin was quasi-Shakespearean. Billy Connolly even makes
an appearance.
One
of the most impressive things about The Battle of the Five
Armies is the way it paves the
way for The Lord of the Rings.
The heartbeats of fans will be set racing when Legolas is sent at the
end of the film to track down “the one they call Strider” and the
film's close offers a definite, pleasing conclusion (Peter Jackson
has certainly learnt from his mistakes with the never-ending endings
The Lord of the Rings trilogy).
The Hobbit: The
Battle of the Five Armies is a
very enjoyable and satisfying film which appropriately concludes
Jackson's time in Middle Earth. The film – and, indeed, the
trilogy, doesn't have the weight or emotional punch of The
Lord of the Rings but Jackson
plainly cares deeply about the world of The Hobbit and
the sincerity with which the films are approached has to be admired.
The film is visually-spectacular and narratively-troubled, but I can
forgive it almost anything. The chance to revisit the characters and
the world of Tolkein, one last time, is not to be missed.
Clapperboard Rating: * * * *
