The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies (2014) Dir: Peter Jackson
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The third and film film in The Hobbit trilogy was by far the most divisive. I can remember being confused as to how director Peter Jackson would stretch a very small section at the end of the book into an over two and a half hour film. As it happens, not all that well, unfortunately.
The film was full of unnecessary scenes, poor CGI and what are clearly time-filler character arcs. What's disappointing is, I enjoyed the film so much more as a teenager. I think I came at this film with a more developed eye and taste, which allowed me to see the issues of the film more plainly.
I need to gripe about the set design for a minute too - something I never expected to do regarding one of Jackson's Middle-Earth films. The sets in Lake-Town look, and I'm bring polite here, extremely artificial - far more so than the previous film. I don't know if it was lighting or framing, but the whole time, it was painfully clear that the characters were on a set, rather than in a town.
Furthermore, there was some really inconsistent and, quite frankly, poor CGI at times, which was kind of baffling, considering how good some of the CGI had been, not only in other parts of the trilogy, but of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy before that, which were a decade and more older.
As far as the narrative goes, the descriptors are no better; bloated, messy, clustered, slow - I could go on. What it boils down to is Peter Jackson stubbornly forcing one relatively small book into a trilogy of long films. It's a trilogy that should have been two films at most. This third one could, and should, have been the last hour or so of the second film.
The action sequences, which are what feels like ninety percent of the film, are fine, but not exceptional. The extended edition in particular has a lot of excess and kind of odd sequences that I'm honestly glad were cut from the theatrical release, for the most part.
Martin Freeman's performance shouldn't feel as perplexing as it does, but it really does feel bewildering. He doesn't even change much about how he plays the role, but for whatever reason, it really doesn't work this time. I don't think he was helped by the writing, which took a noticeable nose-dive at points, but I found myself pretty disappointed, ultimately.
Ian Mckellin was, as usual, a consistent and enjoyable presence in the film, although his character was part of another extraneous storyline that didn't really need including, but had some admittedly cool moments. I am so grateful that he was able to return to role for the trilogy, and he was easily the high point.
Richard Armitage was relatively good, despite the writing, but I felt as though he didn't quite reach the level of the prior film, where he had a lot more character work. I still enjoyed his performance though, but a huge chunk of it was spent either doing very little, or taking part in action sequences.
The standouts from the supporting array of dwarves characters should come as no surprise to readers of the reviews of parts one and two. Graham McTavish, Ken Stott and James Nesbitt were routinely the most endearing characters in the trilogy.
Both Aiden Turner and Dean O'Gorman have plenty more to do in this one, especially Turner, whose character has one of the most irritating and unnecessary arcs of the saga, and so was bizarrely shoe-horned into a sort of leading role that I really did not enjoy.
I will also, once more, credit the other actors who played dwarves for their complementary efforts to the story - those being Mark Hadlow, Stephen Hunter, William Kircher, John Callen, Peter Hambleton, Jed Brophy and Adam Brown.
Manu Bennett had plenty to do in this trilogy, with his biggest performance coming in this third film. Honestly, I can't really fault his performance as such, but it wasn't overly spectacular or anything either. He was a fairly decent antagonist, but he failed to feel particularly unique, especially in comparison to some of the great villains of the Lord Of The Rings.
Sylvester McCoy, Ian Holm, Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett and Christopher Lee all get decent cameos, and the likes of Billy Connolly, John Bell, John Tui, Peggy Nesbitt and Mary Nesbitt each deserve mentions as well for their various supporting appearances.
Overall, this isn't quite a bad film, but it sure isn't a great one either. It hurts to say, as a lifelong fan of the Middle-Earth saga, but Peter Jackson just tried to do way too much, certainly more than he needed to do in any case. Even without the extended edition content, the film is a bloated mess of a sequence that should have been an hour tops, if not less, at the end of the second film.
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