The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies was released on DVD and Blu-Ray at the beginning of this week and is the long awaited conclusion of the Hobbit Trilogy. If you can get your head around it, it Is a prequel trilogy to a sequel trilogy made after the sequel trilogy… but is still set before it? Peter Jackson returned to direct it, much like he had for Lord of the Rings, which as everyone knows, is the sequel trilogy of films. Written in four books by the great fiction writer J.R.R Tolkien, the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings were a huge literary success. In 2001, the first of three films was released in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy: The Fellowship of the Ring, which began the tale of a young Hobbit, Frodo Baggins being burdened with the keeping of a dark treasure; a ring that holds the power to return the dark lord Sauron to his full power. Teaming up with Hobbit’s, Elves, Men, Wizard’s and Dwarves, the company of 9 must deliver the ring back to the volcano to which it was forged to destroy it forever. Winning 4 Oscars and international attention from audiences of all ages, it was proceeded by The Two Towers. Winning a further 2 Oscars, this was then followed by the conclusion of the trilogy, the Return of the King. This earned an additional 11 Oscars and secured Peter Jackson among the great film makers of the age.
When it was announced that the Hobbit would be made into films, I was overjoyed! The Lord of the Rings was such an iconic piece of cinematography, why on Middle-Earth wouldn’t we all like to see more of Hobbits, Elves, Wizards and the like? But, would it live up to the huge success of it’s predecessor? I think the majority of the die-hard fans would say that it did not live up to our first trip there and back again to Middle Earth; there seemed to be a considerable amount more CGI, the scripts were maybe not as strong and (for me) the character relationships are no where near as genuinely portrayed. BUT, having said this, the main actor performances on the whole (Ian Mckellen- Gandalf, Martin Freeman- Bilbo Baggins, Cate Blanchett- Galadriel etc.) were, as always, superb and heartfelt, as is Howard Shore’s unique talent in score and Peter Jackson’s stunning direction. It was these fundamentals that bridged the two sets of films and I reckon that one could watch all six films in order and be truly satisfied with the level of detail and care taken to preserve J.R.R Tolkien’s novel’s.
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he Hobbit Trilogy sees Frodo Baggins’ uncle Bilbo, assist a company of 13 Dwarves take back their mountain kingdom from a dragon which has resided there for 60 years. An Unexpected Journey, the first movie of the new Tolkien based franchise, was released in late 2012 and nominated for 4 Oscars. I was initially skeptical after seeing it originally, but I came to really enjoy this first installment. Yes, it is noticeably different than LOTR and the production value is obviously higher, but you can tell that Jackson desperately tried to keep the aesthetic the same or at least similar to that of his original vision. This is admirable and with returning characters such as Ian Holm’s Bilbo Baggins, Hugo Weaving’s Lord Elrond, Christopher Lee’s Saruman the White and of course, Ian Mckellen’s famous portrayal of Gandalf the Grey, it was a nice beginning to a three part story linking both set of inspirational movies together.
The Desolation of Smaug was released in 2013 and saw the story continue, with the return of Orlando Bloom’s Legolas from LOTR and the proper introduction of Lee Pace’s ruthless King Thranduil and Evangeline Lilly’s beautiful Tauriel. It was a stunning, sleek and well rounded piece of cinema; in my opinion, the best of the three (especially the extended edition). Nominated for 3 Oscars, the film concludes with Benedict Cumberbatch’s motion capture performance of Smaug the Dragon being vanquished from the mountain kingdom and seeking his revenge on the local villagers.
The Battle of the Five Armies (formerly named There and Back Again) was released in 2014 and was nominated for a single Oscar. As I write this I am actually watching it back for the first time since seeing it upon it’s initial release back in December of last year and I have to say, it is much better second round. I believe the main fault with it and why it was given such harsh criticism is the fact that the majority of it is fighting… Literally, it has very little plot to it, the main bulk of the plot is a fight sequence between the five armies. I love a good battle sequence as much as the next man, in fact with the Lord of the Rings films, it was practically a prerequisite! But as good as the action is.. it did seem to get a bit samey after a while. The trilogy was initially going to be a duo, so maybe the unnecessarily long fight scenes were to bulk the film out? I don’t know.
The romance sub plot between Tauriel and one of the Dwarves, Kili, was sweetly established in The Desolation of Smaug and as tragic as this film is when it comes to the continuation of that in Battle of the Five Armies, it did seem oddly irrelevant how they were hopelessly in love after two short conversations spread several days apart? I believe in love at first sight and all that but still? However the scenes between them were nicely acted and not exaggerated so I can’t really complain. Ironically, one of the most important plot points to note in the film is also the one seen briefest with the grouping of the White council (Gandalf, Elrond, Galadriel, Saruman and Radagast played by Doctor Who veteran Sylvester McCoy) against the spirit form of Sauron, who is banished back to Mordor. This is my favourite part of the movie as it sees truly outstanding actors do what they do best and that’s deliver a powerfully intense scene in less than 8 minutes of footage. Once all the fighting is over and the mourning began, it seems all too sudden that Bilbo goes “cool, see ya”! and is off back to the Shire, with the revelation that Gandalf knew all along that he had a ring of magic… Oh, brilliant; feel free to do something about that sir, it may be just the ONE ring that Sauron is after? No? OK fair enough, don’t examine it or anything; just let Bilbo keep it and wait 60 years for Fellowship to find out. It has quite a sharp ending to a story that lasts about 8-9 hours long (that’s all three movies.) I am hoping that upon the extended edition’s release that it will be subsequently fleshed out a bit more to add some more depth to story.
I have lavished in watching it though; an end to an era I suppose with the same poignancy as to that felt at the end of Return of the King. Regardless of the nit picks, I cannot stress my fondness and emotional attachment felt to these films; no matter how many times I watch them, it will feel like an entirely fresh experience every time.
I hope you have enjoyed reading and feel free to comment your thoughts on our last visit to Middle Earth!
Read on and Prosper!
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