THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES MOVIE | Posted on 3rd December 2014
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Well, it’s almost the end of an era. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is about to be unleashed in cinemas next week, marking the end of director Peter Jackson’s massively successful adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s work.

You can almost hear the different factions gearing up, as humans, elves, dwarves and giant eagles prepare to do battle with goblins and wargs, resulting in an epic climax to the trilogy. And critics have not been disappointed with the final chapter, announcing that it delivers everything it promised. And that’s no mean feat, as expectations have remained high for the final film, in which the great dragon Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch) rains his fiery vengence down on Lake-town, opening up a whole new world of trouble.

Writing in The Guardian, Andrew Pulver praises Jackson’s vision for bringing Middle Earth so vividly to life, and for the consistency with which he’s portrayed that world, over 13 years and six films, including The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

"Having set the tone so definitively at the outset, each film delivered exactly what it promised," he says, suspecting that the two trilogies will forever define Jackson’s career. The final instalment is "a fitting cap" to the series, he adds, and "is just as enjoyable as each of the five films that came before it."

Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter said we can expect fewer bumbling dwarves and more badassery and dashing figures in the final chapter – much to my delight, as I am no fan of the dwarves (I’m more of an elf girl). "What we're in for is far less of the interchangeable dwarves waddling around and far more of dashing guys like Legolas and Bard the Bowman making like William Tell and Robin Hood," he reports. Sounds good to me.

Hardly anyone is completely incorruptible in Tolkein’s world, and McCarthy seems to delight in “the brooding Dwarf Lord Thorin heading to the dark side," as he is driven mad by the gold located within the Lonely Mountain. We can also look forward to "the gruesome, born-to-kill Orcs marauding in all their grotesque glory and Christopher Lee kicking ass like no 92-year-old ever has before," he says, adding: "It's doubtful many viewers will regret that the series has abandoned its more genteel and domesticated beginnings."

Meanwhile, Variety film critic Scott Foundas praises Richard Armitage's performance as Thorin. The actor plays him "with the paranoid despotic rage of a Shakespearean king, his heavy-lidded eyes ablaze with a private madness," Foundas writes.

It’s expected that this will be Jackson’s final visit to Middle-earth. There have been rumours of an adapation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s posthumously published novel The Silmarillion; however, there is little love lost between Jackson and the late author’s estate, so it seems unlikely in the foreseeable future. But we live in hope.

In the meantime, we can sit back and enjoy the last stand. As Variety aptly puts it, the adventure goes out "not with a whimper, but with an epic battle royale."

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is released on 12th December – click here to book your tickets.

It’s also one of our December Unmissables Movies – find out more by clicking here.

Der Hobbit: Die Schlacht der Fünf Heere - Peter Jacksons letzter Trip nach Mittelerde

Am 10. Dezember kommt Peter Jacksons finales Epos in die Kinos. Der Regisseur setzt dabei auf viel Bewährtes und wiederholt oft Kritisiertes.

Seit der letzte Film mit einem schwarzen Bildschirm endete, ist in Peter Jacksons Universum keinerlei Zeit vergangen. Der titelgebende Hobbit Bilbo (Martin Freeman) und seine zwergische Gemeinschaft haben bei ihrer Schatzsuche den Schrecken des einsamen Berges erweckt, den Drachen Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch). Der hat seine selbsterwählte Isolation aufgegeben und entlädt seinen feurigen Zorn auf die Menschen der Seestadt, die er für ihre Helfershelfer hält. Währenddessen werden an verschiedenen Orten in Mittelerde Heere aufgestellt, um die Reichtümer des Berges Erebor für sich zu beanspruchen und der Zauberer Gandalf (Ian McKellen) schmachtet in der Gefangenschaft eines alten Bekannten.

Im Frühjahr dieses Jahres wurde der Titel des Films kurzfristig geändert. Auf seiner Facebookseite verkündete Jackson: „Wir hatten einen bestimmten Punkt erreicht und nachdem wir den Film noch einmal gesehen hatten, entschieden wir alle gemeinsam, dass es einen Titel gab, der vollkommen angemessen ist.“ So wurde There and Back Again (Hin und wieder zurück) zu The Battle of the Five Armies, der Name der zentralen Schlacht und Höhepunkt von Filmtrilogie und Buchvorlage gleichermaßen.

Wie der Titel bereits erahnen lässt, steht hier erneut das Spektakel im Vordergrund. Viel anderes blieb den Filmemachern auch kaum übrig, denn hatten sie doch bereits knapp drei Viertel der recht schmalen literarischen Vorlage Tolkiens adaptiert. Und selbst als Ganzes bietet "Der Hobbit" nicht annähernd die Fülle an epischem Material, welches vor einer Dekade den Nährboden für Peter Jacksons "Der Herr der Ringe"-Epos bildete. Deswegen schlägt sich auch der letzte Teil der Hobbit-Trilogie mit all den Problemen seiner Vorgänger herum.

Fanservice und Lückenfüller
Abermals wird die dünne Handlung des Buches erneut mit allerlei dazu erfundenen Elementen aufgebläht und mit Dingen, die Tolkien zwar geschrieben hat, die aber nie in seiner als Kinderbuch angelegten Geschichte eine Rolle gespielt haben. Jackson und seine Ko-Autoren plünderten den Appendix des Herrn der Ringe, um all das verfilmbare Material aufzutreiben, welches dem Hobbit alleine so sehr fehlte.

Im besten Fall sind diese Ergänzungen relativ interessant, aber für die Gesamthandlung unerheblich, wie z.B. ein Side-Plot, indem die Elbenfürsten Galadriel (Cate Blanchett) und Elrond (Hugo Weaving) mit Zauberer-Kollegen und Herr-der-Ringe-Bösewicht Saruman (Christopher Lee) eine Rettungsmission für den gefangenen Gandalf unternehmen. Ihr Kampf gegen einen noch nicht völlig erstarkten Sauron ist unterhaltsam und packend, erweist sich aber als schierer Fan-Service für Kenner der Originaltrilogie oder der Bücher, ohne wirklichen Wert für die weitere Handlung zu haben.

Im schlimmsten Fall sind diese Änderungen sogar völlig unnötig und obendrein frei erfunden, wie das erzwungene Liebesdreieck zwischen der weiblichen Elbe Tauriel, ihrem Volksgenossen Legolas und dem sehr menschlich wirkenden Zwerg Kili. Verständlich, dass Jackson versuchte die sehr männerzentrierte Welt Tolkiens mit einer resoluten Kämpferin wie Tauriel gendergerechter zu gestalten. Aber muss ihre wichtigste Entscheidung in der Trilogie darin bestehen, sich zwischen zwei Männern zu entscheiden?

Martin Freeman macht gewohnt eine gute Figur als der großfüßige Hobbit Bilbo Beutlin und darf im letzten Teil der nach ihm benannten Trilogie sogar zwischenzeitlich die Initiative ergreifen, anstatt mehr oder weniger orientierungslos durch die Tolkien’sche Welt zu stolpern. Der Rest vom Cast gibt ebenfalls eine akzeptable Figur ab, gerade Richard Armitage als Thorin Eichenschild läuft zu ungewohnter Hochform auf. Leider geht so gut wie jeder Anflug von tiefgehender Charakterentwicklung im Actiongewitter des omnipräsenten Gemetzels unter.

Peter Jackson: Der Herr der Actionszenen
Alle Figuren müssen zurücktreten, angesichts der schier endlosen Action-Sequenzen, die Peter Jackson atemlos aneinander reiht. Leider merkt man diesen, obgleich meisterlich inszeniert, stets an, dass sie lediglich als dritter Akt eines Kinozweiteilers gedacht waren und nicht als Herzstück eines eigenständigen Films.

Im rasenden Schlachtengetümmel gehen Nebenschauplätze wie der wachsende Wahnsinn des Zwergenkönigs Thorin, Bilbos Beziehung zum einen Ring und das Schicksal der Familie des Bogenschützen Bards weitestgehend unter. Der Drache Smaug, Hauptantagonist des letzten Films, wird bereits früh abserviert und so konzentriert sich die Der Hobbit: Die Schlacht der Fünf Heere auf genau das, was der Titel vermuten lässt. Bei aller Kritik bleibt jedoch anzumerken, dass Peter Jackson nichts verlernt hat, was die Direktion von kriegerischen Massen und die Inszenierung fesselnder Zweikämpfe angeht. Angesichts der finsteren Horden (und deren ekelhaften Vielfalt), die sich den Protagonisten entgegenwerfen, kann man sich schon beeindruckt zeigen. Aber da man eine Menge Charaktere aus dem zeitlich danach angelegten Herr-der-Ringe-Filmen kennt, muss man sich um deren Sicherheit nicht allzu sorgen. Gerade der elbische Scharfschütze Legolas bringt mit einigen gewagten Stuntmanövern die Gesetze des Wahrscheinlichen und der Physik ins Wanken und zahlt dafür mit viel Glaubwürdigkeit. Sofern man bei einem Fantasyfilm, angesiedelt in einer fiktiven Welt, überhaupt von Glaubwürdigkeit sprechen kann.

Nachdem das Schlachten vorbei ist, werden (fast) alle Handlungsfäden, so dünn sie auch waren, aufgelöst und als letztes Augenzwinkern landet man wieder bei Ian Holm, dem alten Bilbo der Herr-der-Ringe-Filme.

Und so wirkt Der Hobbit: Die Schlacht der fünf Heere wie der Teil einer sehr, sehr langen Fußnote auf der ersten Seite eines weitaus besseren Buches. Unterhaltsam, ja. Aber auch abschweifend und irgendwie weit weg vom eigentlichen Thema.

THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES Review
Posted on Dec 2 2014 - 10:31pm by Andy Caley


The Hobbit - Battle of the Five Armies

Director: Peter Jackson

Cast: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Evangeline Lilly, Lee Pace, Luke Evans, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ken Stott, James Nesbitt, Aidan Turner, Graham McTavish, Stephen Fry, Sylvester McCoy, Manu Bennett, Cate Blanchett, Ian Holm, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving and Orlando Bloom

Rating: PG-13/12A

Running Time: 144 minutes

The first time I saw THE LORD OF THE RINGS, I wasn’t convinced at all. I thought that Peter Jackson had merely created a repetitive special-effects list of, ‘Here come the orcs…again.’ I found the characters annoying, I didn’t care about them, I didn’t care about the endless wars; ultimately, I found Middle-earth inaccessible, when everyone else managed just fine to go forth and enjoy. But, then I watched Guillermo del Toro’s note-perfect PAN’S LABYRINTH. And my eyes were opened to fairy-tale films. I don’t mean fairy-tale in the Disney sense. I mean as in the Brothers Grimm, stories that were scary, bloody, adrenaline-pumping, heart-warming/breaking, and above all, magical. Instead of watching them as a product from a moneymaking franchise, I went back to watch THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy as a set of fairy-tale films. And, lo and behold, my eyes were opened. I was blind, but now I see. I realised that what Jackson had done was take the seeds of Tolkien, and through blood, sweat, tears and heart, allowed it to grow and blossom into this wonderfully scary and scarily wonderful fairy-tale adventure, which stretches the boundaries of storytelling and imagination, and would have made Tolkien proud and given the Grimms a run for their money.

So, when I heard that THE HOBBIT films were on their way to multiplexes, films that had Guillermo’s name on the scripts (after initially coming onboard to direct), along with Peter Jackson, his wife Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens, I couldn’t wait to see the outcome. I like to think that Peter had heard somewhere that I had finally come over to the light, hired Guillermo especially for me, as a thank-you. The result? THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY was Bilbo Baggy. THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG was Bilbo Better. Now, we have THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES, which is Bilbo Back On Form!

We begin from where we left off from the previous instalment. The dragon, Smaug, is awake, and seeks to pour his fire on the innocent and unsuspecting Laketown. He leaves behind his immense treasures, allowing Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) to reclaim his home, the dwarven city of Erebor, and the hoard that comes with it. However, the cursed gold consumes Thorin, succumbing to ‘dragon sickness’, where he becomes so obsessed by the wealth of the mountain, that he loses sight of his sense of honour and friendship. Betrayals upon betrayals, old resentments and the unfulfilled sharing of Erebor’s wealth, result in five armies (like in the title, get it?) descending to a state of war, fighting for the wealth that will grant them power over Middle-earth.

This is perhaps Jackson’s most heartfelt Middle-earth film; he is aware that this will be his and our last trip to Tolkien’s world. A central theme of the film is the love of family and friendship, and you can certainly feel his loving-goodbye hug to each character and to Middle-earth itself. It’s that same sadness when Frodo says goodbye to his fellow Hobbits in one of the many endings of THE RETURN OF THE KING. It’s a feeling that welcomes tears, a satisfying fitting to the conclusion of this, and the previous trilogy. Excuse me, there’s just… -ahem, something in my eye. In fact, your heart is put through more strain here than compared to any of the previous Middle-earth instalments, and it’s mainly down to Jackson’s love of the material, but also down to the cast, in particular, Martin Freeman (as Bilbo Baggins) and Richard Armitage, who are both equally brilliant, but in such different ways.

When one normally sees Freeman on screen, be it film or television, he usually plays the audience’s ‘inside man’, the character to whom spectators can relate, like his John Watson to Benedict Cumberbatch’s intelligent, but socially inept Sherlock Holmes, or like his Tim Canterbury to the-boss-from-hell David Brent. And, he carries on this character through to the peaceful Hobbit, Bilbo. But, in this film, where everything descends into an all-out war, Bilbo is pushed to the edge in terms of how rational he can be in a world with which can no longer be reasoned, which Freeman accordingly plays to emotional perfection. This is where Armitage comes in. As Thorin falls to ‘dragon sickness’, Armitage takes, what was once a heroic character, and brings him to the depths of greed, to the point where he becomes close to villainous and, at times, downright menacing – his incredible performance is frightening, frustrating, sympathetic, heartbreaking, but ultimately inspiring. It’s hard to believe that this is the same guy that starred in the final episode of THE VICAR OF DIBLEY.

But, what makes the combination of these two actors so outstanding is that you have Armitage playing Thorin as though he has just come fresh from THE LORD OF THE RINGS series. And, on the other side to that, you have Freeman playing Bilbo as the rational, down-to-earth character, who has just come fresh from THE OFFICE (and I don’t mean that as a criticism). What this leads to is Armitage retaining what the fans held, and still hold, so dearly to the trilogy: grand speeches of honour and betrayal, male ego, warriors and so on, along with Freeman, who acts as the audience’s eyes into this warring world, making us truly involved in Middle-earth, in a way with which I initially struggled in THE LORD OF THE RINGS series. Thanks to these two actors’ performances, this film is for everyone, fans or otherwise.

When I heard that the final battle was going to be 45 minutes long, I feared that the worst had happened. I feared that Peter Jackson had decided to take on the beliefs of Michael Bay, which are as follows: the way to make an action film adrenaline-pumping is to have an explosion every thirty seconds (which, annoyingly, are so loud they keep you awake), with the camera falling in love with every special effect going. Oh, and if some characters happen to be there, what a bonus that would be. Fear not, because, here, this is not the case. There is, indeed, an impressive 45 minute battle sequence (as you’d expect with Jackson), but, like what made HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 2 such a great film (yes, I am proud to be a geek), despite the action set-pieces, it always comes back down to the central characters. Peter Jackson shows that Michael Bay is talking a whole bunch o’ hooey. The reason your heart will race, the reason you will cry, the reason your adrenaline will be pumping like mad that it won’t know what to do with itself, is because you care about the people involved, you worry that they might not actually make it through to the end-credits – and to do that in a prequel, where we know for certain that some of the characters survive (if you’re planning on betting whether or not Gandalf will make it, *spoiler alert* I’d go for the ‘more than probably’ option), is a remarkable feat. And the climax of the film does more to confirm this.

That’s not to say this film is perfect. There are, as there were with DESOLATION OF SMAUG, a few visual issues – the odd orc does occasionally look a bit ropey, in a way that never would have concerned me if Jackson stuck to his fleshy and squishy monsters that made Middle-earth seem so visceral in THE LORD OF THE RINGS. Also, significant details of the previous instalment are dismissed pretty quickly in this film, as are newly introduced characters. I’m sure that’s how it is in the book (which I haven’t read), but I frankly don’t take that as an excuse; adapt it to make a story that works for film, that’s why they call it ‘a film adaptation of a book’.

However, those criticisms aside, THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES is a fantastic, heartfelt and action-packed conclusion. While it will forever remain in the shadow of THE LORD OF THE RINGS, this trilogy is a worthy sibling, with an ending that is cleaner and quicker than RETURN OF THE KING’s. What it lacks in the exemplary visuals of the first series of films, it makes up for in heart. No, it’s not perfect, but it deserves five stars, purely because it is better than a four-star movie. It is a wonderful and magical fairy-tale about the importance of friends and family, told with the utmost sense of adventure, with some incredible performances. At the end, you tend to think about the beginning, and I am willing to hold my hands up and say that my initial opinion on these films was wrong. We finally say goodbye to Middle-earth, and, one way or another, we part with characters that we have come to know and love. Peter Jackson’s work is complete. Please excuse me, I think I’ve got something in my eye again.
5 Stars (5 / 5)

The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies Review: The Most Powerful and Strongest Film in the Trilogy
Posted by Lisa-Marie Burrows On December 03, 2014


The Hobbit

Director: Peter Jackson

Cast: Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Ian McKellen, Benedict Cumberbatch, Orlando Bloom, Evangeline Lilly, Luke Evans, Lee Pace, Ryan Gage

Rating: 12A

Running Time: 144mins

After 14 years, it is finally time for director Peter Jackson to leave Middle Earth and the world of JRR Tolkien in the final installment from The Hobbit trilogy – THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES. The finale will sweep audiences off their feet in an immense film filled with an array of emotions from anger, fury, desperation and with an unexpected emotional edge that will surprise many. Since the start of the trilogy, we have grown to know the characters, relish in their journey and now the time has come to tentatively say goodbye to the much-loved characters who have been brought to life so beautifully over the years. The final film is as big as die hard fans have hoped it will be and certainly better than they could have predicted, as one of the most popular and infamous franchises in movie history comes to a booming close in enigmatic style.

The movie picks up exactly where the last film, THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG finishes off and Jackson opens the film in the way he means to go on – in monumental, quick-paced fashion. Smaug The Stupendous (Benedict Cumberbatch) makes his way for Lake-town to burn the city to ashes leaving Bard the Bowman (played superbly by Luke Evans) and his iron arrow in hot pursuit of the target to finish the job his ancestor had started in order to rid Middle Earth of the beast and save the people in his town. Meanwhile, Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) is becoming obsessed with his treasure hoard in Erebor as his dragon sickness slowly consumes the King Under the Mountain and Gandalf is locked in an iron cage, over the edge of Sauron’s ruined castle.

Having assumed the audience is already heavily invested in the trilogy and familiar with the plot, there is no room for reminders in this big, fantasy epic – but why bother? Jackson divulges straight into the first of many battles from the word go and that is what the filmmaker needed to do rather than change the pace in order to painstakingly go over old ground. There is a major titular battle lurking, waiting to be revealed and thankfully the film hits the ground running.

Many plot strands need addressing, which are strewn over different locations in Middle Earth. In the rather dark and violent setting at Sauron’s castle a fantastical scene plays out with Gandalf (Ian McKellen), Saruman (Christopher Lee) and Galadriel (Cate Blanchett) fending off evil spirits – definitely not for the faint-hearted. During which, Galadriel undergoes a chilling transformation in her fight against the darkness and he who lies in the shadows.

With the plot speedily heading towards the 45-minute battle scene, there is very little room for anything light in this outing during the onslaught of sword-whielding, orc impaling and disembodiment of the rancid creatures, which is exactly what most fans will have been hoping for. The moments of fleeting comedic respite are largely provided by Ryan Gage in his role of the greedy, gold-loving coward, Alfrid.

Even Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) cannot provide much light relief in his predicament as he remains in the lonely mountain of Erebor – the place where the film is largely centred around. The titular character is fighting his own small battle against Thorin Oakenshield who is drastically losing himself and all that he stood for after becoming fixated on every piece of gold coin he has and thanks to his dragon sickness, there is no penny to spare in order to help the people of Lake-town as he once promised. Aside from losing his memory of the respectable dwarf he once was, the mighty Thorin is becoming a crumbling individual in danger of losing his honour and the promises he made.

Harbouring such desirable treasures and with Smaug dead, all eyes turn to the mountain and the glittering rewards that loom inside. Several armies are set on breaking down the walls of Erebor to spoil in such pleasures, but Thorin and Company are not planning on giving up that easily. Elves, dwarves and humans are all at battle with each other and during their distractions, they are unaware of the biggest battle yet to come, brought to them by the hordes of Orcs about to besiege them.

It is at this point that Jackson sweeps you up and takes you on an intense 45-minutes of battle, which gets the heart pounding and leaves you gasping for breath in his most epic battle scene since the days of Lord of the Rings. The prolific director certainly set the visual standards back then and pushed the boundaries of what technology can do, but in this closing story, he raises the bar even higher. The battle commences in the most grandiose of proportions and it definitely delivers, achieving the goal of the film.

The battle scenes are loud, noisy and delightful to watch, which are intensified by Howard Shore‘s music during the most active and fearsome of scenes, but the score contrasts beautifully during the more emotional scenes – and yes, there are some! Without spoiling the plot for those who have not read the book, the final scene between Thorin and Bilbo is extraordinarily emotional and heart wrenching which is perhaps the biggest surprising element of the film and demonstrates once more the attachment towards the characters who we have followed on their tumultuous journey.

Although the trilogy is based on Bilbo, it is evident in the final film that in fact it is Thorin who is really the central character and the one who is embarking on his own journey – psychologically, emotionally and physically. Bilbo of course plays his part, but the plot and battle puts Thorin centre stage in this movie. Richard Armitage’s portrayal of the sickening dwarf is exemplary, as his character’s mentality shifts in dramatic fashion. Armitage is able to deliver the menacing, powerful, intimidating side to Thorin so convincingly, yet in stark contrast, he exudes emotion impeccably offering a flawless performance in the more touching, final scenes showing the vulnerability and hidden sensitivity of his character.

As the film wraps up, one feels the sense of the final goodbye, not just for the audience, but also for the director himself. Jackson’s visual imagination is simply sublime and his achievement has been even more impressive – monumentally pulling off a three-part film from a book that on paper would not lend itself to that possibility.

Having set the tone so definitively at the outset, each film has delivered exactly what it promised, in uncompromising fashion. THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES is the most powerful, bravest and strongest film in the Hobbit trilogy and provides the fitting closing cap that the story deserves and even more so for the cinematic legacy of Peter Jackson.

Thorin Eichenschild, tapferer Anführer der Zwerge, verfällt der „Drachenkrankheit“, die man auch Korruption durch Reichtum nennen könnte. Grandios spielt Richard Armitage die Zerrissenheit zwischen Gier und Ehre, Kälte und Freundschaft. Thorin will es sogar auf einen Krieg gegen Menschen und Elben ankommen lassen, um nicht ein einziges Goldstück abgeben zu müssen. Sein innerer Kampf ist einer der Höhepunkte des Films.

http://www.weser-kurier.de/bremen/bremen-kultur-freizeit_artikel,-Viel-Drama-wenig-Handlung-_arid,1009618.html



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Moral choice: Richard Armitage plays Thorin Oakenshield in 'The Hobbit' trilogy. Thorin's greed becomes a threat in the latest installment of the series. | ©2014 METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER PICTURES INC. AND WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC.
FILM
Trilogy's stars take a nostalgic look back on Tolkien adaptation
Armies ready for battle in final ‘Hobbit’ film
BY GEORGE HADLEY-GARCIA
SPECIAL TO THE JAPAN TIMES
DEC 11, 2014 ARTICLE HISTORY PRINT SHARE
HOLLYWOOD – There’s a scene in Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill: Volume 2″ where Michael Madsen’s Budd character asks Daryl Hannah’s Elle: “Now you ain’t gonna hafta face your enemy on the battlefield no more, which ‘R’ are you filled with: relief or regret?”

Elle tries to dodge by saying both, but eventually admits to feeling more regret.

On a different battlefield, one populated with five armies, the cast of “The Hobbit” are preparing to face the same choice, which may account for the tinge of sadness I feel when talking to both Martin Freeman and Sir Ian McKellen.

Freeman, who plays Bilbo Baggins, the star of the trilogy, says that when making “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” he hadn’t anticipated how emotional he would get by the end of filming.

“It was damned hard work. These are not easy movies to make, and the patience required is quite substantial,” Freeman tells The Japan Times. “But then came the realization that this monumental part of my life is over, something I was quite privileged to be involved in.

“Also that I may not work with most of these people, either in front of or behind the camera, again. They did become like family — more than I’d realized. One takes situations and people rather for granted after a time, but then, when all is over and done with, comes the nostalgia, some regret and . . . (a sense of) missing those people.”

“Five Armies” comes after 2012′s “An Unexpected Journey” and 2013′s “The Desolation of Smaug” in “The Hobbit” trilogy. The trilogy is a prequel to the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy that dominated the box office in the early 2000s. All films were based on novels of the same name by British author JRR Tolkien, but while “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy was based on three volumes of Tolkien’s work, “The Hobbit” was based on only one book.

At 163 cm, Freeman, who is now 43, remembers jumping at the chance to play Bilbo.

“It was like winning the lottery,” he says, “at least a lottery for height-challenged actors.”

Jokes aside, Freeman mentions that it was director Peter Jackson’s passion for the project that most impressed him, and he agreed with Jackson’s decision to stretch the source material into three films. (He also agreed with Jackson’s decision to change the title of the third film during filming. It had originally been called “The Hobbit: There and Back Again.”)

“Peter did not make it into a trilogy for extra (box office) gross,” Freeman says. “He did it sincerely, to better tell and complete the entire story and please the fans. He always has Tolkien’s fans in mind.”

McKellen, whose character Gandalf has participated in all six movies, feels nostalgic but admits he’s also a little bit relieved.

“It was a wonderful part, I hesitate to use the overused ‘iconic,’ ” he says. “It had a Shakespearean sweep and shooting the pictures — the whole experience — was in many ways an actor’s dream. Yet I confess to relief that I can now hang up my robes and move on. I may never escape Gandalf’s long shadow, but I promise you I shall try.”

The 75-year-old British actor also speaks highly of the friendships he made.

“They shall last, and there is no impediment to remaining friends and keeping in touch,” he says.

McKellen’s reminiscing leads him to recall the first time he was approached to join “The Lord of the Rings.”

“Some friends were aghast that I would go to work — in far-off New Zealand, no less — for that ‘splatter’ director,” he says, referring to Jackson’s past indie work. “I had some doubts, kept them to myself and reminded people that Peter had done the creatively unique and riveting ‘Heavenly Creatures,’ which pleased any number of critics and filmgoers.”

In this concluding installment of “The Hobbit,” a huge treasure has been reclaimed from the villainous dragon Smaug, but a new villainy arises in the shape of Thorin Oakenshield’s greed and betrayal of friends when he embarks on a search for the Arkenstone. The consequences are catastrophic, but Thorin’s wrongheaded pride and stubbornness are immune to the innate good in Bilbo and his companions. Everyone must eventually band together for the common good of Middle-earth.

Returning as Thorin is British actor Richard Armitage, who says a major theme in the film is how power corrupts.

“Thorin is not born a villain,” he says. “I suppose very few people are, even the great villains of the 20th century that we learned about in school. Being given enormous power and adulation must have magnified the flaws they already had, then turned them into monsters.”

Armitage believes that Thorin, faced with great possibilities and temptation, is one of these flawed characters.

“I think he’s also lonely and rather scared at times,” he adds “And believes that what he seeks will change him, make him secure and adulated, with no more doubts or fears. The rise of his villainy puts his own gentleness to one side and, frankly, I think that makes a much more compelling villain than somebody depicted as rotten from the get-go.”

Armitage, 43, spent this past summer at London’s Old Vic theater starring in an Arthur Miller play about opportunistic villainy, “The Crucible.” He does considerable voice work, including reading poems on the radio, which also led him to attempt illustrating Thorin’s evolution — or devolution — in personality via subtle vocal alterations.

“You study the voices of dictators and it’s rather fascinating,” he says. They may speak one way privately or semipublicly, another way giving speeches, and sometimes they try to convince an audience by not shouting or haranguing. A nondictatorial example was a more recent one: Meryl Streep as a very intimidating boss from hell (in ‘The Devil Wears Prada’), who in point of fact never raises her voice. So I got to borrow from several sources.”

Asked how Gandalf has evolved over the course of six films, McKellen says he didn’t think the character needed it.

“Oh, I don’t think he had much room for that,” he says. “He was somewhat already perfected, sort of a Merlin figure. Some learned authorities told me, years ago, that Tolkien, a philology professor, used Merlin as an inspiration for his own wizard.”

Asked the same question about Bilbo, Freeman says: “He’s gone through almost every emotion and myriad adventures. I think he’s learned to live within himself more contentedly. He’s no longer as young and fresh, he’s more disappointed with people — well, look at Thorin, he should be disappointed! — and by the persistence of evil in the world . . . specifically in Middle-earth.”

Also returning to Middle-earth are Cate Blanchett (Galadriel), Orlando Bloom (Legolas) and Benedict Cumberbatch (Smaug/Necromancer). As far as visuals go, “The Battle of the Five Armies” is a spectacular way to end the year.

“I think Tolkien would be flabbergasted if he came back and saw all this,” Freeman says. “He seems to have created this entire world in a casual and lighthearted way, but now it has been completed and immortalized. Enough time and money have been used that I don’t think his worldview or his story could be better told than it is.”

McKellen concurs on the special effects and mentions that the spectacle of the film has also been achieved without relying on gratuitous violence.

As of now, the “Hobbit” cast isn’t expecting to grab the kinds of accolades that the final “Lord of the Rings” film did. However, many critics have been generous with their praise for the film.

“Could it be that the ending of something is sometimes deemed the best part of an effort, both because it means there’s no more, and out of an unadmitted sense of relief that there is no more?” McKellen says.

Philosophy aside, he is satisfied with the end of the experience and believes the series will stand the test of time.

Looking back at the first “Lord of the Rings” movie in 2001, he offers, “In all seriousness, I’m honored to have been Gandalf and I will gladly work with Peter again on almost any picture. My sole fear is that somebody may carve on my tombstone ‘aka Gandalf.’ Which won’t happen if I have my ashes scattered over New Zealand’s South Island.”

Armitage, who wasn’t in “The Lord of the Rings” but has been with “The Hobbit” from the start, also feels honored to have been a part of the trilogy and speaks highly of the world it created.

“I’m gratified when people say, whether they love him or hate him or pity him, that (Thorin is) fascinating to watch,” he says. “But so is this movie, and so is this marvelous posthumous collaboration of Peter Jackson with JRR Tolkien, which I’m sure Peter is proud of and is relieved to have behind him. Now it belongs to posterity.”

“The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” open in cinemas nationwide on Dec. 13. For more information, visit www.thehobbit.com.

PHOTOS
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Fantasy farewell: Ian McKellen, who plays Gandalf in both 'Lord of the Rings' and 'Hobbit' trilogies, will say goodbye to his character after the latest installment in the series, 'The Battle of the Five Armies.' | ©2014 METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER PICTURES INC. AND WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC.Shopping for rings: 'The Hobbit' tells the story of Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) in his younger days. The ring he finds will eventually become the basis for the 'The Lord of the Rings.' | ©2014 METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER PICTURES INC. AND WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC.Moral choice: Richard Armitage plays Thorin Oakenshield in 'The Hobbit' trilogy. Thorin's greed becomes a threat in the latest installment of the series. | ©2014 METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER PICTURES INC. AND WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC.

KEYWORDS
IAN MCKELLEN, MARTIN FREEMAN, PETER JACKSON, RICHARD ARMITAGE, THE HOBBIT, THE LORD OF THE RINGS

FILM

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies review – packs a huge chain-mail punch
4 / 5 stars
Jackson’s pumped-up final hobbit movie really works: it’s exciting, spectacular, genial and rousing. And it makes do with one ending

Peter Jackson has pulled it off. He has successfully concluded his outrageously steroidal inflation of Tolkien’s Hobbit into a triple-decker Middle Earth saga equivalent to the Rings trilogy, and made it something terrifically exciting and spectacular, genial and rousing, with all the cheerful spirit of Saturday morning pictures. And if poor, bemused little Bilbo Baggins now looks a bit lost on this newly enlarged action-fantasy canvas – well, he raises his game as well, leavening the mix with some unexpectedly engaging and likable drama. The Battle of the Five Armies is at least as weighty as The Return of the King. It packs a huge chain-mailed punch and lands a resounding mythic stonk. But it’s less conceited, more accessible and it makes do with just the one ending.

We are pitched right back into the chaos in which we left the second episode, as the dragon Smaug (boomingly voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) unleashes his fiery fury on Lake Town, whose buildings are made entirely out of wood – not great if you’ve got a dragon nearby. Meanwhile, the dwarves have established de facto ownership of the dragon’s gold, which they consider their own birthright and the movie culminates in a gigantic battle of orcs, elves, dwarves, humans and eagles all contesting their right to this unimaginable wealth. One thing must incidentally be said about every one of these armies: they are marvellously disciplined, responding instantly, en masse, to shouted commands which the furthest soldiers must surely hear very faintly.


Why you should see The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
But there’s one battle that’s been lost before a single arrow has been nocked: the battle for HFR, or high frame rate. Peter Jackson unveiled the 48-frames-per-second shooting innovation with huge fuss for his first Hobbit movie. The awful truth, however, is that this innovation just made everything look like an outside broadcast on video for daytime TV. Early screenings of this film and the previous one were in conventional 24 FPS. The reactions were markedly warmer. And although the third movie is officially getting shown in both 24 and 48, it seems that 24 is far more widespread. Normal service has been quietly restored. The HFR armies are hoping no one notices them sheepishly sidling off the field of battle. It leaves us to ponder if or how the slower 24 rate itself creates something vitally cinematic, that lag from frame to frame, which constitutes the subliminal, imperceptible visual “hum” which endows reality with something extra. As for HFR, it may be a lost novelty, the Sensurround of the 21st century.

As the story reaches its operatic conclusion, a number of factors are in play: Gandalf the Grey, played with gusto by Ian McKellen, has been released from his enchantment and now journeys across country to warn Bilbo (Martin Freeman) and the others that battalions of fantastically ugly subtitled orcs are marching towards them. The elves have come to the rescue of Lake Town’s shivering refugees, horribly let down by their greedy and cowardly Master (Stephen Fry), but the elves’ diplomatic relations with the dwarves – they maintain a certain pointy-eared Vulcan dignity – threatens to break down over agreed access to the gold, and effectively split their anti-orc united front. A romantic drama plays out in tandem with this military scenario: the comely elf Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) is transgressively in love with the dwarf, Kili (Aidan Turner), making them the Romeo and Juliet of Middle Earth.

But it is Thorin (Richard Armitage) who is the star of this movie, because of his internal crisis. Simply wading waist-high in these piles of gold has turned his head, infected him with “dragon sickness” and sent him delirious with power and greed. He is basically turning into something like Fred C Dobbs, Humphrey Bogart’s paranoid prospector in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948): suspicious of everything and turning on all his friends. It is humble Bilbo who must break the toxic spell.

The three Hobbit films have worn down my Tolkien agnosticism. Although watching them now, in sequence, might disconcertingly mean that the Hobbit prelude seems of equal power and weight to the supposedly more important Rings saga. The modest subtitle to Tolkien’s original book was There and Back Again. The films have pumped this up to: “There. And there! ALSO THERE!” A multi-movie adaptation of The Silmarillion – with the last one naturally split into two parts – might test my newfound enthusiasm. For now, Bilbo Baggins’ adventures have a winning innocence and buoyancy.

Movie review 'The Hobbit- The Battle of the Five Armies': Better but not the best
DC | Lakshmi Govindrajan Javeri | December 12, 2014, 17.12 pm IST


'The Hobbit' The Battle of the Five Armies marks the conclusion of Bilbo Baggins' adventures. Brace yourselves for an action packed ride where they join in a war against an army of combatants from acquiring a kingdom of treasure and incinerating all
'The Hobbit' The Battle of the Five Armies marks the conclusion of Bilbo Baggins' adventures. Brace yourselves for an action packed ride where they join in a war against an army of combatants from acquiring a kingdom of treasure and incinerating all of Middle-Earth.
Director: Peter Jackson

Cast: Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Benedict Cumberbatch, Luke Evans, Evangeline Lilly, Orlando Bloom, Cate Blanchett

Rating: Three and a half stars

So I’m going to come straight to the point and admit that I’m not a big fan of Jackson’s move to convert a tiny book like The Hobbit into a celluloid trilogy. I’ve been a lover of J.R.R. Tolkien’s works despite Silmarillion, and have loved how Jackson has taken the feted writer’s imagination and converted it into onscreen splendour. But when he announced he wanted to do The Hobbit, that too as a trilogy, I had my doubts. As is Jackson’s wont, he blew me away with the first part — An Unexpected Journey.

Barring a few creative liberties he took, the film was riveting and not once did it feel like it was the first part of movie based on a book that is basically tinier than the first part of the Rings trilogy. I had hope; I believed the Jackson magic of storytelling has triumphed once again. Then The Desolation of Smaug came along and even the booming voice of Benedict Cumberbatch couldn’t help me reconcile with the reality that The Hobbit story was rapidly going down a rabbit hole. The frivolous addition of Tauriel as a love interest only grated my puritan nerves and I was convinced that despite the usual Jackson touch to his films, there would be little for me to watch in The Battle of the Five Armies.

My relationship with Jackson has been such that whenever I’ve expected little of him, he has come and swept me away with his genius. That resultant genius has led to expectations that have swiftly come crashing down. The finale of the trilogy epitomises the highs and lows of my affair with Jackson, but the good thing about it is the fact that there won’t be any more Hobbit films.

Battle of the Five Armies is no Return of the King. Then again Two Towers was a surprisingly good transitionary film. Despite the fact that the Rings trilogy was written as such, trilogies often suffer the curse of the second. The second film is floating piece of work that takes the previous story forward but only so much, because it has to leave the best bits for the finale. The Desolation of Smaug was ho-hum, the meaningless love angle notwithstanding. It seemed to suffer the Lord of the Rings hangover a bit too much and it wasn’t convincing enough. The Battle of the Five Armies opens where the previous film ends, with the dragon Smaug losing his fiery marbles over Lake Town.

Bard manages to escape from Lake Town and fatally fells Smaug. Meanwhile, we see that the overriding greed for the Arkenstone and realisation of uncontrollable power that the wealth brings has made Thorin go crazy.

Between the last film and the opening half of this one, Gandalf the Grey has been imprisoned in Dol Guldur and is later saved by Galadriel. He sets out on a journey to warn Bilbo Baggins and the rest about the impending attack of the orcs. The Elves have rescued the terrorised residents of Lake Town, but their tacit understanding with the Dwarves over the gold is shaken, threatening to ruin their combined force against the orcs. Somewhere in all of this, fake elf Tauriel (fake because she’s not in the original book) is in love with Kili the Hobbit and our focus suddenly shifts from a raging war to raging hormones.

Whatever distractions aside, the film must be watched for Richard Armitage’s role as Thorin. He is the star even if he isn’t the title character. Under a ton of hair and masked by layers of makeup, Armitage’s portrayal of Thorin’s conflict does justice to Tolkein’s writing. I never thought I’d say that. He isn’t Aragorn but my God, he holds his own. For a man without much height, he rises in stature and towers over the multitude of characters. Left to Bilbo to break his delirious spell, Freeman is the titular hero (pun intended). He grows as a character but not half as much as the shades Thorin does, but that is hardly Bilbo’s fault. His role was written like that. Yet, since Jackson decided to use so much experimentation in the screenplay, it wouldn’t have hurt to make Bilbo a more meaty role.

The other roles are not worth much mention given that the star cast is massive and the screen time not all that much. Special mention must be made about Ian McKellen who emotes with his eyes — that might partly have to do with the fact that his hair is mighty distracting, so we get to a lot less of his visage. The Knighted star aces his scenes and remains a pleasure to watch. Lilly as Tauriel is actually quite refreshing. But I’ve found her a needless addition to the plot, so I must admit the potential for being biased against her.

In all, The Battle of the Five Armies is more engaging than I expected it to be. The fight sequences and Jackson’s mastery over the cinematography department has meant that we’ve gotten to see a fair bit of New Zealand but obviously in a made up way. It is a good finale film of a trilogy, but there a lot better ones. However, it seems like the director has tried to pack in so much into this one last attempt that it is needlessly crowded and exhaustive. Watch it because you wouldn’t want The Desolation of Smaug to be your last Hobbit memory. It has some really good moments but the film is not better as a sum of its parts. By that logic, the third outing is the weakest one.