The third and final part of THE HOBBIT trilogy
is here, and
it is long overdue as I feel director Peter Jackson should have left the
adaptation at two books (as originally planned) instead of expanding it to
three. The movie starts out resolving
the Smaug storyline in the first ten minutes (which could have easily been
resolved during THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG) and then the movie switches gears to
the aftermath of events along with Gandalf getting rescued by his friends
(wizards and elves) . THE BATTLE OF THE
FIVE ARMIES resolves mostly around the
battle for Erebor as Thorin gets inflicted with Smaug’s “dragon sickness” and a
big battle resulting with five armies (or is it six) that lasts for an hour of
the film’s running time.
THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE
ARMIES is a frustrating adaptation as the big battle runs for too long and
feels like Peter Jackson has drunk out of Michael Bay’s cup of action movie
editing (the TRANSFORMERS movies where the climatic battle scenes go on for too
long and it is the same case with the big battle in this final part of THE
HOBBIT). Then you have resolution of the
love triangle between Kili, Tauriel, and Legolas that no one really cares about
(and something that Peter Jackson and the other screenwriters added when they
expanded THE HOBBIT from 2 to 3 films).
The parts that work the best are the small moments and call outs to THE
LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy along with the rescue of Gandalf. I hope that
the extended edition of this
third part make the movie flow better, but I think Peter Jackson should have
stuck with the original plan of adapting the book into two movies.
THE HOBBIT is probably the last journey to Middle
Earth
unless they remake the movies or Christopher Tolkien sells the rights to the
other books (which isn’t likely since he doesn’t like the adaptations and feels
he isn’t getting a fair share of the profits from the movies). I
feel THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy is a
better adaptation of the material than THE HOBBIT trilogy (which is over
bloated and full or pacing problems in movies one and three). The cast
isn’t at fault with this trilogy as
they excellently play their characters.
They padded the trilogy out too much with too many additions and trying
to give everyone their moment in this final part of the trilogy. If any
of the other J.R.R. Tolkien books do
get turned into movies, I do feel it might be time for Peter Jackson to step
away from directing and being involved in the writing of the movie. It might
be better to give someone else a try
at adapting the material. THE LORD OF
THE RINGS trilogy will remain a wonderful adaptation where THE HOBBIT
unfortunately is a flawed adaptation.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Blu-ray Disc 1-
NEW
ZEALAND: HOME OF MIDDLE EARTH Part 3-
Blu-ray DISC 2-
RECRUITING THE FIVE
ARMIES (11:39)-
COMPLETING MIDDLE-EARTH:
A SIX-PART SAGA (9:54)-a look at the various
story threads
through THE HOBBIT and THE LORD OF THE RINGS that has interviews with Peter
Jackson, Phillipa Boyens, WETA Concep Artists, Elijah Woods, and Andy Serkis.
A SEVENTEEN-YEAR JOURNEY (8:59)-
reflections from cast and crew (with behind-the-scenes footage) on the making
of THE LORD OF THE RINGS and THE HOBBIT.
THE LAST GOODBYE:
Behind the Scenes featurette (11:18)-
a behind-the-scenes look at recording the Last Goodbye by Billy Boyd
THE LAST GOODBYE music video (4:21)
which is a combo of clips (and behind-the-scenes footage) from THE HOBBIT and
THE LORD OF THE RINGS
THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE
ARMIES trailer #2 (2:33)
THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG Extended
Edition trailer
Also included is the movie on DVD
in standard definition and a code to download and stream a digital HD
Ultraviolet copy of THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE
ARMIES
FINAL ANALYSIS:
THE
BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES is a flawed
conclusion to THE HOBBIT trilogy which would have been left at being two movies
instead of three. The extras are very
few and you may want to wait for the Extended Edition set of THE HOBBIT: THE
BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES for the hours of
behind-the-scenes making-of extras.
This review is ©3-27-2015
David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. Send all comments
to feedback@enterline-media.com