Assignment 4 Unit 1 Wednesday, 3 May y

I was having a battle of my own whilst watching The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies… trying to keep myself awake.

By Lewis Kitchenham

The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies (12A n )Directed by Peter Jackson

Seeing as the film was the second highest grossing film of 2014 raking in £531,485,422 I was surprised to see just how bored it made me. Unlike the previous instalments of The Hobbit which had me perched on the edge of my seat, begging not to see the cred-its, I have to say, I was more interested in where I was going to eat after the cinema. The last film finishes up as Smaug the dragon is woken and sets off to destroy Lake-town, we pick up almost instantly which I was glad to see. In other films that are split into multiple parts, I always hate to see a slow recap and resumption into a film to com-pensate those who obviously weren't paying enough attention in the previous film.

‘Who are you that would stand against me?’ Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch) roars as he incinerates Laketown. Peter Jackson is lucky he can whip up such a famous cast of brilliant actors which has made the films a joy to watch. In interviews with actors like Cumberbatch, many have said working on the films have been their favourite roles in their careers. However, Smaug’s furious attack on the town only last a brief 10 minutes before he was killed which was rather anti climatical. I felt like Jackson was just mop-ping up the final piece of the story from the previous film where I think the short scene would have been much better off. From there the film seemed rather fragmented focus-ing on lots of multi strand storylines thats only purpose seemed to be for setting up the story for Lord Of The Rings (LOTR). The previous films really did feel like we were get-ting an insight into the almost forgotten prequel novels by J.R.R Tolkien ‘The Hobbit’, it was new and for those that haven't read the books or even heard them, it was great to get to grips with events occurring before LOTR. With the latest instalment I felt like it

Lewis Kitchenham

Assignment 4 Unit 1 Wednesday, 3 May y

was trying to hard to be a prequel, like the purpose of the film was to just provide a smooth transition into LOTR. There were quite a few brief encounters of characters we would later see (or have already seen) in the LOTR trilogy which made feel like Jackson was straying from the story line just to create that bridge to the next film. In some cases it was a little confusing and difficult to put together references that would link back to LOTR films that were made in the early 2000s, which I certainly could not recall. Maybe I need to take a day off and watching all 6 films in Tolkien’s intended order to put to-gether some of the pieces, If there are enough hours in the day that is…

Continuing from what felt like the climax of the film only 20 minutes in, the story seemed to slow right back down and picks up on the dwarfs searching for the Arkenstone and Gandalf (Ian McKellen) still stuck in a cage at Dol Guldur. For a long time there is just a lot of build up… lots and lots of build up to the final battle where the 5 armies meet. Dur-ing this time we see Thorin’s (Richard Armatige) slow digression from sanity as he is completely consumed by the wealth of the mountain like his grandfather Thrór. It would have been nice to see Thorin return from his insanity earlier in the final battle as many grew to enjoy his fighting spirit and leadership in the previous film.

The visuals in this film and every film before them are nothing to complain about. Even now I am still mesmerised by the quality of the CGI and special effects throughout the film. The stunning landscapes and architecture that are created in this film are really special. Just how real everything looks with flying camera angles is quite extraordinary, even makeup and costumes are incredible, it’s hard to believe the tiny Dwarfs and Hob-bits are played by full size men.

After a while of what seemed liked very little happened, the battle of the five armies fi-nally commenced and I was back on the edge of my seat. With many of the films in the LOTR and The Hobbit trilogies, it always gets exciting when Elves, Dwarfs, Men and what ever other creature is on screen team up to fight Orcs. I know some of the fighting like Bain (Billy Connolly) taking out most of the Orcs by swinging head-butts is little far fetched. Not to mention Legolas’ (Orlando Bloom) new found flying abilities as he leaps jaw dropping distances whilst in battle with the Orcs. Despite everything the final battle was defiantly the pinnacle of the film, I suppose it was foreshadowed by the title.

Jackson did do something few people could do and transform Tolkien’s novels into films as successful as they are and millions have enjoyed his fascinating work. Unfortunately, I’m a little sad to say that The Battle Of The Five Armies wasn't the ending to the trilogy I was hoping for. Never mind.

Lewis Kitchenham