Movie Review: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)

Title: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Running time: 144 minutes

Director: Peter Jackson

Starring: Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Ian McKellen, Luke Evans, Lee Pace, Evangeline Lilly, Orlando Bloom

The final installment in Peter Jackson’s Middle Earth franchise, The Battle of the Five Armies, is finally here and it brings a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy, full of breath-taking scenes, fantastic special effects and an emotional ending. And yes, there is a battle. A very long, but epic, battle.

It’s called The Hobbit, but this has become Thorin’s story and Richard Armitage has outdone himself with this movie. Amazing acting. He’s the character who has gained the most with every movie and had a great arc over the course of the trilogy. Martin Freeman, I can’t pray him enough and if you’ve read my reviews for the first two movies, you’ll already know how much I love his portrayal of Bilbo. This movies wouldn’t have worked without this two actors in the center of it. Their friendship is the core of the story, especially in this movie, providing really emotional moments where is difficult to hold back the tears.

Lee Pace was a wonderful Thranduil and I wished his back story could have been explored a bit more because he was a fascinating character. I loved how Luke Evans portrayed Bard, not as a hero, but as a regular man who finds himself being the lead of the people of Lake-Town. Ian McKellen has, as always, some of the best lines and a great scene with, Galadriel, Elrond and Saruman that had a similar vibe to Lord of the Rings.

I wasn’t a fan in The Desolation of Smaug of the love story between Kili and Tauriel and even less of the romantic triangle adding Legolas. In this film is even worse. I didn’t care about it and, without getting into spoilers, some of the dialogue at the end is very lame. Legolas, we love him for his unbelievable, actually impossible, stunts and in this movie there are a lot, but it’s so much fun to watch.

It really angered me how, having so many wonderful characters that could have had more develop, like Thranduil, Peter Jackson decided to waste time with Alfrid. All his scenes felt like time-fillers and, what I guess was supposed to be a comic relief, actually turned out to be quite pathetic and not funny at all. At least Radagast in the previous films wasn’t so overused.

I understand how after the success of Lord of the Rings it must have been very tempting to do another trilogy but after watching all three, maybe they should have stick to two as they originally intended while filming. It’s pretty clear from the very beginning that this wasn’t suppose to be a movie on its own and therefore The Battle of the Five Armies, as epic as it is, suffers from a considerable lack of story. As a film, is the weakest of the three but is still a fun ride. The battle sequences are stunning and all the individual story-lines have a nice blending with The Fellowship of the Ring.

7’5/10

Movie Review: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)

Title: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Running time: 161 minutes

Director: Peter Jackson

Starring: Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Ian McKellen, Luke Evans, Lee Pace, Orlando Bloom, Evangeline Lilly

As much as I loved An Unexpected Journey, this one is way better. Everything was vastly improved. The Desolation of Smaug starts right into the action without wasting time with introductions or recaps. The pacing, which was a problem in the first one, was more fluid and action-packed instead of focusing so much on thirteen dwarves running around.

Martin Freeman is such a wonderful Bilbo and this time he had the opportunity to be a badass, already being part of the group and embracing his craftiness. He was so fun to watch, though he felt less as the main character and at some points is Thorin who steps up to be the leader of the film. Richard Armitage did an amazing job bringing more layers to the character, making some hard decisions and starting to go a bit dark by greed but he was much more likable this time around.

The barrel scene was so exciting, even though the CGI was a bit weak, but it was still so cool and playful, with Legolas dancing over the dwarves. I’m glad to see Orlando Bloom returning. It’s a great way to tie with Lord of the Rings and it totally makes sense since when Tolkien wrote The Hobbit he hadn’t created yet the character for Lord of the Rings, but being the son of Thranduil, who does appear in the book, would have been weird not to have him there. He didn’t feel forced at all and it’s always awesome to see Legolas killing some orcs.

Talking of characters that don’t appear in the book, I like the idea of creating a strong female character as Tauriel because otherwise is all male characters but, while I did like her, I don’t get the point of having her romantically involved with a dwarf. That part was so cheesy and forced, and adding Legolas to the romantic triangle only worsened it. That definitely didn’t need to be there.

Luke Evans was fantastic as Bard and I like that they focused a bit in the politics surrounding Lake Town with Stephen Fry as the governor. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about the black arrows though, I guess I’ll have to see the next movie to have a solid opinion on it. It was sad to see Gandalf so little and not being part of the company and, because they wanted to have Ian McKellen, they kept cutting to him and his storyline felt from a different movie.

But the scene stealer of the movie was no other than Smaug himself. Benedict Cumberbatch was incredible as the voice of the dragon, so rich, mysterious and menacing. The CGI was simply perfect. His scene with Bilbo was phenomenal, everything I hoped it would be or even more.

The end, fading to black in that moment was so unexpected. It leaves you on the edge of your sit craving for the next one. I was quite pissed off at first but then I realized what a great way to end the movie that was. Shout out to I See Fire by Ed Sheeran, the song that plays during the credits. I still listen to it with goosebumps after a whole year.

There are so many awesome things I’m leaving out and are worth mentioning, the Spider scene, Beorn, The Forge Battle… The score, as always, was wonderful. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug turned out to be a great movie. It’s fun, exciting, I finished it the first time just wanting to sit for another 2 hours and 40 minutes to watch it all over again. Yes, it’s different from the book, but all the changes make for a great movie and a great prequel to the beloved Lord of the Rings and that is the most important thing you can ask of this trilogy.

9/10

Movie Review: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

Title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Running time: 169 minutes

Director: Peter Jackson

Starring: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Cate Blanchett, Sylvester McCoy, Hugo Weaving, Andy Serkis

Almost ten years after The Return of the King, Peter Jackson took us back again to Middle Earth with what originally was going to be two films, and at the end of filming became another trilogy. Reviving the magic from The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit immerses us again in the beautiful landscapes of New Zealand, which have truly become the real Middle Earth, and makes us once again embark in a journey with unforgettable characters and breath-taking moments.

Martin Freeman owns the character of Bilbo Baggins. He is the perfect casting choice and I cannot imagine anyone else in the role. He’s extremely likable and fun and the perfect person to take the audience in this adventure. The “riddles in the dark” scene could have lasted a whole hour and it would have never felt boring. That is also thanks to the amazing job Andy Serkis did with the motion capture coming back as Gollum.

Ian McKellen is back in all his glory. I think we can all agree that Gandalf the Grey was more awesome than Gandalf the White so it was great seeing the character again and being more badass than ever. It was also so nice to go back to Rivendel with Elrond, Saruman and especially Galadriel because you get the opportunity to explore the tight connection between her and Gandalf that is hinted in The Fellowship of the Ring.

The movie did a great job at making all the dwarves look different and have diverse personalities and it was a lot of fun watching them interact. Richard Armitage wasn’t very sympathetic as Thorin, but that’s exactly how the character is supposed to be at the very beginning and he was fantastic and made Thorin a very well fleshed-out character.

Radagast was a bit too weird and annoying and could have dangerously become the Jar Jar Binks of Middle Earth but he is just enough not to pull you out of the movie.

It takes a bit for the story to kick off and while Tolkien fans will generally like the beginning, not die-hard audiences might find that there’s a lot of set up. I thought the songs were a great addition and a nice nod to the book. It had a powerful and emotional finale, though there were perhaps too many endings before it reached it.

Everyone feels the necessity to compare it to The Lord of the Rings and, while it is understandable because it is the prequel, it’s difficult to do so in a fair way. After all, the tone of the original trilogy was completely different, it was more serious and the stakes were higher. The Hobbit, though, is a book for kids and while the movie tries not to limit itself with that, the tone overall is more light-hearted and fun, which still makes for a great adventure.

8/10

This Week’s Movie News (6-10 oct)

Character Posters for ‘The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies’

We are two months away from the last installment in the Peter Jackson trilogy, The Battle of the Five Armies, and the official Twitter for The Hobbit has started promoting their upcoming movie by releasing, first a poster featuring the hobbit himself, Bilbo Baggins, played by Martin Freeman, with his sword, Sting. Through the week fans could vote which characters they wanted to see next and the winners have been Ian McKellen as Gandalf, Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, Orlando Bloom as Legolas, Luke Evans as Bard, Richard Armitage as Thorin, Evangeline Lilly as Tauriel and Lee Pace as Thranduil.

 Léa Seydoux joins ‘Bond 24’

After Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and a successful career in indies, the french actress will return to the world of franchises as the femme fatale of the next Bond movie, role that, over the past few months, Penelope Cruz was speculated to play. There’s no report yet if the character will be a “Bond girl”. Chiwetel Ejiofor is rumoured to play the villain.

At the end of November there will be a read through of the script with actors Daniel Craig, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Wishaw and Naomie Harris before shooting stars in December. The movie will hit theaters on November 6, 2015.

Jennifer Jason Leigh lands role in ‘The Hateful Eight’

Tarantino has finally found the female lead for his next western film, The Hateful Eight. Jennifer Jason Leigh will play Daisy Domergue, a wanted criminal accused of murder, being transported by two bounty hunters. Some Hollywood actresses like Robin Wright, Michelle Williams, Hillary Swank and Demi Moore coveted the role and Jennifer Lawrence was also rumoured to have a part in the film but there’s no confirmation if she was in talks for this role or a different one.

Tarantino will reunite again with Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Tim Roth and Michael Madsen for the film which will start shooting early next year.

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The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies Official Teaser Trailer

Warner Bros. has released the teaser trailer that was shown during the ‘Hobbit’ panel at Comic Con this weekend (Take note Marvel!) and it’s both epic and heartbreaking. Check it out!

“One day I’ll remember… remember everything that happened. The good, the bad. Those who survived and those who did not.”

That quote literally gave me goosebumps and the trailer had me on the edge of my sit the whole time. Full of amazing shots: Smaug strafing Lake-town, Galadriel kissing an unconscious Gandalf on the forehead, the dwarves preparing for battle, Bard with the elves of Mirkwood, Thranduil fighting in Dale, dwarves mounted on war-goats, Thorin’s “Will you follow me one last time?“. All accompanied by The Edge of Night sung by Billy Boyd (Pippin) in The Return of the King. Perfect song choice.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies hits theaters on December 17, 2014.