Over the course of 24 hours, you can now watch the entirety of the Middle Earth canon. Now, that’s no small order, indeed the resulting lack of sunlight from being cooped up in doors may give you the same complexion as Gollum. However, in six films, Peter Jackson et al have left a huge imprint on the world of cinema; influencing TV and film immeasurably. So how does the final instalment measure up? Well, The Battle of the Five Armies, all in all, is a resounding piece of fan service that captures all that you love about the Middle Earth saga. It’s far from perfect, at times feeling rushed and stylistic to a fault, yet overall it is a satisfying end to the trilogy.
To set the scene, Smaug has been awoken and has Lake Town firmly in his sights. Whilst he char grills the town, the dwarves watch on anxiously, with Bilbo’s final, desperate monologue of “What have we done?” from The Desolation of Smaug becoming a visible nightmare. The Dragon is dealt with (I refuse to call that a spoiler) and all eyes turn to the mountain. The Dwarves, led by Thorin, seek to hold onto their newly claimed home, yet every man and his proverbial dog, horse, warg, ludicrous Elk (King Thranduil), or even more ridiculous Pig (King Dain) want a share of the gold. Thus tensions bubble up to explosion on the battlefield as Men, Dwarves and Elves take on the Orc and Warg ridden armies of Sauron.
As we can expect, the action scenes are sprawling and magnificent to behold, but it is much more than a bombastic war movie, and here’s where I think the strengths lie. The power of Jackson is that amidst the whole scale destruction there is always a humanity present, a sense of helplessness and the feeling that the stories are more to do with character arcs and development than just meaningless blood-shed.
We all love the action scenes, and they’re the ones we wax lyrical about when we come out of the cinema, yet in this film in particular, the anchor to the plot is the story of Thorin. Richard Armitage simply plays a blinder in this film, stealing the lime light from the once again excellent Bilbo and the thoroughly impressive Bard. This is an arc within a arc; the descent into madness then the redemption of a dwarf who will not fall to the same dragon sickness as his grandfather. But this isn’t some hammy Shakespearean actor reeling off their best Richard III impression, this is much more persuasive and powerful stuff.
Further positives include the desolation of Smaug in full force. Cumberbatch’s serpentine tones leave you transfixed and wanting more. Indeed, it’s a shame that he’s dispatched so quickly, yet the reality is that there wasn’t any way that they could have conceivably stretched it out anymore, so it becomes a hollow criticism. As I mentioned, Bard is brilliant as the reluctant King of Lake Town and the arrival of King Dain – a ridiculously CGI-ed Billy Connolly – offers genuine comedic rest bite from what can be a pretty grim two and a half hours.
On the point of CGI, here’s where my gripes start. The tone of the film is meant to be different to LOTR, this I appreciate; the source material is lighter so it makes sense to make the baddies more mythic. But I think that this tonal shift at times undercuts the peril of the action. For example, Bard gets a pretty epic, legolas-worthy spate of badassery where he kills a troll, yet the Troll looks more like Wayne Rooney than a terrifying creature meant to strike fear into your hearts. Moreover I think that the decision to make Azog and Bolg mo-capped as opposed to genuine physical presences undermines their on screen presence. The most visceral battle scenes, in my opinion, are in Dale when Bard leads the beleaguered men of the Lake against blokes dressed up as Orcs, not coming from an admittedly very impressive computer.
A point of both praise and criticism is that the film seems acutely aware that it needs to give nods to, and in some ways emulate, LOTR. In some ways it’s really good to see, such as the size of the battles and the cinematic deaths of some characters instantly creating a stylistic flashback to Boromir in the Fellowship. Finally Bard is a pseudo Aragorn in the sense that he is the reluctant leader of men. These are subtle cinematic nods. But I think the plot strands can be slightly shoe-horned in. For example, the forbidden love of Tauriel and Kili smacks of the relationship between Aragorn and Arwen. Also, the final dialogue between Thranduil and Legolas tries to create a tangible link between the trilogies, but just feels a bit forced.
All of this aside, and I think that it is triumphant. Both characters old and new come together to create a rousing couple of hours of entertainment. The old band is given their curtain call – Saruman, Galadriel, Elrond etc. Whilst the new characters deservedly become an appreciated part of the canon. Thranduil is chilling, Tauriel is moving (and I fell in love with her again), Bard is bold, the dwarves are given more to say and Bilbo and Thorin steer the ship. It is imperfect, but every film is. When you put it amongst the other 5 films it doesn’t stand out in a negative way, indeed the battle scenes rival the Return of the King in terms of scope. This is as shining an endorsement as any.
I remember my first experience with the works of Tolkien clearly. I’ve had a comic book of the Hobbit for years now and I remembering pouring over every detail, loving every expressive picture. Later, I read the book proper, and was once again whisked away. To my nerdy shame, I’ve never read the Lord of the Rings Books, yet watching those films recaptured the pleasure I took from reading that comic book when I was a young, podgy child. The Lord of the Rings was a trend-setter, a definer of the fantasy genre. Without Jackson et al, there would be no Game of Thrones as we know it. Indeed, all fantasy films and TV in the last decade have their roots firmly in Jackson’s epics. Though the Hobbit would never conceivably break free from its predecessor’s shadow, it at times emulates it. It has spawned renewed interest in the fantasy genre, in the works of Tolkien and has pushed film-making into new territories, thanks to the use of High frame rate and pushing the limits of CGI.
So, all that remains to be said is thank you to Jackson and everyone else who made these 6 films. Coming out of that cinema was reminiscent of seeing the Hogwarts Express rolling out of the station for the last time, yet with the Battle of the Five Armies Jackson makes sure that we leave Middle Earth with memories of the epic battles and epic characters, not cynically lamenting the way that the Hobbit was stretched into three films. In a few years time, many rainy weekends will be able to be filled binging on these six films. Drinking games will be created and the spin-off computer games and memorabilia will be sold in their droves. I for one will miss the anticipation of waiting for another instalment to come out, as well as the homeliness you feel when you hear Howard Shore’s Fellowship theme. In short, this is the end of a cinematic era. But Jackson made Tolkien’s Middle Earth tangible, visceral, epic yet human and for this we can only doff our nerdy caps in appreciation.
No comments:
Post a Comment