The Hobbit – The Battle of Five Armies

If you don’t want to know anything about his yet look away now…………. 

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Now that’s out of the way I’ll continue. Way back in 2001 I managed to talk my better half to come to the cinema to watch a movie adaptation of a little known book – The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring. Luckily she quite liked it and fast forward 13 years we now live in New Zealand where the films were made. With the release of the final Hobbit trilogy – The Battle of the Five Armies I was eager to finish off the run that started 13 years ago and 12,000 miles away.

So calling in a favour we arranged a babysitter (our good friend Vanessa) and hightailed it over to the local flicks just in time to miss the rubbish trailers and see the lovely thank you trailer that cast and crew and had made to finish off this last instalment of the Middle Earth story (what else can they adapt, The Silmarillion ????). I had chosen the cinema by the following very extensive criteria:
- It's close by
- The screening was in Higher Frame Rate 3d
- It's close by
So we settled into the very average comfort level seats and I tried to get the 3d glasses comfortably positioned on my normal glasses. Then we both settled down to watch the movie magic.

So what did I think?

Errrrrrr….

I was rather disappointed to be honest. For some reason I can’t get in to the flow of a film that starts straight away. I know that all three movies are an extension of the same story however it does kind of feel like you’re walking into a party that’s mid-way through and everyone expects you to laugh at a joke that you didn’t hear the start of (oh and they’re all drunk whilst you’re stone cold sober!). Now this is probably my issue regarding vibe but I like to get warmed up by a film so I can enjoy the subsequent climax (no rude pun intended), however this starts off with the big battle between Bard the Bowman and Smaug. It’s all too sudden and in your face. 

Then there’s the issue of Higher Frame Rate. Purely from a technology point of view I understand the benefit, the added realism from the quality of image transports you into the movie as though you are there. However, i know it’s a film, I kept expecting to turn my head and see Peter Jackson directing the acting and to see the sound guy handling the boom mike. It spoiled my experience of the journey into a fantastical storyline, I want to be transported away from reality for a few hours and just enjoy a good story however the realism made it less like an adventure and more like a fly on the wall documentary. 

But that’s my fault for seeing it in that format. CGI was rather conspicuous in its prevalence, there was rather a lot of it and at times it spoiled the experience however this view may simply be because I saw it in HFR. I remember seeing Desolation of Smaug and complaining about it, yet once I watched it through again on DVD I thoroughly enjoyed it. Maybe viewing the film in a traditional sense rather  than in an advanced format meant that I could connect with it better (does that make me an old fart?) 

Luckily the acting this time round was pretty darn good, I thoroughly enjoyed Thorin’s paranoia, Bard was enjoyable as the reluctant hero and Billy Connelly hamming it up as Dain. There were no obvious dramatic pauses whilst an actor waits for the blue screen to catch up or blatantly obvious lines.  However it didn’t distract from the fact that for a two and half hour film not much actually happens. There’s a big battle, some fighting, a bit of character acting, then some more fighting. In hindsight I would agree with the naysayers in that it should have been only two movies and not three.

I’m glad I saw it, my wife got to catch up on some sleep (“where did those Dwarves come from, I missed it as I was asleep”!) and the actors involved certainly didn’t embarrass themselves. It’s just a shame that it was dragged out in to three films for the sake of the movie studio making a few bucks. I guarantee that many of you that have now seen the movie thoroughly enjoyed it and this is not an argument against your enjoyment, just my view based on a lot of different aspects that I found difficult to reconcile. Will it stop me buying the Directors Cut limited edition Blueray special blah blah blah…..probably not!