3.5 stars. Rated PG-13, for intense fantasy action violence and some truly scary monsters
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 12.19.14
Peter Jackson certainly knows how
to stage a spectacle.
He’d have had a great time during
Hollywood’s Golden Age, choreographing the fabled casts of thousands.
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| As a massive battle between elves, dwarves, humans and nasty orcs rages about them, Gandalf (Ian McKellen, left) and Bard (Luke Evans) realize that the ghastly orc armies are being directed by the orc lord Azog the Defiler, standing on a nearby hilltop. Clearly, he must be stopped ... but how? |
That said, he has become a poor
judge of narrative structure. Although this final installment of J.R.R.
Tolkien’s The Hobbit builds to a rousing, suspenseful, crowd-pleasing climax,
this cinematic saga definitely didn’t deserve the three-part presentation that
seems to have been dictated entirely by commerce.
Consider the irony: We couldn’t
get enough of Jackson’s three-part adaptation of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, and fans eagerly snapped up the extended-edition DVDs, to savor all the
additional scenes left on the cutting-room floor. That adulation was entirely
warranted, because those three books are extremely dense.
But The Hobbit lacks that
complexity; it’s a shorter, single book, and — more significantly — is aimed at
a much younger audience. Granted, Jackson and his fellow scripters — Fran
Walsh, Philippa Boyens and horror maestro Guillermo del Toro — drew from the
125 pages of notes and appendices included with modern editions of The Lord of
the Ring ... but, even so, this newest trilogy has suffered from bloat since
its first installment. (I still haven’t recovered from the slapstick,
Disney-esque dwarf songs in Bilbo’s dining room.)
Although the major plot points
have been impressively realized, there’s a definite sense of treading water along
the way, and extraneous characters we’d be better off without. Notable case in
point: the Master of Laketown (Stephen Fry) and his weaselly aide (Mikael
Persbrandt), who popped up in the middle installment and return here. They’re
no more than stunt casting, particularly in Fry’s case, and their characters
seem to have wandered in from a Blackadder installment. Very poor judgment,
on Jackson’s part.
More disappointing, though, is
the fact that — in this third and final installment — Martin Freeman’s Bilbo
Baggins has become a bystander in his own story. That’s a shame on all sorts of
levels, not the least of which is the lessened degree to which we’re able to
enjoy Freeman’s marvelously subtle performance. I just love the way he twitches
his nose, or starts to say something, checks himself, and then decides that
silence is the better part of wisdom.
Freeman gets more mileage out of
Bilbo’s double-take decisions not to speak, than many of these supporting
characters deliver via pages of dialogue.
Yes, Bilbo gets his shots at the
action, and he remains the voice of reason during several key encounters. And
yes, he has continued to mature as a character, his initial nervousness and
terror having yielded to valor and pluck. Then, too, he continues to be tempted
by the “precious” ring concealed within his pocket, tantalized by the cloak of
invisibility it grants, but all too aware of the spiritual corruption it
bestows.
So: When last we left our
heroes...
Bilbo, having penetrated to the
heart of Lonely Mountain and successfully snatched the jeweled Arkenstone from
the clutches of the dread Smaug, watched in horror as the enraged dragon took
to the air with the intent of destroying the nearby human settlement of
Laketown. The one man possibly capable of killing Smaug, Bard the Bowman (Luke
Evans), has been tossed into a Laketown prison, leaving his family in the care
of the Silvan Elf warrior Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly).
Bilbo’s dwarf companions have
found their legendary kingdom of Erebor, built protectively within Lonely
Mountain, but its evil guardian — Smaug — isn’t likely to fly away out of the
goodness of his serpentine heart. And until Smaug is dealt with, Thorin
Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) and his dwarf comrades can’t really lay claim to
Erebor.
Elsewhere, the virtuous wizard
Gandalf (Ian McKellen) lies helpless within the ruined fortress of Dol Guldur,
trapped by the ghastly orc lord Azog the Defiler (Manu Bennett) and his equally
loathsome spawn, Bolg (John Tui). Still elsewhere, the condescending Elvenking
Thranduil (Lee Pace), although loathe to offer assistance up to this point, has
taken an interest in the doings at Lonely Mountain: The many treasures guarded
by Smaug include elven star gems that Thranduil wants back.
And yet elsewhere, operating
clandestinely, Azog and Bolg have readied a massive orc army for a surprise
assault on Lonely Mountain.
And you thought you had problems!
Sidebar stalwarts include the Elf
Queen Galadriel (Cate Blanchett); the white wizard Saruman (Christopher Lee); the
Elvenking Elrond (Hugo Weaving); the somewhat addled, environmentally conscious
wizard Radagast the Brown (Sylvester McCoy); and the overall series’ favorite
character, the High Elf Legolas (Orlando Bloom).
The dwarves eventually take
control of Erebor; the displaced populace of Laketown, burned from their homes,
take refuge in the ruined, once-great city of Dale, strategically located close
to Lonely Mountain and Erebor. Clearly, all forces are destined to meet in
battle — this film’s subtitle promises as much — and you’ll likely be counting
fingers, trying to deduce the precise nature of the “five armies” involved.
On top of which, a new crisis
emerges: Thorin, initially delighted by Erebor’s immense vault of treasure,
falls prey to the “dragon sickness” that comes with gold too long exposed to
one such as Smaug. The increasingly paranoid Thorin comes to doubt the loyalty
of his longtime companions, placing his trust solely in Bilbo ... who,
ironically, is the very individual concealing the Arkenstone from the dwarf
king who has become his best friend.
Thorin’s increasing madness is an
affliction that Bilbo recognizes all too well, thanks to the constant evil tug
of his aforementioned ring. The question is whether our hobbit hero can save
Thorin from himself, before the orc hoards invade.
The many pieces thus assembled on
this huge chessboard, Jackson builds the tension until the all-out melee that
erupts on many fronts. And it’s no small thing that our attention remains held
during an increasingly extensive battle sequence that rages for the film’s
final hour. Jackson is clever; he intercuts between raging army clashes and
furious, more intimate skirmishes that involve our key characters.
All the players have their parts,
although we spend much more time with some. Evans’ Bard remains the stalwart
human hero, and he has some solid scenes with John Bell, as Bard’s plucky son
Bain. Armitage persuasively handles Thorin’s psychological deterioration, and
McKellen remains appropriately feisty as Gandalf ... who, badly weakened by his
ordeal at Dol Guldur, now relies more on his trusty staff, than magic.
The kindling romance between
Tauriel and the dwarf Kili (Aidan Turner) ignites further, much to the
displeasure of Thranduil, who despises dwarves in general; Pace remains
appropriately haughty and contemptuous. Cate Blanchett’s Galadriel gets an
unexpected opportunity to demonstrate just how powerful Galadriel really is,
and as for Bloom ... well, let’s just say that Jackson saves the best for last,
with respect to this athletic elf bowman: a final mano a mano duel that’ll have
you cheering in the aisles.
Production designer Dan Hennah
and visual effects supervisor Joe Letteri once more do marvelous things with
all these settings, again granting us the impressive sense of size and scale
that cinematographer Andrew Lesnie films so superbly. These many settings —
Laketown, Erebor, Dol Guldur — always look, sound and feel real, as if Jackson
and his crew somehow found a portal to the actual Middle Earth.
Howard Shore supplies another of
his densely layered orchestral scores, finding opportunities to employ
character themes — notably for Bilbo and the “precious” ring — that we
recognize immediately, from previous films.
And, yes, Jackson concludes by
carefully setting things up, during a couple of scenes, for the Lord of the
Rings trilogy that chronologically follows these events.
But however much we enjoy this
concluding chapter of The Hobbit — made more powerful by heartbreaking
moments of loss — we can’t shake the impression, looking back across all three
installments, that Jackson has overplayed his hand. He has only himself to
blame, since he set the bar so high with the previous trilogy ... and he
probably should have given this project to del Toro, as a two-film series, as
was the original plan.
(And you gotta love the bits of
del Toro’s involvement that remain, above and beyond his script work: notably
the jaw-droppingly horrifying über-orcs that he concocted. Pure del Toro horror
stuff.)
I guess Jackson couldn’t help
himself ... and, to be fair, his Hobbit is plenty enticing on many levels. It
just isn’t the cinematic masterpiece that left us breathless and thrilled,
after seeing 2003’s Return of the King.
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