Wednesday 31 December 2014

THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES

Basically…
In the third and final instalment the dwarves have to defeat Smaug the dragon (Benedict Cumberbatch) and then take on opposing armies before reclaiming Erebor as their home.

In other words…
Yet another one.

The main men and leading ladies…
Martin Freeman is, as ever, untouchable. Ian McKellen is just the same old Gandalf we know and love while Richard Armitage takes a dark turn as Thorin hunts for the much sought after Arkenstone.

In the chair…
Peter Jackson finally completes over a decade of work with his sixth epic but come on, it just wasn't necessary. He’s been getting a bit carried away lately and didn't need to replicate the magnitude of Lord of the Rings for a much smaller story.

So…?
Someone needs to take a knife and absolutely butcher this trilogy because the editors certainly didn't do it. In all honesty this shouldn't have been more than a two-part mission with the journey and meeting Smaug being part one, with the subsequent battles taking part in the sequel. Too much time was given to Gandalf and the elves as they paved the way for the Lord of the Rings, they're side plots were so unnecessary it came across as nothing more than padding. The battles resembled the The Two Towers so it was nothing we hadn't seen before and some parts were so far fetched it made the unbelievable, well, even more unbelievable. At least there weren't 25 endings this time, and Billy Connelly’s dry humour worked a treat (“Oh come on!”), but in essence this was just Middle Earth porn. Completely unnecessary but ticked all the boxes and kept the fans happy.

Worth the money?
Only if you need to complete the trilogy for closure. 


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