The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

[scarlettina]

Elizabeth and I went to see The Hobbit last night. My goodness, what a lot of CGI! And the truth about the movie is that, at its heart, is IS about people, but Peter Jackson has become so enamored of relying upon special effects--and so sure that what worked for the Lord of the Rings films will work here--that the heart of the movie gets lost. Apparently, in every film, we need to see Legolas do something physics-defying and therefore elfish. We need to see crane shots of magnificent landscapes. We need to see overhead shots of people running across narrow bridges that span harrowing depths. We need to see hordes of barbarians massing for battle and the butchery that follows. We need flocks of sinister-looking flying creatures (in this case, bats) menacing our band of stout heroes from the sky. And we need hero shots of heroic men looking heroically across landscapes, their ropey locks blowing heroically in the wind. Yes, I could have predicted all of it.

From my perspective, the best things about the movie (besides the darkly handsome and talented Richard Armitage and the brilliant Martin Freeman) are its quietest moments--between Tauriel and Kili, between Bilbo and Thorin, between Thorin and Bard, between Legolas and Thranduil. In those moments, Jackson lets his actors actually, you know, act, and we see who these characters are and why any of this matters to them at all. But it's all so swallowed up by the CGI monsters and the padding over of aging that the truth gets kind of lost.

Glad the series is over. Glad to have seen it. Done with it now.

Comments

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

I completely agree with your second, third, and fourth paragraphs. No arguments there; those were my thoughts almost exactly. Regarding Bilbo throwing rocks, his choice was a perfect demonstration of our protagonist acting protagonisty, i.e., taking agency in his own fate. I kept thinking, as he and Gandalf walked through the elf army, that given the creatures preparing to attack, being right there in the middle of things was a bad place to be. The likelihood of Bilbo surviving in that location was low.

I liked Legolas running out of arrows, too. In fact, when he first appeared, his quiver didn't look full and I wondered if Jackson was going to use that. I'm glad he did.