Jeremy and the movies : The Worst Film of 2014: The Hobbit Battle for the Five Armies

I would say "The Hobbit" trilogy is somewhat of a fall from grace from Peter Jackson, considering his "Lord of The Rings" trilogy are still seminal films in the fantasy genre and also still works on an emotional and epic scale. "Lord of the Rings" came along when computer technology grew more sophisticated, and doing three movies based on three separate books was still a gamble. "Lord of the Rings" was a complex tale involving the lust for power, and Hobbits stood in as the every man who don't quite know what they are capable of. I feel Peter Jackson always never gave Hobbits the full attention they deserved even in "The Lord of the Rings" which focused a lot on Viggo Mortensen's Aragorn and Ian McKellan's Gandalf. The Hobbits had some time to shine, but were over always overshadowed in spectacle. So we come to "The Hobbit" a film which has the titular character in the title of the story but seems to always be taking a back seat, again to an Aragorn-like hero who is a dwarf. I actually enjoyed the first "Hobbit" film which a few people criticized for not being dark enough, however I thought it's the one film that felt the most true to the original story. By the time the second film rolled around, I sensed something was amiss. There was too much build up and very little pay off, and Bilbo, despite a great performance by Martin Freeman was put to the sidelines. The audience I was with seemed disgruntled by the abrupt ending that seemed anti-climactic.

But now we get to the final Hobbit Film "The Battle of the Five Armies" which is a travesty of over blown special effects, and meaningless subplots, it's a wonder how Peter Jackson ever became so misguided. "The Battle of the Five Armies" feels so cynical, adding no real emotion throughout. There is a subplot involving an Elf and a dwarf that comes out of left field, and their love seems so surface level, there never seems to ever be anything at stake. Once again Martin Freeman is left on the sidelines (This movie was called "The Hobbit" right?)while Aragorn err...I mean Thorin the Dwarf takes center stage.

The last forty five minutes are kept for a battle sequence which plays more like a video game. I can't imagine any of it was real. Jackson is a very talented filmmaker and I'm sure now that he is done with middle Earth he might want to explore some smaller stories which apparently he is planning on doing, but "The Battle of the Five Armies" feels like he left his heart at the door.