directed by Peter Jackson
written by Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro
Following the events in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, the dragon Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch) lays waste to Lake Town, until he is slain by Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans). The people from Lake Town are left without a home, and the lonely mountain is now without a fire breathing dragon to prevent anyone from claiming all of the gold in Erebor. Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), his band of dwarves, and their resident burglar, hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), hole up in the mountain, with the the dwarf king claiming his legacy. Unfortunately, others with a claim on the gold come knocking as well, including the now-destitute people of Laketown, whom he had promised a share of the treasure in exchange for boats and provisions to the mountain and the Woodland Elves led by Thranduil (Lee Pace) who have a claim on several jewels located in the massive treasure trove. The problem is, however, that now that Thorin has his hands on the treasure, he is possessed by uncontrollable greed and has no intention of even letting so much as a single coin of it go. He is, in fact, seized with a new obsession: finding the Arkenstone, a large jewel that will secure his dominion over all of Erebor. Meanwhile, even as the combined forces of Laketown and the elves look to collect their due through force, another enormous army of orcs led by Azog the Defiler (Manu Bennett) and his right hand Bolg (John Tui) also marches towards the Lonely Mountain. Will the intervention of Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen) be enough to stave off the coming slaughter?
Given that I saw this movie two weeks ago, I'm not really sure why it's taken me so long to finally review it. I suppose one reason is that I wasn't quite sure how I felt about this film. It was a pretty satisfying conclusion to a reasonably entertaining series of films, but the fact that the entire series has felt rather bloated keeps me from singing this film's praises in the same way I used to cheer for the Lord of the Rings films. Of course, the computer-generated visual effects are far and away superior to those that featured in the LOTR movies, but then again, that's to be expected considering the advances in technology since then. The biggest problem of this movie, for me, is that for all the filmmakers' efforts, it still feels like a product.
I have nothing but praise for Richard Armitage, the English actor who plays Thorin who, after Bilbo, is effectively the central character of the saga. I like the way he captures Thorin's emotional journey and inner turmoil, even through a fair bit of prosthetics. Freeman is still a hoot as Bilbo, and of course, the ever-reliable McKellen turns in a solid turn as Gandalf, joined here by Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, Hugo Weaving as Elrond, and Christopher Lee as Sauron, all of whom featured in a pretty impressive action sequence midway through the film.
Some characters, however, cool their fight sequences, repeatedly betray the fact that they serve no real purpose in the story other than to hook otherwise uninterested fans. I am referring, of course, to Orlando Bloom's Legolas, who never appeared in The Hobbit, but who distinctly feels like he was written into these movies as a marketing tool for fans of the LOTR trilogy. The manner in which the script tries to infuse him with some kind of back story is somewhat embarrassing. Does he have mommy issues? Daddy issues? Existential crises? Unrequited love issues? The script hints at all of these but develops none of them. At the end of the day, Legolas serves his purpose as being an utter badass/boss-killer in the fight, but nothing more. Even Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) the female elf created for these movies to both balance out the sausage fest and to provide a rather poorly realized romantic subplot for both Legolas and Kili (Aidan Turner), fares little better, and quite frankly if the two of them had been written out of the entire story the films the narrative impact would be negligible.
In fact, it's padding like the Legolas-Tauriel-Kili love triangle that kind of hits home for me how superfluous so much of this film feels, even if it is a lot of good fun. I was also a bit irked at how Smaug's demise was moved to the beginning of this film rather than made into the climax of the last one, even though it did make sense from a sales perspective. The manner in which Bard dispatches Smaug, though, is appropriately heroic, if a little comical.
I watched this in conventional 3-D rather than the somewhat jarring "high frame rate" 3-D in which I watched The Desolation of Smaug, and truth be told I'm not sorry I made the change. I did try the film in a "4-D" theater, which meant that my seat lurched back and forth and fans blew in my face for key scenes. It was a novel experience, though one which I'm not keen to repeat, much like the creepy HFR.
In closing, I liked the film enough to recommend it, especially if it's reinstated in Philippine theaters after the Metro Manila Film Festival ends next week, but certainly not enough to rank it as a modern classic the way the original trilogy of films was.
6.5/10
